澳彩开奖

It was an unusual move for Lafferty, in that this publicity stunt, wherein Lafferty offered her counsel to and indignation on behalf of Franks鈥� accuser (鈥淚 was angry that somebody who purports to be a conservative and Christian does such a terrible thing,鈥� Lafferty told CNN), for once wasn鈥檛 directing vitriol at the LGBT or Muslim communities.

The Traditional Values Coalition (TVC), founded in 1980 by Lafferty鈥檚 father, Presbyterian minister Louis Sheldon, was long a powerful and influential force in pushing the far right鈥檚 anti-LGBT agenda, and evolved to include peddling the anti-Muslim 鈥渃reeping Shariah鈥� myth. TVC once claimed to represent a network of 43,000 churches across the U.S., and Sheldon and Lafferty visited the White House during the George W. Bush administration a combined 69 times, meeting with the president personally on eight of those visits.

But the TVC is now a ghost of its former self, if it exists at all. Its website disappeared from the internet last year, and its phone line is disconnected (a voicemail left for Lafferty via another organization she fronts, Women for a Great America, wasn鈥檛 returned). In 2014, TVC reported nearly $4 million in net liabilities on its IRS 990 form. Lafferty鈥檚 CNN appearance during the Franks scandal seems to have been TVC鈥檚 death rattle.

Sheldon, a prot茅g茅 of Christian Right evangelist Pat Robertson, launched TVC in Anaheim, California, before moving its headquarters to Washington, D.C. His anti-LGBT rhetoric 鈥� calling homosexuality a 鈥渄eathstyle;鈥� claiming child molestation is the real 鈥渉omosexual agenda;鈥� suggesting AIDS victims should be forced into leper-like colonies 鈥� pushed TVC to the forefront of the battle against equal rights in the 1990s.

In 1993, TVC , featuring Sheldon as well as then-Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, called 鈥淕ay Rights/Special Rights: Inside the Homosexual Agenda,鈥� as a propaganda tool to galvanize opposition to LGBT rights. The film attempts to contrast the civil rights movement of the 鈥�60s with the fight for LGBT equality, with one speaker condemning the 鈥渉igh-handed attempt of the gay and lesbian movement to highjack the 1964 Civil Rights Act in trying to give national credence to their immoral lifestyle.鈥� The video also attempts to conflate homosexuality with pedophilia, a common refrain from TVC (the TVC website, when it was online, claimed 鈥淸t]he effort to push adult/child sex鈥� is part of the overall homosexual movement鈥�).

A December 1994 New York Times article titled 鈥溾�� heralded Sheldon鈥檚 influence with the incoming conservative congress elected the month before. The next year, Sheldon was part of a push to support a senate bill to cut federal money for public schools 鈥渆ncouraging or supporting homosexuality.鈥�

Lafferty followed in her father鈥檚 footsteps, eventually becoming TVC鈥檚 frontperson and figurehead in the early 2000s before assuming the role of president in 2011. Lafferty was no less malevolent than her father, calling a House of Representatives hearing on transgender discrimination a 鈥渇reak show鈥� in 2008, and comparing homosexuality to drunk driving in 2013.

When the Employee Non-Discrimination Act was introduced in 2013, TVC fought it with anti-transgender propaganda alleging that schools would be forced to hire transgender teachers. A year later, TVC was distributing flyers comparing homosexuality to apotemnophilia (sexual arousal from an amputee鈥檚 stump) and coprophilia (sexual arousal from feces).

Lafferty and her husband, James Lafferty, added Islamophobia to TVC鈥檚 portfolio in the 2000s, with TVC launching a campaign called 鈥淭he Task Force to Stop Shariah Law鈥� and James forming his own anti-Muslim organization, the Virginia Anti-Shariah Law Task Force (VAST). 鈥淚slam is not just a religion,鈥� Andrea Lafferty declared in 2011. 鈥淚slam is a geo-political military system wrapped in a cloak of religious belief that penalizes conversion with death.鈥�

James also used the TVC as a launchpad for the Christian Seniors Association (CSA), a supposed alternative to the AARP, which became infamous for its , which resembled government documents, and pushing the 鈥渄eath panels鈥� myth to oppose the Affordable Care Act.

The TVC wasn鈥檛 without its hints of scandal over the years. Sheldon was linked to disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who gave TVC $25,000 to oppose the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act; Sheldon and TVC were also for Big Pharma. A how Sheldon鈥檚 lobbying activities for TVC benefitted his sons鈥� businesses.

In 2010, Lafferty called it a 鈥渂adge of honor鈥� for the TVC to be designated as an anti-LGBT hate group by the 澳彩开奖.

Lafferty seems to have struggled to maintain TVC鈥檚 relevance in recent years, in Fairfax County, Virginia seeking to overturn protections for gay and transgender students in 2015, which was . In 2016, after the Departments of Justice and Education issued a letter stating that anti-transgender discrimination in schools violates Title IX, decrying the move and declaring 鈥渢he next big push will be to legalize and mainstream pedophilia.鈥�

But in the past year, the TVC seems to have evaporated. In April 2017, its website promised a move 鈥渢o a new home on the web,鈥� but by early August, the website was gone. Its listed phone number is disconnected (as is that of the Christian Seniors Association). And a once formidable foe of equality and purveyor of falsehoods has perhaps expelled its last gasps of anti-LGBT and anti-Muslim animus.