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Philip Anschutz also supports climate change denying groups.

Following this week’s lineup announcement that includes Beyoncé, Radiohead and Kendrick Lamar as headliners, Coachella is in the spotlight once again.

AEG owner, Philip Anschultz, uses the money he makes from his various properties (including the festival and investments in the Lakers and Clippers) to support some troubling causes.

According to The Washington Post, Anschutz has donated some of his considerable wealth to anti-LGBT groups like Alliance Defending Freedom, National Christian Foundation and Family Research Council, all of which are major anti-LGBT groups.

“Phil Anschutz’s extensive influence in Colorado politics has been known for years, but the degree of his support for anti-LGBTQ groups that fund extremist hate groups like Gordon Kligenschmitt’s ‘Pray in Jesus Name’ is shocking,” said ProgressNow Colorado executive director Ian Silverii in a press release. “At a time in American history when discrimination and violence against LGBTQ citizens is on the rise, support for pro-discrimination groups puts Anschutz on the wrong side of Colorado, and on the wrong side of history.”

Meanwhile, Greenpeace have previously described him as a “financier of climate science denial groups.”

In response to the reports, the Colorado-based oil and entertainment tycoon released a statement Thursday denying that he is anti-LGBT.

“Recent claims published in the media that I am anti-LGBTQ are nothing more than fake news — it is all garbage. I unequivocally support the rights of all people without regard to sexual orientation. We are fortunate to employ a wealth of diverse individuals throughout our family of companies, all of whom are important to us — the only criteria on which they are judged is the quality of their job performance; we do not tolerate discrimination in any form.

“Both The Anschutz Foundation and I contribute to numerous organizations that pursue a wide range of causes. Neither I nor the Foundation fund any organization with the purpose or expectation that it would finance anti-LGBTQ initiatives, and when it has come to my attention or the attention of The Anschutz Foundation that certain organizations either the Foundation or I have funded have been supporting such causes, we have immediately ceased all contributions to such groups.”

UPDATED GMT 00:30 6/1

 

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