Allagash Brewing Company has become the leading “Visionary Sponsor” for a Portland-based non-profit that is among Maine’s leading advocates for late-term abortion and increasing minors’ access to sex-change surgeries and drugs.
Equality Maine, a nonprofit originally formed to advocate for legalizing same-sex marriage, updated their list of sponsors last year to include Allagash Brewing as their top financial supporter.
Also listed as “champion sponsors” are Bangor Savings Bank and Hannaford.
Equality Maine’s legislative priorities, as indicated by materials available on their website, include many of the more extreme left-wing proposals introduced in the State Legislature last year.
Here are some of the bills Equality Maine supported:
- LD 535 – This proposal, signed into law by Gov. Janet Mills, will allow 16- and 17-year-olds to access sex-change surgeries and drugs even in cases where their parents object to them undergoing the life-altering procedures.
- LD 1040 – This bill codified a move made earlier by Gov. Mills that required MaineCare, the taxpayer-funded medical welfare program, to cover sex-change drugs and surgeries.
- LD 1735 – This recently killed proposal would have conferred legal immunity on any adult who trafficked a minor into Maine for the purposes of undergoing a sex-change.
Equality Maine also opposed several bills that would have protected parental rights in education, limited the availability of pornographic material in schools, and protected female high school athletes from having to compete against boys.
In addition to advocating for policies rooted in transgender ideology, Equality Maine also lobbied for Mills’ late-term abortion bill, LD 1619.
The Portland-based brewery was founded in 1995 by Rob Tod, who has historically kept a low profile when it comes to Maine politics.
Allagash Brewing did not return a phone call seeking comment on their sponsorship of Equality Maine.
Equality Maine operates both a 501(c)3 and 501(c)4 nonprofit, a common hybrid model that allows the group to receive tax-deductible donations on the (c)3 side while also using the (c)4 side to engage in more political activity, like lobbying for late-term abortion.
Corporations will often donate to the (c)3 side and claim that they’re not supporting explicit political advocacy, but their financial support will be used to pay the salaries of the personnel who engage in political advocacy under the banner of the (c)4.
The organization is currently led by Gia Drew, who identifies as a “Queer Trans Goth Princess”.
The Equality Maine website doesn’t indicate which arm of the organization received donations from its listed sponsors or how much money each donation level represents.
The (c)3 side’s most recent Form 990 tax filing shows gross receipts of $510,131.
The filing also shows that Equality Maine has counted among its top employees and board members some well-connected Democrats, including Rep. Matt Moonen (D-Portland), the husband of Gov. Janet Mills’ Chief of Staff Jeremy Kennedy.
Moonen, who has said that he no longer works for Equality Maine, reported in 2023 having received income in 2022 from Mills’ gubernatorial campaign, Planned Parenthood of New England, the Maine Behavioral Health Foundation, and the Tobacco Free Kids Action Fund.
Although Equality Maine appears to have scrubbed abortion-related advocacy from it’s website, a review by the Maine Wire last year found that staffers from the organization lobbied in favor of the controversial proposal.
The now-deleted “Our Agenda” section of their website, prior to the Maine Wire highlighting the document, also included opposition to voter ID bills and school curriculum transparency bills, suggesting that the organization’s mission is more aligned with whatever the Maine Democratic Party wants than any singular issue.
Following the publication of that story, Equality Maine’s sponsor list underwent some revisions.
Hannaford, LL Bean, Central Maine Power, and General Dynamics, parent company of Bath Iron Works, were all removed from the list of Equality Maine’s financial backers.
However, as of Wednesday, Hannaford had returned to the list as a “Champion Sponsor”.
The pro-late-term-abortion and pro-sex-changes-for-kids group also counts among its top financial supporters Bangor Savings Bank, Big Tree Hospitality, Wex, Bank of America, Coffee by Design, Diversified Communications, Five County Credit Union, Norway Savings Bank, TD Bank, AthenaHealth, Berman & Simmons Trial Attorneys, cPort Credit Union, Gardner Real Estate Group, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Maine Health, Martin’s Point Health Care, and Town & Country Federal Credit Union.
(An official from Five County Credit Union contacted the Maine Wire to say that they are not sponsors of Equality Maine; however, at the time of this update the company still appears on the organization’s list of sponsors.)
Recently, embracing transgender ideology hasn’t gone over well for big beer brands.
Last year, Belgian beer company AB InBev, the parent company of Anheuser-Busch, partnered with actor and trans TikTok sensation Dylan Mulvaney to promote their flagship light beer, Bud Light.
