Anti-LGBT Roundup of Events and Activities 8.2.17
The following is a list of activities and events of anti-LGBT organizations. Organizations listed as anti-LGBT hate groups are designated with an asterisk.
Family Research Council*
The Family Research Council (FRC) hosted Distinguished University Chair and professor of law (St. Thomas University) on July 21 at FRC headquarters. According to a July 18 email from FRC, Paulsen spoke âon the main controversies toward [sic] religious liberty due to societyâs declining acceptance of the religious premises upon which the First Amendment was written.â
The FRC press release, however, and instead said, âdue to societyâs declining acceptance of the premises and assumptions on which the First Amendment was based.â The title of Paulsenâs talk, according to available at FRC, was âFour Objections to Religious Liberty (and some Possible Answers).â
Paulsen is at the , which that the Constitution should be interpreted using âoriginalism,â a doctrine that states that the basic meaning of the Constitution was set at the time of its original creation in the 18th century.
Paulsen in opposition to same-sex marriage, and claimed that LGBT people were not denied the right to marry prior to Obergefell, arguing that they could still marry someone of the opposite sex. âReligious libertyâ is at risk, Paulsen continues: âIf same-sex marriage is, as the Court has not said, a fundamental constitutional liberty, those who resist it are like segregationists resisting Brown v. Board of Education â forces of evil to be extirpated.â And, he continues, âCivil rights laws provide the bulldozer for eliminating such views.â
The piece goes on to claim that âhomosexual rights advocates are rapidly pressing for more. Their goal is to stigmatize, delegitimize, and quickly extinguish opposition to the new norm, especially dissent grounded in religious conviction.â
FRC is known for its demonization of LGBT people, including , and that homosexuality âis harmful to the persons who engage in it and to society at large, and can never be affirmed. It is by definition unnatural, and as such is associated with negative physical and psychological health effects.â
FRC Radio Roundup:
FRC president Tony Perkins hosts a daily radio show, âWashington Watch.â Guests July 13 through July 31 included Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI); Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY); Faith Church of Budapestâs Michael Patkai; Katalin Novak (Minister of State for Family, Youth and International Affairs, Hungary); Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX); Terry Jeffrey (editor, CNS News); Jerry Johnson (president, National Religious Broadcasters) guest hosted July 18; Ralph Reed; Jack Graham (pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, one of the evangelicals who prayed over President Trump in the Oval Office the week before); Sen. Luther Strange (R-AL); Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH; twice); Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA); Ken Blackwell; Lt. Gov. of Texas Dan Patrick; Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX); Jonathan Saenz (president, anti-LGBT group Texas Values); Ron Crews (director of Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty); Frank Wright (CEO, D. James Kennedy Ministries); Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD; twice); Carrie Severino (general counsel and policy director, Judicial Crisis Network); Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO); Hannah Sherlacher, Campus Reform program coordinator;ĚýRep. Steve Russell (R-OK); Adm. Dean Lee; Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN); Kansas governor Sam Brownback; Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ); Eben Fowler (director of Bott Radio Network); former congresswoman Nan Hayworth (R-NY); MO state senator Bob Onder; Virginia state delegate Bob Marshall; Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA); guest host Ronnie Floyd (pastor, Cross Church, Springdale AR); Rep. Steve Womack (R-AZ); Kevin Theriot (senior counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom*); Richard Land (president of Southern Evangelical Seminary).
MassResistance (MR)*
MR claims to have opened a . According to a post at its site, MR president Brian Camenker traveled to the UK June 29 through July 10 âat the invitation of MassResistance activists there for the launch of the group.â Camenker said he âmet with national pro-family leaders and activists from around the country,â though he did not name them. He also claimed that âa big kickoff meeting in London highlighted the weekâ and that prior to the launch of the chapter, MR had â300 people in the UK.â
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Camenker also noted that MR-Texas chapter president, Dr. Robert Oscar LĂłpez âgave a stirring speech at the Anglican General Synod in York, England. LĂłpez was allegedly âbrought in by a major UK pro-family groupâ and to banning ex-gay therapy for minors.
