Melissa McCarthy Donated To An Anti-LGBTQ/Anti-Abortion Charity By Mistake, And She’s Sorry

Melissa McCarthy wanted to do something nice to promote her upcoming HBO Max film, Superintelligence, and so she decided to give away a whole bunch of money to various charities, through a social media campaign called 20 Days of Kindness. Now, usually when it comes to celebrities promoting a project, the gold standard of cringe is eating lizard rectums with James Corden. But Melissa found out that even something as safe as a charity campaign is absolutely able to get cringey. How? Oh, let’s say, like if you were to urge your Instagram followers to donate to a charity that has a messy history of being anti-gay and anti-abortion.

The goal of the 20 Days of Kindness campaign is pretty simple. For 20 days, Melissa and HBO Max will cut a check for $20,000 to 20 different deserving charities, which might be followed by bigger donations by other corporations. For example, they kicked off the campaign three days ago by donating $20,000 to Girls Who Code, and then AT&T stepped in and donated $1 million, which prompted Melissa and her husband Ben Falcone to donate an additional $5,000. Very generous! She has also encouraged people at home to donate.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHapczzgOfP/

Following Girls Who Code, was an organization called Exodus Cry. The Daily Beast describes Exodus Cry as, “an evangelical group…which presents itself as an anti-sex-trafficking organization, but, per the mission statement laid out in their 2018 tax returns, ultimately aims to abolish sex work entirely.” The Daily Beast also says that Exodus Cry has worked with far-right conservative religious groups to lobby Washington to pass laws criminalizing sex work. On top of that, the founder Benjamin Nolot has reportedly tweeted previously that same-sex couples are “an unspeakable offense to God,” and that legal access to abortions is “the modern-day Holocaust.” And Melissa and HBO Max cut Exodus Cry a check for $20,000.

The ink probably hadn’t dried on that check before the internet started dragging Melissa and HBO Max for giving money to a charity that probably should have been background checked first. E! News says that Melissa was quick to correct their mistake, and she posted a video to Instagram yesterday, explaining that they made a mistake:

“We made a mistake and we backed a charity that, upon proper vetting, stands for everything that we do not. So, I want to thank everyone on social media who said, ‘What are you doing? Are you sure you want to back this?’ Because the answer is no we do not…We are so incredibly grateful for you ringing the bell and helping us be better. We’re sorry for our mistake. Oh boy, are we sorry for it. Can’t believe that we missed it.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHg6G7ugYi-/

I know 2020 is the year of the fuck up, but how did they fuck up so badly? I recently did an internet search on a little local quilting supply store in the middle of nowhere to make sure I wasn’t giving my money to people with hate in their hearts, and that took me about 20 minutes (and I got confirmation that they were ok). You can’t tell me there wasn’t one person with a teenager who couldn’t do a background check on Exodus Cry? A teenager with a phone and a strong WiFi signal always be able to pull internet receipts.

Pic: Instagram