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Our View: Youth shelter provider needs change of heart Sunday Apr 23, 2017 at 12:01 AM The decision by an organization operating youth shelters in Jackson and Josephine counties to refuse a $3,000 donation from the Portland Gay Men's Chorus seems impossible to justify, but officials of the organization are trying anyway. The donation was raised in a sold-out benefit concert last month at Newman United Methodist Church. Hearts With A Mission, a faith-based nonprofit organization that operates the shelters, declined to accept the money, even as it was asking the city of Grants Pass for $26,000 to get through the fiscal year. That's on top of the $50,000 the group gets from the city annually. In a letter to the Grants Pass City Council, the organization said it did not refuse the donation to discriminate against the men's choir, but out of concern for the welfare of the at-risk youths the shelter serves. Never mind the fact that those at-risk youths can and do include LGBTQ young people. Apparently, the decision had everything to do with what the neighbors might think. Hearts With A Mission Executive Director Kevin Lamson told the Grants Pass Daily Courier that "By branding something with our logo, what we are essentially doing is endorsing it," adding that "It's a shame that that factors into how somebody else perceives our organization." Well, yes. What's more shameful is that Hearts With A Mission is so fearful of being perceived as endorsing — what? The existence of gay men? The performance of choral music by gay men in a church sanctuary to benefit a charitable organization? Lamson attempted to draw a parallel with the Boys & Girls Club, which saw canceled memberships and threats of withheld funding after it allowed the anti-Trump group Indivisible to hold a rally at the club. But the two situations are not remotely comparable. Allowing an activist group with a political agenda to use a nonprofit agency's facility for a rally is not the same as merely accepting a donation. Making matters worse, Grants Pass School District Superintendent Kirk Kolb, a Hearts With A Mission board member, said in the letter that the board's decision had to do with the "challenges that come with living in a considerably conservative climate" — again, what will the neighbors think — and then didn't have the guts to respond to the Courier's request for further comment. Lamson attempted to justify the refusal by saying that many youths the group has served are struggling with their own sexual identity, and if they hear their parents saying they don't support Hearts With A Mission anymore, they might not seek help there. Nonsense. On the contrary, youths struggling with sexual or gender identity who hear that Hearts With A Mission refused a donation from the Portland Gay Men's Chorus are hardly likely to darken its door. If Hearts With A Mission wants to continue operating shelters for homeless youths using taxpayers' money, it needs to stand up for the principle of helping those who need help without judging them, and that extends to having the courage to accept help graciously offered, regardless of what some in the community might think. This unfortunate decision is likely to damage its ability to raise funds from the public far more than simply accepting the donation would have. Before it asks for any more money from anyone, Hearts With A Mission needs to decide what its mission is.