DeVos Family Caught Supporting Ford Boycott

by: Greg

Wed Sep 06, 2006 at 13:32:21 PM EDT

(Detroit-MI)  - Dick DeVos, Jr.'s family has been caught funding the right-wing boycott of Ford Motor Company.

Dick DeVos, Jr. drew sharp criticism today for his family's support of the American Family Association boycott on Ford Motor Company. As a candidate for Governor, DeVos has built his entire campaign around the need for more jobs in Michigan. Triangle Foundation has uncovered evidence that his own family is using their wealth to cripple one of Michigan's leading employers.

DeVos claims in his "Michigan Turnaround Plan: Version 2.0" and in his multi-million dollar advertising blitz, that he wants to help create jobs and sustain Michigan's economy. However, his wife's family is funding the American Family Association Boycott of Ford Motor Company. Betsy DeVos's maiden name is Prince. She is the daughter of Edgar and Elsa Prince, whose foundation gave a "continuing support" grant of $10,000 to the AFA. 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? The DeVoses and the Princes are inextricably linked in their discriminatory philanthropic giving and their anti-gay political campaigns.

"This is a scandal and Dick DeVos and his family need to answer tough questions about their financing of anti-gay extremist organizations and how that is crippling Michigan's economy," said Sean Kosofsky, Director of Policy for Triangle Foundation. "The AFA is a radical religious extremist organization that boycotts anyone that doesn't fit their narrow fundamentalist agenda. Now it has come full circle and the DeVos and Prince families have been caught supporting efforts to punish Michigan workers."

DeVos even claims to fight for the auto industry even though he was recently quoted as saying that he was "unsympathetic" to the troubles that the auto industry has been having lately. DeVos's hostility to the auto industry dates back over a decade. According to a Grand Rapids Press article on December 16th of 1993 DeVos said the auto industry, "should stop crying and do something about (their lack of market share). I'm not very sympathetic with the auto industry because some of their problems are self-inflicted."

This is not the first time that the DeVos and Prince family have contributed to anti-LGBT efforts and organizations. In 1994, the DeVos family contributed over $8 million dollars to anti-abortion groups and other right-wing causes. In 1997, the Prince family contributed to the support of the building of a new headquarters in Washington, D.C. for the Family Research Council. Also, they have given $50,000 to the Promise Keepers. In 2004, the DeVos and Prince family contributed a combined total of $125,000 to the effort to ban marriage equality in the Michigan Constitution, known as Proposal 2.

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For Immediate release:  September 6, 2006

For more info contact:  Sean Kosofsky 313-537-3323 x 105