Coachella Owner No Longer Funding Anti-LGBTQ Groups

With Coachella’s 2017 lineup recently announced and tickets selling out immediately, negative news of Coachella’s owner surfaced. Philip Anschutz, the billionaire owner of AEG — which owns the company that organizes Coachella — has spoken out regarding the recent headlines that have been circulating regarding decade-old news that he made sizeable monetary donations to anti-LGBTQ organizations. In a statement to Rolling Stone, Anschutz calls the reports “fake news” and “garbage,” claiming that he no longer donates to such groups.

The news of Anschutz’s donations was widely publicized in July 2016 when The Washington Post published a chart made by the LGBTQ rights group Freedom for All Americans alleging that Anschutz had donated upwards of $190,000 USD to anti-gay groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom, Family Research Council and National Christian Foundation. Anschutz insists he never intended to support any group that would try to hinder equality. Read his statement below:

“I unequivocally support the rights of all people without regard to sexual orientation. Neither I nor the Anschutz Foundation fund any organization with the purpose or expectation that it would finance anti-LGBTQ initiatives, and when it has come to my attention or the attention of the Anschutz Foundation that certain organizations either the Foundation or I have funded have been supporting such causes, we have immediately ceased all contributions to such groups.”