The Komen Kloset is open, the skeletons are tumbling out, and it’s not pretty.
It’s becoming apparent that Komen for the Cure’s primary focus is Komen for the Cure, and not what is best for breast cancer patients, particularly low-income breast cancer patients.
Otherwise, how does one explain lobbying Congress to refuse support for bills that would promote breast health for such women?
In 2000, when I first became a breast cancer activist, one of my first assignments was contacting the senators and members of Congress in my area to encourage their support for the Breast & Cervical Cancer Prevention & Treatment Act. The bill was to provide Medicaid coverage for uninsured women diagnosed through the Breast & Cervical Cancer Prevention & Screening Act, which had been passed several years earlier. IOW, the Treatment Act was necessary because uninsured women were getting no-cost breast cancer diagnosis, but still had no means to pay for treatment.
Sounds easy, right? You screen and diagnose them, you have to help them get treatment. Except one of my GOP senators didn’t see it that way, and he had another breast cancer group who agreed with him….
Upon calling my GOP senator and speaking with his aide, I was shocked to hear her tell me “Sen.__ can’t sign on as a co-sponsor to the bill because all the breast cancer groups aren’t in agreement on it.” Shocked, I asked her who was opposing it. She told me that Komen opposed the bill. When I asked her why, she explained that Komen felt that treatment for uninsured breast cancer patients should be funded through private donations, like the pink ribbon race. I was speechless, in shock. A phone call to another activist confirmed it was true – Komen was lobbying behind the scenes to kill the bill. A moment later, Sen.__’s aide called me back and begged me not to repeat our conversation to anyone, that she had given me the information by mistake.
Thus my lesson about Komen began in 2000. They spend a lot of money lobbying for a very different agenda.
Lobbying against legislation that provide uninsured women with breast-healthcare in order to make money off those women through their pink ribbon races?
Holy shit.
(h/t Kerry Reid)
[via Daily Kos]
Oh shit. Now I have to go rusty pitchfork™ someone. I’m blaming you, ABL.
ETA: My rage meter went way up again.
Mine hasn’t come back down.
Wonder what Brinker would have said if she and her sister were low-income women who needed financial aid to get the best possible chemotherapy and other treatments? Would she have been satisfied with “Well, maybe if we sell enough pink crap, we can help you out, but we’re not in favor of government assistance?”
it’s an OUTRAGE.
the more i read about these assholes, the more disgusted i am.
The silver lining to all of this is that this is all stuff I’d rather know than not know, and the sooner I know it, the better.
The pink ribbon race, which only used 17% of its donations to benefit cancer victims?
Man, I have ALWAYS felt that they were a scam, and now it’s all being confirmed.
Oh boy! This is not good. Not at all.
This whole Komen for the Fuckery drama just makes me sick. So many people I know supported them. I supported them.
But I guess that’s a valuable lesson to learn for me and everyone: Before supporting any charity do your research first. That activist’s unpleasant experience with The Komen foundation was back in 2000 so they’ve been engaging in this type of crap for at least 12 years.
And one of the most disgusting aspects of all of this is that there is a dead women’s name being exploited here. An actual breast cancer victim is now just a ploy for a group that operates more like a cold hearted corporation than a compassionate charity.
I need a rusty pitchfork.
Longer than that Jade. Komen’s corruption goes all the way back to the late 80s.
Once again the flying monkeys on the right have overreached and in doing so have let loose a whirlwind of hurt. Planned Parenthood will benefit from Komen’s stupidity, and there is now a smelly brown taintstain on that pretty pink ribbon now. If the GOPod People wish to play Darwin with us, so be it. I may not have the built in hate engine to motivate me, but my survival skills are more than enough to take a hit and throw it straight back at ‘em.
Here’s another article written in 2002 about corruption within the organization: http://www.alternet.org/story/14014/?page=entire
It looks much worse…
Is there anyway I can take back my footsteps?
I sponsored a friend yesterday who is raising money for an AIDS organization by running the Chicago marathon. I told her it was a good thing that she wasn’t asking for sponsorship for Race for the Cure, and she told me she used to do it, but no more. Not after this week. And it really made her sad and angry, because she felt like it had been a good thing where she had a community, and now it had been turned to dust and ashes for her.
I think she wishes she could “take back” those footsteps, or at least redirect them to more worthwhile foundations. That is probably another aspect of this that the Komen board forgot to consider — they’re not just betraying Planned Parenthood. They are spitting on the women and men who have participated in many of their events (often out of grief for a loved one) and have found out just how hollow the commitment at the top is.
Wow, it was all about the fucking cash.
When only 17% of the 330 Million+ went to cancer research, something is up.
Has this organization been run by right-wing nutters, or was this a latest development.
I always though the organization was suspect, but god damn, this is horrific
Oh well, peeps, when you see any product with pink on it, leave it on the shelf to rot, deny them money, because according to the Supreme Court, money is the same as speech, might as well use it
This is kind of huge. I’m pretty shocked I imagine many people will be. Millions of people, actually.
I know I am. I’d seen comments about the Komen Foundation before but I didn’t realize they where this shady. The dumping Planned Parenthood for, whatever they may claim, blatantly political reasons is antithetical to their stated mission but the more I read about them the more it’s apparent there’s always been a heavy amount of con-artistry involved here.
And now they’ve gone and exposed themselves. Oops.
I’ve never supported the while “pink washing” of the world. It’s all a political/corporate scheme. They only talk about detection (of already formed) cancer, not prevention. There’s no money in teaching prevention. They claim to be there for women but the planned parenthood issue is just the icing on the cake, the Komen foundation is no good in my book.
Ouch.
Maybe there such a thing as divine intervention.
Had Komen not teamed up with the Christo-fascist wing of the Republican party, we may never have known.
[Insert] IS such a thing…