Sep 22, 2006  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO J  | COMMENTS     

A conservative foundation for which the wife of Republican gubernatorial candidate Richard DeVos of Michigan serves as vice president gave money to an anti-gay group that has organized a boycott of the Ford Motor Company.

News of the DeVos family’s ties to a foundation that contributed funds to the American Family Association, which called on consumers to boycott Ford because of Ford’s support for gay rights causes, surfaced at a time when DeVos has pledged to reverse Michigan’s high rate of unemployment.

“If DeVos claims he wants to bring jobs to Michigan, why is his family trying to put one of Michigan’s largest companies out of business?” asked Sean Kosofsky, director of policy for the Triangle Foundation, Michigan’s largest gay rights group.

The AFA announced its call for a Ford boycott on May 31, 2005, saying it was aimed at forcing Ford to end its advertising in gay publications, its gay-supportive workplace policies, and its sponsorship of Gay Pride festivals.

AFA suspended the boycott less than a week later after Ford announced it would discontinue advertising its cars in the gay press. But the group reinstated the boycott a short time later after Ford reversed its earlier decision and pledged to continue to advertise in gay publications as well as continue its support for Pride events.

In a press release last week, AFA chair Donald Wildmon credited the boycott with contributing to an 11.6 percent drop in sales of Ford cars for the month of August.

“Ford is taking several actions to halt falling sales, but none of them include ending financial support for homosexual groups promoting same-sex marriage,” Wildmon said.

A Ford spokesperson did not return a call by press time. Gay activists in Michigan have pointed to auto industry experts who have attributed Ford’s current financial problems to high gasoline prices and stiff competition from foreign automakers rather than from a boycott.

The Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation contributed at least $15,000 to the AFA during the past four years, according to foundation records filed with the IRS. Betsy DeVos, Richard DeVos’s wife, is the daughter of Edgar and Elsa Prince and serves as vice president of the foundation.

The Prince Foundation’s 990 financial disclosure forms submitted to the IRS show the foundation gave larger sums to other anti-gay groups over the past four years. It gave separate contributions of $500,000 each to the Washington, D.C. based Family Research Council between 2002 and 2004, the reporting records show. The foundation gave $250,000 to the Colorado-based anti-gay Focus on the Family in 2003 and a contribution of $212,000 to Focus on the Family in 2004, the latest year for which IRS records are available.

A foundation spokesperson said Elsa Prince, Edgar Prince’s widow, now runs the foundation and makes all decisions on foundation giving. The spokesperson, Paul Schoolmeister, said Betsy DeVos played no role in selecting the AFA or any other group as a foundation beneficiary, despite her role as vice president of the Prince Foundation.

Linked to ‘discriminatory giving’

Kosofsky said the two families have contributed to anti-gay causes in the past, including the successful campaign to pass an amendment to the Michigan Constitution banning same-sex marriage.

“The DeVoses and the Princes are inextricably linked in their discriminatory philanthropic giving and their anti-gay political campaigns,” Kosofsky said in a Sept. 6 statement.

The Triangle Foundation was the first to disclose the Prince Foundation’s contributions to AFA.

News of the possible ties between the DeVoses and efforts to carry out a Ford boycott come during a hotly contested race between DeVos and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat.

Granholm has received the backing of most of the state’s gay rights groups, who say she has been a strong supporter on gay and AIDS-related issues except for same-sex marriage. The governor said she supports civil unions rather than same-sex marriage. She came out against a ballot measure approved by voters to ban gay marriage in the state constitution.

DeVos supported the marriage amendment but has declined to disclose his views on other gay issues. Kosofsky said DeVos refused to complete a Triangle Foundation candidate questionnaire, which asks about a wide range of gay-related issues.

DeVos, a multi-millionaire businessman, is co-founder of the Michigan-based Amway Corporation. He served from 1993 to 2002 as president of Alticor, Inc., Amway’s parent corporation.

John Truscott, a spokesperson for DeVos’ gubernatorial campaign, said DeVos has “no involvement” in the Prince Foundation and played no role in its decision to make contributions to the American Family Association.

Truscott said DeVos has not discussed the Ford boycott during his campaign but has a general ...