Chapter 260 - Nang Foundation Charitable Event (3)

12 April, Palace Hotel, City K

Before John could respond Matthew walked off, leaving John to turn to Bronwyn Li, and say "I should know better than to cross swords with Matthew, I always feel like an idiot afterwards."

"The Boss is well known for it.  Why do you think I kept as quiet as I could while we were talking to him?"

"He has been like that for as long as I can remember.  I never learn." Shaking his head, John said "I think we should avoid him as much as we can tonight, and deal with him later."

"Sounds like a plan, but you know…"

"Do not worry, Bronwyn.  I can deal with him." 

Before either of them could say anything, else Harry Nang turned, and said "Son, stop getting distracted.  You need to finish talking to the last of our important guests, rather than focusing on your friends.  The sooner that is done, the sooner the two of you can move from being the focus to being part of the event.  And before you argue, you agreed to be a board member of the Charitable Foundation board when we agreed not to attempt to force your resignation from the police force when you admitted your true profession.  This is a charitable foundation event, so behave or…"

"Father, you do not need to threaten me.  I know what I need to do."

Before anything else could be said, Sophia moved over and gave John a kiss on the cheek before saying "Thank you.  I know how you hate business and prefer what following your passion for a career." As she pulled back, she quietly said "I will keep your father under control, you know he feels that he has lost his princess when Sally married, and that will include not pushing your guest too far."

Kissing her cheek, John said "Thanks mum." With that John turned around, to greet the last of the important guests that were being shown to the family.

Meanwhile, Lexi, when she arrived to where Chester and Phillip were standing said in a very loud voice "How are the newlyweds?"

Laughing Phillip said, "How much are you loving messing with some of those closed-minded people around?"

Back in a normal voice Lexi responded "If they want to look at you two as if you are criminals, then they can face me.  I can take whatever they dish out."

"And we cannot, baby sister" responded Chester.  "We have been through what we have to get here, and if we could not deal with those small-minded idiots then we do not deserve to be here."

"Damn that Chester.  It is that attitude that say our parents and grandparents manipulate you into the disaster that was your first marriage.  Plus, and I suspect you know Phillip as Chester would not have told you, contributed to the disaster that was my first marriage, I want to fight."

"Calm down Lexi.  We are here for charity, not for political reasons.  Respect the Nang's, who if we are realistic are the only ones of our parents friends who realised after the disaster that was the graduation for Andrew, John, Paul, Steven and Matthew, decided that they needed to respect their children but the choices of their friends if they did not want to alienate people.  Despite the opposition, they privately funded one of the more significant lobbying campaigns to change the law regarding same-s.e.x relationsh.i.p.s.  As they said, while they find them difficult to accept, the evidence about the harm laws criminalising them have is such that they could not allow people to continue to suffer."

"You are kidding me?"

"No.  They are honest with their motives and their beliefs, unlike many of our parents narrow-minded friends.  That we respect, hence why we have personally along with Jax Corp and JL International have made significant donations to the foundation."

Before Lexi could respond, Matthew walked over and seeing the confusion on Lexi's face said, "They told you about what the Nang's personally did?"

"You knew?"

"I did Lexi.  But I suspect that they did not say that the Nang's also personally provided some funding to organisations that campaigned against the changes.  That was much less, as they had much more financial support coming in.  Their reasoning for the funding was that the debate needed to be an informed debate, not one hijacked by one group or another.  They are broadminded."

Phillip said "True.  I did the same through JL International.  While it is obvious the side that I would come down on in this debate, Mother and Father wanted the company to only fund the no campaign.  That was a debate that you would be glad to have missed.  As I explained to them, I had to take a global view for the company, and as we operate in countries where same-s.e.x relationsh.i.p.s are legal and others were same-s.e.x marriages are allowed, we had to weigh up actions and not jeopardise the company.  That set them off, so I let them have their rant, and then offered my compromise.  I would allow them to name an amount that JL International would donate to the no campaign, but it would also then donate the same amount to the yes campaign and not make a personal contribution, on the basis that we wanted an environment where the debate could be appropriately had.  While they were annoyed about that, they named the amount they wanted.  I suspect it was significantly less than what they wanted but I stuck to the deal."

Chester added "True.  They did rant at a few public events about how evil Phillip was to force their hand as to what was donated to the yes campaign, but it stopped them from being too out of control."

Matthew added "Thank goodness for that.  They are stuck in a mindset, unlike the Nang's who are flexible.  I heard tonight they intend to announce instead of one major charity for the Nang Foundation to support this year, there will be two that both offer counselling services, one for young people that includes services for those who cannot cope with their s.e.x.u.a.lity and another that will support older people within the community that cannot cope with changes that challenge their beliefs."

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