The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival — which is currently underway in Indio, California — sold out within a week of its ticket release and features numerous LGBTQ+-allied performers like Sabrina Carpenter.
However, the event’s profits go towards the festival’s parent company, the Anschutz Corporation (owned by right-wing billionaire Philip Anschutz), which donates hundreds of thousands to anti-LGBTQ+, anti-abortion, and anti-immigrant Republican politicians, according to the investigative news website Popular Information.
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The Anschutz Corporation donated $125,000 to the Republican Governors Association (RGA), an organization that helps elect Republicans to governorships throughout the nation, and $100,000 to the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) on April 1. The corporation gave no donations to the Democratic counterparts of these organizations.
The corporation also donated $250,000 to the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), a Super PAC devoted to maintaining Republican control of the Senate, on April 3; and $375,000 to the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), the super PAC supporting Republicans in the House.
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While the corporation has said its donations aren’t necessarily an endorsement of each organization’s policy stances, the Anschutz Corporation made headlines in 2017 for his past donations to anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups like Alliance Defending Freedom and the Family Research Council.
After the reports, Philip Anschutz said he “immediately ceased all contributions” to anti-LGBTQ+ organizations, and claimed that he “unequivocally” supports “the rights of all people without regard to sexual orientation.”