Jelly Belly Chairman Donates to Anti-Trans Campaign

[Shana A]

Jelly Belly Chairman Donates to Anti-Trans Campaign
Records show the chairman of the board for Jelly Belly Candy Company gave thousands to the campaign in California.
BY Lucas Grindley
October 25 2013 4:22 PM ET

http://www.advocate.com/business/2013/10/25/jelly-belly-chairman-donates-anti-trans-campaign

Those Jelly Belly candies everyone loves around the holidays apparently have a connection to an anti-trans campaign in California.

The chairman of the board of Jelly Belly, Herman Rowland Sr., is on record as having donated $5,000 in September to Privacy for All Students, a group dedicated solely to repealing Assembly Bill 1266. The legislature passed the law — which guarantees transgender students have equal access to bathrooms, locker rooms, sport teams and other gender-segregated facilities at school — and it was signed by California Gov. Jerry Brown in August. But Privacy for All Students is trying to get enough signatures to have it eventually overturned.

The group is run by none other than Frank Schubert, who is well known as a political message maker for the National Organization for Marriage in its quest to stop same-sex marriage from being legalized. NOM is also actively campaigning to repeal the law, arguing most recently that "forcing boys and girls to share bathrooms is bullying."

[Vicky]

I guess those men know they are bullies and what they would pull.  I am glad they admit it freely, they should not go into a women's restroom.  They do not get the picture that even with a Trans* person, it is still Women or Men USING restrooms, and not "sharing" them!!  $5K is not by any means a huge donation by the way. 

[big kim]

**** him he can stick his sweets up his fat ass

[Xenguy]

Welp, let me add Jelly Bellies to the list of things I'll never buy again, right next to Barilla Pasta.

[blink]

Welp, let me add Jelly Bellies to the list of things I'll never buy again, right next to Barilla Pasta.

Right there with ya, Chik-Fil-A too. Too bad.

I like when a company gives me a reason to buy their product, not avoid buying it. We made a point of buying Buitoni after their "pasta for all" response to the Barilla comment.

[VeronicaLynn]

Well since using their product actually creates Jelly Bellies, I was already against it, but this makes it even easier to resist. What was the Barilla comment? I must have missed it. 

[katiej]

I live in a small (conservative) town in California...not too far from the Jelly Belly factory.  And when that bill was passed last year, people lost their minds.  But it was out of a total misunderstanding and fear.  Their arguments were very much like that bullying nonsense.  Basically they were picturing a horny teenage boy pretending to be trans so he could get into the girls locker room.  And for the most part, their fear really wasn't even trans-related per se, and it definitely wasn't realistic.

I had a few conversations with people about it, and always mentioned that Los Angeles county has had the same law for more than 10 years.  A million plus students, and not a single incident.  And to their credit, everyone who heard that fact changed their mind about the bill. 

[blink]

What was the Barilla comment? I must have missed it.

I recommend Googling "barilla gay" if you want the full story. In summary, Guido Barilla said they would never feature a gay couple in their advertising, and suggested that anyone who doesn't like that can buy someone else's pasta.

Evidently so many people took this suggestion seriously that now the company is apologizing and supposedly planning more "inclusive" ads.

[Miss_Bungle1991]

Honestly, there are so many schmucks in the business world that seem to be bigots, I just don't care anymore. I'm just going to live my life, all of the bigots can stick it, and that's all there is to it. They aren't worth the time thinking about them.

[Shana-chan]

Welp, let me add Jelly Bellies to the list of things I'll never buy again, right next to Barilla Pasta.

Right there with ya, Chik-Fil-A too. Too bad.

I like when a company gives me a reason to buy their product, not avoid buying it. We made a point of buying Buitoni after their "pasta for all" response to the Barilla comment.

And right there with both of you. I rarely ever eat jelly beans and when I do it's always the jelly belly ones but, I'll not give them my money if they're going to judge and condemn others like that. (I can't guarantee I won't ever buy/eat them again though lol)  Now, what's this about Chik-Fil-A?

[Amy The Bookworm]

You know what? Starburst puts out a very nice jelly bean assortment. We got that for our daughter for Easter this year. They're great! I'd highly recommend them to anyone looking for something to get over jelly belly beans.

[JamesG]

Now, what's this about Chik-Fil-A?

CFA is run by the Cathy family that believes strongly in Christian values and bases it's business practices on them (they are never open on Sundays or religious holidays for example).  So naturally they (personally, not a corp. policy) are very conservative and take a dim view of gay rights etc.  The Sr. Cathy said something offhand that got LGBT activists all hot and bothered and they tried to boycott CFA, which totally backfired and was a publicity jackpot for the company.

[nanjana]

I live in a small (conservative) town in California...not too far from the Jelly Belly factory.  And when that bill was passed last year, people lost their minds.  But it was out of a total misunderstanding and fear.  Their arguments were very much like that bullying nonsense.  Basically they were picturing a horny teenage boy pretending to be trans so he could get into the girls locker room.  And for the most part, their fear really wasn't even trans-related per se, and it definitely wasn't realistic.

I think it would be good to give out the name of this town in California so as to help other trans* and LGBT people to stay clear and be extremely cautious about it.

Also I google map Jelly Belly factory and it looks like it's situated in Fairfield. I wish it wasn't so close to the Bay Area as San Francisco is the hub of LGBT community    It's like having an obnoxious person as your neighbor

[TheQuestion]

Well screw him and his Jelly Beans; never again...

[Elegant_Evelyn]

Oh my, jelly belly was my favorite.....well I  guess i need a new type of jelly bean company. This is as painful as a break up.

[Joelene9]

  No sucrose/fructose sweets for me anyway.  My peripheral neuropathy does react nastily to both of those types of sugars about 25% of the time, even though I am not diabetic.  The mechanism for that is still unknown.  I like Jelly Bellies though, even though the CEO is a creep. 

  Joelene