The Salvation Army’s red kettle fundraising campaign is not going to be getting a ringing endorsement from the gay and lesbian community this year.

Gay-rights groups are now urging a boycott of donations to the holiday bell-ringers saying that the Salvation Army has a long history of discriminating against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, which is a charge that the charity is denying.

A lot of the push behind this boycott is coming from the LGBT media community stating that if you care about gay rights, not to place the buck in the bucket giving to an organization that doesn’t support them. It would appear that everyone would be benefitting from the donations that are given into the red buckets, however a lot of the LGBT community are rejected by the evangelical church charity for being “sexually impure.”

The Salvation Army, which is a charitable evangelical Christian organization that provides aid and services to the needy, is denying that they discriminate against anyone. The Salvation Army claims that their services are available to all who qualify, without regard to sexual orientation. They go further to say that there isn’t a request for details concerning sexual orientation although those who receive benefits must qualify.

Gay-rights advocates have been contending that the organization has been noted as lobbying for “anti-gay” policies and legislation. In 2004, for example, the Salvation Army threatened to close all their soup kitchens for the homeless in New York to protest the city’s decision to require vendors and charities doing business with the city to adhere to the state’s civil rights laws forbidding discrimination based on sexual orientation.