LĂłpez, currently teaching at Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary, resigned his position at California State University-Northridge in 2016 amidst against students who accused him of creating a hostile learning environment. LĂłpez has a long history of anti-LGBT activism and statements, Ěý(which he differentiates from LGBT individuals) is fascist, abuses women and children, is an engine of âworld-historical evilâ and that gay adoption means that âchildren become objects, and adults become slave-owners again.â
He hasĚýalso claimedĚýthat there is an LGBT international war against black people, and that same-sex couples âpurchaseâ children, which is tantamount to slavery,Ěýgay men and, in anĚýamicus briefĚýto the Supreme Court in 2015 that âgay marriage targets children of gay parents for discriminationâ because it will âallow adults to acquire custody of other peopleâs children and deny those children connections to their original mother and father.â
Over the years, Brian Camenker LGBT advocates in schools to Nazi camp guards; and LGBT rights advocacy; traveled to Jamaica to of homosexuality; against a former Department of Education official; and homosexuality is a public health crisis.
Texas Values
Texas Values is touting the special session in the Texas legislature that began Tuesday, July 18, which resulted in the , the so-called âbathroom bill,â last week. The bill requires students in public schools to use the restrooms that match the sex on their birth certificates or state-issued ID. The bill also strikes down parts of city laws that protect the rights of transgender people to use public restrooms in accordance with their gender identities.
Under the banner of its legislative and advocacy arm Texas Values Action (TVA), it sent out a to âkeep men out of little girlsâ bathrooms, locker rooms, and other intimate facilities.â Texas must not give in, TVA says, to âthe radical LGBT lobbyâs agenda that would endanger our children at school and force every private business in Texas to allow men into girls' bathrooms, locker rooms, and other intimate facilities.â
The anti-LGBT right has been targeting trans people with so-called âbathroom bills,â which ban people from using public restrooms and other facilities in accordance with their gender identities, thus further marginalizing them in schools and public areas.
Texas Values, like other anti-LGBT groups, denies the existence of trans people and conflates male predators with trans women, implying that allowing trans women to use womenâs restrooms is allowing âbiological menâ to use womenâs restrooms, some of whom, they claim, may be sexual predators â a many times.
The group was heavily involved in the 2015 campaign to repeal Houstonâs (HERO), ginning up fear of trans people to remove the policy, which protected religion, disabled people and veterans as well as sexual orientation and gender identity from discrimination. TVA released ads during the campaign, including that ridiculed trans people through animation portraying a hairy-legged man wearing makeup getting dressed in a womenâs locker room.
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Legislation
Alaska
Supporters of an anti-trans initiative in Anchorage to place it on the city ballot in 2018. The initiative, to be called Proposition 1, would require people to use public bathrooms or locker rooms that match their birth gender, subject to verification by the personâs original birth certificate.
Jim Minnery, executive director of Alaska Family Action (AKFA), was quoted in as saying that, âPeople are upset that the government is coercing businesses and churches to let men who identify as women in womenâs private intimate facilities,â a statement that incorrectly conflates trans women with men and implies that trans women are somehow âdangerous.â
One of the two sponsors of the Anchorage initiative is Jim Minneryâs wife Kim, who has a long history of anti-LGBT activity and has helped spearhead two successful campaigns against anti-discrimination legislation that would have included LGBT people. JimâsĚýcousin,ĚýTom Minnery, has a similar history. Retired now, Tom Minnery is president emeritus of Family Policy Alliance (formerly CitizenLink, which was affiliated with Focus on the Family). He was also a former senior vice president of government and public policy at Focus on the Family and a founding member and former president of the board of directors withĚýAlliance Defending Freedom*.
In 2012, Jim Minnery was a leader of the so-called âProtect Your Rights â Vote No on Prop 5â campaign in Alaska. Prop 5, which did not pass, would have extended anti-discrimination protections to LGBT people. The campaign ran an anti-trans cartoon ad,Ěýincluding oneĚýin which a âtransvestiteâ applies for a job at a daycare center. That ad was roundly denounced as stigmatizing and dehumanizing, including by former Alaska governor Tony Knowles. Minnery believesĚýthat there is a âhomosexual agendaâ to persecute and prosecute anyone who doesnât endorse it. He alsoĚýclaimedĚýthat the 2015 LGBT anti-discrimination ordinance âlegally invited men into public restrooms, locker rooms and dressing roomsâ used by women and girls because the men will claim to identify as female.
