The Salvation Army in the U.S. has been the topic of some controversy about alleged discrimination against homosexuals in their hiring practices.[35][36] The New York Times reported that the Salvation Army believed it had a firm commitment from the White House to issue a regulation that would override local antidiscrimination laws. A disclosure of The Salvation Army's request "outraged some civil rights groups and lawmakers," and resulted in an immediate reversal of a previous promise to honor the request.
The Salvation Army maintains that they were "not trying to get permission to discriminate against hiring gays and lesbians for the majority of its roughly 55,000 jobs and merely wanted a federal regulation that made clear that the charity did not have to ordain sexually active gay ministers and did not have to provide medical benefits to the same-sex partners of employees."[37]
The Salvation Army's position is that because it is a church, Section VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 explicitly guarantees its right to discriminate on the basis of its religious beliefs in its hiring. To reinforce its position, it threatened to close all soup kitchens in New York City when the city government proposed legislation that would require all organizations doing business with it to provide equal benefits to unmarried domestic partners.[38]
In 2001 the Salvation Army sought a change in distribution regulations for the $24 billion in new federal grants and tax deductions for charitable institutions requested by President George W. Bush.[39] The alteration would have denied funds to state and municipal governments if they imposed restrictions on anti-gay hiring practices such as are practiced within the Salvation Army. Controversy arose after the publication of an internal Salvation Army memorandum suggesting that the discrimination provision would be allowed in exchange for the organization's support of the Bush faith-based public works program.[39] Matt Coles, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Lesbian and Gay Rights Task Force, said the implied deal was "really about... the Salvation Army trying to get a license to discriminate using public money."[39] Ultimately, Ari Fleischer, White House press secretary, who denied the existence of a back-room deal, released a statement saying the administration would not, in the words of ABC News, issue the "regulation sought by the church to protect the right of taxpayer-funded religious organizations to discriminate against homosexuals."