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One panel at the 2024 IRF Summit, which featured representatives from two anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups, convened to discuss FORB restrictions in Western democracies. The panelists took aim at a U.K. evangelical Christian college鈥檚 response to a homophobic tweet by a former professor, citing the professor鈥檚 dismissal as a threat to FORB. The panel is illustrative of the far right鈥檚 strategy to make anti-LGBTQ+ politics intrinsic to FORB advocacy. In addition, the panel seemed to articulate a definition of FORB that would weaken the separation of church and state and subvert religious pluralism by requiring governments to take sides in internal denominational disputes, imposing ultra-conservative theologies on co-religionists who conscientiously object.

The FORB 鈥淰iolations in Western Democracies鈥� panelists were introduced by a representative of the group International Christian Concern (ICC), and the panel was moderated by a staff member of the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Family Research Council聽(FRC). In 2011, ICC President Jeff King published a book featuring a chapter attributed to anti-Muslim extremist Robert Spencer, who falsely claims on the book鈥檚 back cover, 鈥淭here is no mainstream sect of Islam or school of Islamic jurisprudence that doesn鈥檛 teach warfare against unbelievers.鈥�

Former Cliff College lecturer Aaron Edwards opened the panel with a discussion and presentation featuring a February 2023 tweet in which he claimed, 鈥淗omosexuality is invading the Church.鈥� In the tweet, Edwards also said, 鈥淓vangelicals no longer see the severity of this b/c they're busy apologising for their apparently barbaric homophobia.鈥� The tweet ended by equating homosexuality with sin, saying, 鈥淚f sin is no longer sin, we no longer need a Saviour.鈥�

In a statement after the post, Cliff College, a Methodist Bible College in the United Kingdom, called the tweet 鈥渦nacceptable鈥� and said the college and Methodist Church in Britain is 鈥渃ommitted to being a safe and hospitable place鈥� and that they 鈥渁im to do this with mutual respect and a generosity of spirit that springs from our biblical and evangelical conviction of God鈥檚 love for each and for all.鈥� The college held a disciplinary hearing and suspended Edwards.

Although anti-LGBTQ+ groups often couch demonizing language about LGBTQ+ people in religious rhetoric, far-right anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes are out of touch with the views of most religious people in the U.S. and U.K., according to data from the 听补苍诲 . Without majority support for their anti-LGBTQ+ political positions, since the early 2000s, the far right has increasingly claimed religious persecution for holding anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs, used events like IRF Summit to attach those claims to broader narratives of anti-Christian persecution and genocide, and 聽to encode their anti-LGBTQ+ and even 聽in American and international law as the views of a persecuted religious minority.

Edwards sued Cliff College with the help of the Christian Legal Centre (CLC), a group whose litigious tactics have been 聽the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom聽(ADF) by the Guardian newspaper. CLC says Edwards will argue 鈥渦nfair dismissal鈥� on the grounds of 鈥渉arassment鈥� and 鈥渄iscrimination鈥� by citing 鈥淎rticle 9 and/or Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR),鈥� which protects freedom of 鈥渢hought, conscience and religion鈥� and expression, respectively. Such arguments seem to suggest that, at least in part, Edwards鈥� anti-LGBTQ+ religious beliefs trump his former employer鈥檚 more affirming religious beliefs and that the state should be responsible for enforcing sanctions on the school for upholding their own, more inclusive, religious values.

Many in the audience applauded Edwards鈥� presentation. Some members of the panel also took aim at 鈥渨oke progressive鈥� and 鈥淢arxist鈥� values which were cited as causes for faltering FORB protections and rising antisemitism in the west. Both terms have become 聽among conservatives to signal opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, especially within the private sector. Panelists also opposed DEI programs in colleges and seminaries.

Along with Edwards, the panel featured Elizabeth Francis, legal counsel for ADF in the U.K. ADF unsuccessfully defended聽a European law requiring the sterilization of transgender people seeking to update state-issued identity documents in 2017 and was instrumental to overturning Roe v. Wade in the United States. Francis pointed to 鈥渉ate speech鈥� and non-discrimination laws as threats to FORB in the West, suggesting states are potentially implementing criminal punishments for 鈥渕isgendering鈥� someone or for their 鈥減rivate thoughts鈥� outside abortion clinics. Many Western democracies, excluding the United States, have laws against hate speech, which are generally understood as prohibitions of incitement to discrimination and violence within international law, 聽the United Nations.

Conspiracies about the weaponization of hate speech聽laws to punish religious conservatives who oppose LGBTQ+ rights and abortion are a common strategy among the far right. The religious right attempts to compel others to comply with ultra-conservative Christian theology largely by demanding exemptions for conservative Christians from broadly applicable non-discrimination laws.

In the U.S., for example, ADF鈥檚 challenge to the Affordable Care Act鈥檚 contraception provisions was heard with Hobby Lobby v. Burwell and resulted in a religious exemption that frees corporations from providing birth control coverage through their employee health care plans. Similarly, ADF has pursued cases challenging state laws barring discrimination against LGBTQ+ people on behalf of multiple businesses in the wedding industry.

Hatewatch previously reported聽on the connections between 2024 IRF Summit sponsors and anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups. In response to that report, IRF Summit co-chair Katrina Lantos Swett told the far-right publication Daily Signal that summit organizers do not 鈥渧et鈥� partner organizations 鈥渂ased on other causes they have funded or advocated for.鈥�

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