The Alliance Defending Freedom is a supposed Christian law firm which claims to protect the religious liberty of all Americans. However, others see it as a hate group plotting to overturn laws protecting LGBTQ Americans from discrimination. I am in the latter category.
ADF has been working behind the scenes to undermine the rights and safety of LGBTQ Americans for a number of years. The organization has been the architect behind several anti-LGBTQ cases (such as the Masterpiece bakery case and the Baronnelle Stutzman case) which it has skillfully painted as innocent Christian businesses vs. the onslaught of radical gay activists. Or even worse, children and women fearing for their safety in bathrooms and locker rooms against so-called transgender predators.
But it has a carefully cultivated image in the media of legitimacy.
How does ADF get away with it? Part of the reason is that a lot of people aren't aware of its existence or the extreme positions it takes. Also, it has high profile connections in the Trump Administration, a budget of $50 million and a global network of over 3,200 attorneys. And all of that is devoted to creating a carefully crafted image of purity and discipline in the public eye and the media (some of which are very accommodating, i.e. Fox News) while it slowly picks away at LGBTQ rights and safety.
But let's do a visual. The following video is how ADF portrays itself to the public. On Youtube, the organization pumps out incredibly polished videos like so:
That's the image ADF wants you to see. The reality is uglier:
This should serve as a lesson to the community. The threats to our equality and safety don't necessarily come from off-the-wall street protesters. They don't necessarily come from bakeries or florists who won't treat us like regular customers. They come from groups with huge budgets planning behind the scenes to play long games and weave narratives which will cost us our freedoms. It's not paranoid to say that there are people and groups with huge budgets conjuring up plots against us in expensively laid board rooms because that's what happening. It sounds like a silly spy movie, but unfortunately it's reality.
In the fall, the ADF will be arguing in front of SCOTUS again in cases which may decide whether or not companies and businesses can fire us simply for our sexual orientation. I have a hope that good will prevail. But regardless, folks need to get educated and send the word out about ADF.
I look at the ADF like the infamous Koch Brothers. The group is very powerful when it can do its business without notice. The most dangerous thing to the ADF is notoriety. You can steal when no one is watching. When people are watching and know you as a thief, it's not so easy. ADF's unearned sterling reputation partly comes from the fact that not too many people are aware that it exists. I think we as a community should change that.
Because no one can dish out the dirty like we can.
Related posts:
No Gays Allowed - A website devoted to all of the vulgar positions that the Alliance Defending Freedom is hiding from the public
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SPLC profile of the Alliance Defending Freedom
The extremism of anti-LGBTQ powerhouse Alliance Defending Freedom - Media Matters has an exhaustive profile on ADF. Everything you need to know and then some.
Conservative publication PJMedia digs a hole into the credibility of anti-LGBTQ hate groups - A piece I wrote last week. The conservative media network bends over backwards to sanitize ADF.
2 comments:
I have questions: One question is WHY? Why do they need to wage this crusade? Is it purely out of religious fundamentalism? And why do they feel they have a monopoly on what it means to be "christian" in America? Why is their version of christianity and religion given prominence in the American landscape and government? AND WHY ARE ALL THE OTHER CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS AND NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS STANDING BY AND REMAINING SILENT WHILE THE EXTREME FUNDAMENTALISTS TAKE OVER?
Frank,
The question as to why they feel the need to wage this crusade of theirs could also be asked about groups like the Nazis and the KKK waging their white supremacist crusade. As for the question about other people standing up to the misnamed "Alliance Defending Freedom." There are plenty of people standing up to them, Christian and non Christian alike. Sadly its not enough, but part of the problem is that there are some many other important issues out there that even many of the people who are indeed appalled by their bigoted agenda, feel that their time is better spent elsewhere. On the bright side they're still losing overall. A society that has both nationwide legally recognized same sex marriage for the first time, and also for the first time plenty of children and family themed shows with openly LGBTQ characters is a very positive sign. When Bill Clinton was president, he signed the disgusting "Defense of Marriage Act," and even Obama when he first ran was anti marriage equality. Now you will pretty much never see a Democrat run on anti LGBTQ platform, and at the right we're going, within the next fifty years, it should be political suicide for Republicans to call for banning gay marriage ans speak out in favor of discrimination against gay people. We just have to keep fighting to make that happen.
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