The Camelot Theatre in Palm Springs bills itself as the desert’s “premiere art theatre.”  Catering to the areas’ large gay population, the Camelot can always be counted on to show the best of current gay film.  It may therefore surprise some patrons to learn that their theatre dollars routinely go to support some of the most anti-gay causes and candidates around the nation. 

According to the Federal Election Commission, Ms. Rozene Supple, the owner of the Camelot, has given almost $27,000 to the Republican Party and to conservative, right-wing homophobes over the years.  A small sampling:

Last year, Ms. Supple gave $1,000 to the Citizens United Political Victory Fund.  Its mission?  To support conservative candidates running for federal office who share its vision, in part, of “promoting traditional family values.”

In 2005 and 2006, Ms. Supple donated $1,350.00 to Van Hilleary, a candidate for the Senate from Tennessee.  Mr. Hilleary opposes a woman’s right to choose; opposes same-sex marriage (believing that “traditional marriage must be preserved”) and, in 1999 when he served in the House, voted to ban adoptions by gay couples in Washington, DC.

Also in 2005 and 2006, Ms. Supple gave $6,800.00 to John D. Spencer who ran for the Senate in New York in 2006.  Mr. Spencer believes that Roe v. Wade should be overturned and supports the Marriage Protection Amendment which states that marriage should be between a man and a woman.

In 2005 and 2006, Ms. Supple gave George “Ma-ca-ca” Allen contributions totalling $500 in his race for the Senate.  According to the AP (10/26/2006), this was the race in which Mr. Allen played the “anti-gay marriage” card, attacking gay people in hopes of attracting the right-wing base.

The Camelot is currently showing the film, “For the Bible Tells Me So,” a documentary that “brilliantly reconciles homosexuality and Biblical scripture,” revealing that “Church-sanctioned anti-gay bias is based almost solely on a significant (and often malicious) misinterpretation of the Bible.”

One might hope that Ms. Supple sees her own film.  If she did, she might regret her 2002 donation of $250 to the Christian Voter Project of the Traditional Values Coalition, a group whose website is so virulently and weirdly anti-gay that it’ll give you the creeps just to read it.

Ms. Supple’s most recent contribution?  Three hundred dollars in June to Mitt Romney, the formerly pro-gay Governor of Massachusetts who’s currently flip-flopping to the bottom in a race to be more anti-gay than the next Republican candidate. . . .

The list of Ms. Supple’s donations to right-wing, homophobic candidates and causes goes on and on but I think you get the picture:  The proceeds of a pretty gay theatre supporting pretty anti-gay candidates. . . 

Hmmmh.  I’ll just wait for the DVD.