Former AT&T lobbyist at center of GLAAD controversy resigns from Board

UPDATE: Troup Coronado was mistakenly identified in this post as serving on the Board of Directors of the AIDS Project Los Angeles. According to the organization he departed from the Board in January 2011, and is currently unaffiliated.

After a tumultuous two weeks for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, which included the resignation of the organization’s President, Jarrett Barrios, and seven members of the Board of Directors, Troup Coronado, a former AT&T executive at the center of the controversy resigned from the Board of Directors yesterday of his own accord, according to a statement from GLAAD.

Coronado wanted “to do what was in the best interest of GLAAD,” the press release stated.

Little else was available about the Board member’s departure, but the Board did release parts of Barrios’ letter of resignation from this past weekend.

“Of utmost concern and foremost in all of our minds must be the well-being of GLAAD,” Barrios wrote to the Board. “The staff continues to work hard and does not deserve to work under a cloud, nor do they merit the distraction that it has become from our organization’s fine brand.”

According to Michelangelo Signorile’s blog, Coronado remains on the Boards of several LGBT organizations including the Equality California Institute. While GLAAD stood at the center of the scandal, the spotlight is beging to shift to other organizations tied to Coronado through his work as a Board member or supporter, or his work at a liaison to LGBT organizations from AT&T.

Most of the organizations under scrutiny have endorsed the AT&T/T-Mobile merger, or had sent letters to the FCC, last year, supporting — inadvertently in some cases — the telecom giant’s position against net-neutrality, a concept of continuing “free and open” access to the entire internet regardless of internet provider.

In almost every case, the organizations have retracted their statements against net-neutrality which included suggested language provided, in most cases, by AT&T, including, most recently, Equality California. Interim Executive Director Jim Carroll submitted to the FCC his organization’s letter rescinding the statements yesterday.

GLAAD had also retracted their statements to the FCC in January of 2010, as did the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, after the true meaning of some of the suggested language was called to their attention. GLAAD came under fire, however, for seeming to have conflicting stories about that letter.

As it stands now, a total of eight members have resigned from GLAAD’s Board of Directors, including the head of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, whose own organization endorsed the AT&T/T-Mobile merger.