The promotion triggered a massive backlash in the U.S., leading to a boycott that tanked sales for the beer by $400 million, led to the firing of the ad executive responsible for the partnership, and even caused the price of AB InBev shares to plummet.
As part of the damage-control effort, AB InBev has recently struck ad deals on the opposite side of the political and cultural spectrum, including promotions with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and un-politically correct comedian Shane Gillis.
On Tuesday, former Republican President Donald Trump also went to bat for Bud Light.
Trump, who is reportedly a shareholder in AB InBev, will attend a fundraiser in March hosted by a Republican lobbyist for the company.
Correction: The original version of this article confused Rep. Kristen Cloutier (D-Lewiston), who is not a board member of Equality Maine, with Teresa Cloutier, who is. Both of them support unlimited abortion and sex-changes for kids, but we regret the error.
For Allagash Brewing..
GO WOKE, GO BROKE.
Nuff said.
Guess I’m not going to their brewery anymore. Oh wait, I never went there in the first place.
Mental note to self:
No wheat beer in a yellow and blue can, even if free
That was easy
Bud Light them all … gave up on Hannaford years ago after they were pushing rainbow bags at the checkout… nope.
An ok dry stout but, Mainers, it’s time to boycott and do what we did to Bud Light! Who’s with me?
Thanks Maine Wire…Im done with Allagash. Go woke, go broke!!!!
If you don’t want one, don’t get one
One what, Mike Grove? Abort a baby as it comes out of the womb? Provide a life changing, painful sex change operation for a minor who can’t legally buy a beer, smoke a cigarette or drive a car? These Democrats (mainly) in the legislature are a disgrace. What you’re saying is that you personally sanction murder and mutilation. What’s next, pedophilia?
The companies that support these measures are either willing participants (evil) or are useful idiots (morons) who think being extorted by the anti-nuclear family groups such as Equality Maine are going to placate them. Remember BLM? Same ilk.
It was easy to Boycott the swill AB Bud but Allagash is a premiere craft brand. Thankfully there is now plenty of great craft that we will not miss Allagash.
Which craft breweries will come out as pro-normal? I know there are many non-woke men quietly running these breweries. Would someone like to step up and help stop the destruction of children and families? That brand would develop a niche in a crowded market.
I will never spend another cent purchasing any of their brews period, full stop.
Maine craft brewers should get together and create a beer in honor of Steve. The darkest of stouts called “The Boy Robinson”. The label would have Ivy League Steve wearing his women’s glasses and the Bowdoin campus would be in the back ground. All proceeds??? 🤣🤣🤣
A supreme choice, overriding Allagash by far, is Northern Sky stout and forsake all others! Pass it along…
Cheers!
“Allgash” — That’s their name–Really?
Well, anyway, enjoy your trip around the drain.
Can always make our own.
I loved Nathens Hot Dogs but don’t eat them now They are owned by PRC.
As someone that worked BrewFests years ago, I wasn’t impressed with Allagash back then, and now with this article it just got easier to ignore their brew! And with the others on the list well After having done business with Hannaford’s for decades all the way back to when it was Cottles, I guess I’ll make some changes and Market basket is available. some of the others are a little harder but, I’ll figure out how to work it out. Time to stand for the innocent and turn my back on the evil!
Be nice if the other Me breweries would take a stand against this bs. Allagash must be some kind of dunces if they didn’t see what happened to Budlite.
The “Tobacco Free Kids Action Fund” donated to Moonen. That’s rich! They’re concerned about kids smoking cigarettes, but not about cutting off their sex organs. That’s liberal logic for you in a nutshell!
Besides the beer being disgusting…. As, this company is! Shame on them! Late abortions? God created man and women… you want to be gay, that’s fine…. Changing your sexual identity… not fine! It’s appalling and a disgrace. I’m not against gays and lesbians….. But, let’s stop this frixkn madness…. It’s wrong…. period!
Loved the beer! Won’t support them no more!
Try the new Allagash Late Term Abortion Ale. Premature, aged to 8.9 months, eviscerated, and canned sustainably. The ideal beverage for limp wristed, devil worshipping, low IQ cosmopolitan types. A babys body, the mothers choice. Please mask responsibly. Speak with a doctor before ingesting if you have preexisting injuries related to covid “vaccines”.
Bye Bye Allagash
Ain’t drinkin your tranny fluid either.
Allagash, you have lost me, family, and friends, as customers.