Nashville LGBT Chamber rescinds CoreCivic membership after fierce backlash

https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/pith-in-the-wind/article/21091410/lgbt-chamber-rescinds-corecivics-membership-after-fierce-backlash

After facing a fierce backlash that was manifest in a heated public meeting Tuesday night, Nashville's LGBT Chamber of Commerce has dropped private prison corporation CoreCivic from its membership. 
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"The voices at our meeting last night were very clear," the statement regarding CoreCivic reads. "Their membership was too much for many in our LGBT community. We heard those concerns and last night our board voted to remove CoreCivic as a member and return their $300 membership fee. While CoreCivic will not be a member of our organization, the reasons we originally accepted their application to join are still true. Every industry has members of the LGBT community who are employees. It’s part of our mission to advocate for them and educate employers on how to support the needs of our community. To both support those employees and to fulfill our mission, we have extended an offer to work with CoreCivic on those initiatives but not as a member."
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People in the crowd held various signs with anti-CoreCivic messages and statements about the folly of aligning with them. Speakers talked passionately about the years of reports and testimony about poor conditions and abuse at CoreCivic prisons, as well as the company's heavy involvement in detaining immigrants on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

Samantha Rae McAlpine reminded the board about the attempted ICE arrest in Hermitage in July, when agents tried to coax a man and his son out of their car but were thwarted by neighbors and community members. 

“Where do you think [they] were headed?" McAlpine said. "CoreCivic gets a quarter of their funding from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They operate a huge number of the facilities on the border where they are processing people and caging them like animals.”

Later, she added: “If you think there is any amount of engagement that will fundamentally change who they are, you are at best naive and at worst maliciously indifferent.”......(more)