Alumni of this anti-LGBTQ hate group are serving in federal, state, and local governments

[icymist]

Media Matters has identified at least 55 Alliance Defending Freedom affiliated lawyers serving in influential government positions


The anti-LGBTQ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) publicly boasts a nearly $50 million annual budget and a network of over 3,100 “allied attorneys” who provide hundreds of pro-bono hours of anti-LGBTQ and anti-choice legal services. But new Media Matters research has identified a quieter, more powerful network of former ADF employees, allied attorneys, and fellowship alumni who occupy over 50 influential government posts at the federal, state, and local level.

ADF was founded in 1994 by several of the country's largest national evangelical Christian ministries to "press the case for religious liberty issues in the nation's courts" and "fend-off growing efforts by groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which seek to immobilize Christians." Today, it has become the country's best-funded and most powerful right-wing Christian group working against what the organization has called the "myth of the so-called 'separation of church and state.'"

In practice, this work has consisted of ADF’s leaders and affiliated lawyers attempting to criminalize and demonize LGBTQ people by “falsely linking them to pedophilia, calling them ‘evil’ and a threat to children and society, and blaming them for the ‘persecution of devout Christians.’” This has lead the Southern Poverty Law Center to designate ADF as a hate group. ADF has also defended the constitutionality of criminalizing gay sex in the U.S., and has actively worked to promote and defend anti-sodomy laws that criminalize gay sex in Jamaica, Belize, and India. The group -- whose founder believes that the “homosexual agenda” is dedicated to destroying Christianity -- is behind the national push for anti-LGBTQ “religious freedom” laws. It is also the architect of the campaign for “bathroom bills” that aim to ban transgender students from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity.

https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2017/05/24/Alumni-of-this-anti-LGBTQ-hate-group-are-serving-in-federal-state-and-local-governments/216622

There is a long list of areas infiltrated by these swines in Federal and State government positions at the link.

[lambchopp59]

1. What an irony. "defending freedom".

"Freedom" to judge and persecute what they don't understand or are unwilling to tolerate.
It all reminds me of one of the greatest bumper stickers I'd spotted in the Colorado Springs area: "Focus on your Own Damn Family".
When are these homophobic fuckers going to give up on the "they're persecuting us" smokescreen? Let me see, I don't recall signing any petitions restricting their rights to worship as they please. None seeking to limit their ability to further overpopulate the planet according to their myths, yet. Did I vote on their right to marry? Have I attempted to refuse a product or service, accomodations or employment based on my own assessment of their religion? Would I try to prevent the heteros or christians from attending the local prom? I've never even once tried to lawyer away any of their rights.
The same can't be said for the reverse.
Between this, and Betsy DeVos latest gaffes, I see their witch-hunt has commenced.