AKFA alsoĚýlaunched a campaignĚýon April 11 against the nomination of Drew Phoenix, who is trans, to the Alaska State Human Rights Commission. In a Facebook post targeting Phoenixâs nomination, AKFA noted Phoenixâs work in support of the anti-discrimination Prop 5, which AKFA says, âproposed that men should be able to use whatever showers, bathrooms, etc. they want, consistent with their self-declared âgender identity.ââ Conflating sexual predation with trans women is aĚýharmful myth peddled by anti-LGBT groups.
The state legislature , the only one of more than 100 gubernatorial nominees who did not receive confirmation. Minnery Tweeted, âAK Leg protects religious freedom and rights of conscience. Votes down transgender activist to sit on AK Human Rights Commission. Good job!â
Montana
A ballot initiative (I-183) has been proposed by the anti-LGBT Montana Family Foundation that would ârequire a person using a locker room or protected facility in a government building or public school to use the facility that is designated for that personâs sex.âĚý The MFF proposed the initiative after the state legislature an anti-trans bathroom bill earlier this year (also MFF).
Like other anti-LGBT groups, MFF that the proposed legislation would protect children from sexual predators.
The MFF has a of anti-choice and anti-LGBT activism, and has opposed anti-discrimination laws that include LGBT people. The current president, Jeff Laszloffy, is a former state Republican lawmaker who left office in 2005 to head MFF. His daughter, Sarah, is also a former state legislator (2013-2017) who served as Majority Whip.
According to the (PDF; may not load in some browsers), MFF was started in 2004 by board members of the Montana Family Coalition who left that organization, thus and patterning themselves after FOTFâs state-level âfamily policy councils.â MFF became the leading religious right organization in the state, and MHRN reported that the MFF is the catalyst behind the 2004 campaign to ban marriage equality in the state.
Jeff Lazloffy, according to the report, also has a history of promoting antigovernment conspiracy theories, as in 1999 when he claimed the federal government was promoting socialism and invoked the 10th Amendment as a remedy (âNullifiersâ rely on a spurious interpretation of the Amendment to claim that states can disregard and ignore federal laws).
Lazloffy also supported a âbirther billâ in the state in 2011 that would have required presidential candidates to file an affidavit with the Montana Secretary of State declaring that they met citizenship requirements. The rash of âbirther billsâ was in opposition to President Obama and stemmed from a conspiracy theory that Obama was not a U.S. citizen. Lazloffy testified in support of the bill, and though he claimed he was not representing MFF when he did so, he devoted an update at MFF on the âbirtherâ topic.
In February of this year, that MFF argued against H.B. 417, which would have added sexual orientation and gender identity or expression to the stateâs human rights law. âWe argued,â Laszloffy stated, âas we have for 20 years, that the law would be used to browbeat Christians who donât want to participate in the homosexual lifestyle.â He further claimed that including sexual orientation in anti-discrimination policies would cause Montana to recognize several gender identities and âallow men and boys unfettered access to womenâs restrooms, locker rooms and shower rooms across the state.â
The bill failed.
Texas
As noted above, Texasâs anti-trans âbathroom billâ S.B. 3 , 21-10 July 26 during a special legislative session. The bill was amended to prevent economic loss (via boycotts) by exempting government buildingsâsuch as stadiums and convention centersâif they are privately leased. The bill restricts the use of bathrooms, showers and changing rooms in public schools and government buildings to match the sex on a personâs birth certificate or state-issued ID. The bill also prohibits cities and schools from adopting anti-discrimination policies with regard to bathroom facilities or allowing transgender girls or women to participate in womenâs sports.
The bill passed after eight hours of debate, including opposition from chiefs of police in Austin, Houston and San Antonio, who said there were already laws against the type of behavior supporters of the bill alleged they were trying to prevent (male predators accessing womenâs facilities).
The bill now heads back to the state house where it faces another committee hearing before being brought up for a vote.
