Pop star Ellie Goulding said on Tuesday she may pull out of her scheduled halftime performance at the Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving Day game after her fans raised concerns over the Salvation Army’s stance on gay rights.

The statement came in a comment she made on her own Instagram post on Tuesday that showed her volunteering at a Salvation Army location in New York.

When some fans began to comment about the group’s history of allegedly not being supportive of gay or trans people, she replied and said she had reached out to Salvation Army leadership.

“Upon researching this, I have reached out to The Salvation Army and said that I would have no choice but to pull out unless they very quickly make a solid, committed pledge or donation to the LGBTQ community," Goulding wrote. "I am a committed philanthropist as you probably know, and my heart has always been in helping the homeless, but supporting an anti-LGBTQ charity is clearly not something I would ever intentionally do. Thank you for drawing my attention to this.”

Goulding’s post could setup an unexpected showdown between her, the Salvation Army and the Dallas Cowboys. Goulding was announced last week as the halftime performer and no mention or concerns were raised about the group’s stance on gay rights at the time.

The Advocate, a magazine that covers the LGBT community, called the relationship between the Salvation Army and LGBT people “complicated” in a 2017 story.


The organization has a non-discrimination policy when it comes to employment and it said it serves LGBT people who are homeless or need social services. But, the Salvation Army is also a church and it believes and teaches that marriage is between a man and a woman and should not be expanded to same-sex couples.

The Cowboys and the Salvation Army have not publicly reacted to Goulding’s comments.