Though Domino's Pizza has been known as an anti-gay business in the past, a local Domino's franchise owner has pledged $500 and pizza to a Tufts-hosted intercollegiate conference for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students and allies.
Robert Rivard, the owner of five local Domino's Pizza restaurants including the one in Medford, will support the Safe Colleges Conference when it takes place in April.
Members of the campus LGBT community expressed reservations about Domino's in September when Tufts added the pizza chain to Dining Services' Merchants On Points System (MOPS). Domino's founder, Tom Monaghan, is a conservative Roman Catholic who actively opposes gay rights, though he stepped down as the chain's CEO in 1999.
In October, Safe Colleges Corporate Relations Chair Patrick Brown wrote a letter requesting a donation from the Mystic Valley Parkway Domino's. "I wrote the letter in a manner to see if they'd be able to appease their reputation on campus as being homophobic," Brown said.
Brown got a letter in return offering the donation. "We get requests for donations all the time, we can't always do them," Rivard said. "It's a pretty big deal, we're pretty excited to be a part of Tufts University."
According to Rivard, he usually responds to requests for donations with pizza, but decided to make a cash donation to the conference at Tufts. He said the fact the conference was for LGBT students and allies did not affect his decision to donate funds.
"Any one that's associated with Tufts and the students - we're trying to do what we can in the community to support them," Rivard said. "They support us."
But Rivard said he was upset about Domino's negative press in September, when The Daily ran a story about the LGBT community's opposition to adding the chain to MOPs. The article "was full of a lot of things that weren't true," he said.
Rivard said he wrote a letter to Brown explaining that Monaghan's personal beliefs do not influence Domino's Pizza in 2004. "I don't know what Tom Monaghan's beliefs are, but I know he's not associated with Domino's Pizza, and he hasn't been for eight years," Rivard said.
When Monaghan cashed out of Domino's in 1999, he used much of the $1 billion he made to advance his conservative-style Catholicism. "I feel it's God's money and I want to use it for the highest possible purpose - to help as many people as possible get to Heaven," Monaghan told the Australian Catholic newspaper AD2000 in February 2000.
In 2004, Monaghan donated money to fund anti-gay marriage ballot initiatives across the country.
"Maybe people associated his opinions with the company, but they shouldn't," Rivard said, adding that his own beliefs did not influence his decision to donate the money.
"I'm sure my beliefs are different than a lot of people's beliefs, but whatever," Rivard said. "They didn't enter into my decision. I don't think they can for guys selling pizza."
Brown said he did not expect the donation, but that he was very happy it was made. "I was extremely surprised. I think the entire office was, but it was great, and it'll be very useful for our conference."
Conference President Sarah Sahn agreed. "It was something that Patrick and I had talked about on a whim. We actually didn't expect at all that they'd donate money, so it was a very big surprise, and a very pleasant one."
The Safe Colleges Conference, in its eighth year, is the largest collegiate LGBT conference in New England.
