Salvation Army attempts to make up for past homophobia by opening LGBT+ homeless shelter

by Tim Gibson

A Salvation Army centre in Canada will open its doors to LGBT+ people for the first time. The shelter in Winnipeg will provide room for fifteen people in a space that was originally designed for refugees.

The Salvation Army has controversially had a mixed history with LGBT+ people. They have refused to hire any gay or lesbian officers and branch in New York wouldn’t take in homeless transgendered people.

Just a few years ago they had a statement on their website condemning homosexuality: “Scripture opposes homosexual practises by direct comment and also by clearly implied disapproval. The Bible treats such practices as self-evidently abnormal… Attempts to establish or promote such relationships as viable alternatives heterosexually-based family life do not conform to God’s will for society.”

The new LGBT+ centre in Winnipeg has been praised by many activists as a step in the right direction, albeit one long overdue.

“When an organisation has had a negative history with the community, it’s the responsibility of that organisation to change the perception within the community,” said Mike Tutthill, the executive director of the Rainbow Resource Centre in Canada, “I’m not feeling like the Salvation Army has not done that… the Salvation Army does have a reputation of homophobia.”

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