This holiday season, if you value issues of equality, you may want to think twice before tossing your change into those red buckets of the Salvation Army.

A while back, San Francisco required that organizations doing business with the city extend domestic partnership benefits to its employees.

Rather than continue to receive the $3.5 million it got from the city, the Salvation Army turned down the money, stating that San Francisco’s domestic partnership policy “conflicts with the importance of the family.”

I applaud San Francisco for attempting to create a family for persons who legally aren’t allowed to marry.

The idea that this harms the importance of family is ironic at the very least.

The Salvation Army people will, of course, tell us that they love homosexual sinners. It’s just the nasty sinning that gay people do, like forming families that they can’t tolerate.

Please, there are so many great organizations in our community that really do appreciate our change.

This holiday season, consider a contribution to a worthwhile charity for AIDS or breast cancer instead.

John Anthony Melson

Bettendorf