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| Kay Coles James |
The group has railed against LGBTQ equality for decades, including by supporting discrimination against LGBTQ people under religious exemptions, supporting the Boy Scouts of America’s ban on LGBTQ scoutmasters, and opposing marriage equality. Just this year, the group has hosted five anti-trans panels that pushed misinformation about trans people in an attempt to sway public discourse about trans-inclusive policies like the Equality Act. Furthermore, Heritage employs several extreme anti-LGBTQ figures, including Ryan T. Anderson.
Media Matters also pointed out that James also served as vice president of the Family Research Council, an SPLC-designated hate group due to its constant attempt to undermine and denigrate the LGBTQ community via junk science, cherry-picked science, and out-and-out lies. Recently FRC accused PBS of attempting to targeting children simply because a children's show on the network, Arthur, showed a same-sex wedding. Days before that, the organization falsely implied that transgender children are predators out to harm other children in school bathrooms.
James was recently embroiled in a controversy involving Google. The company invited her to be a member of its Artificial Intelligence ethics board. However, her inclusion was protested so venomously by Google employees and other people that the company ended up disbanding the board. James was interviewed earlier this month by Shannon Bream of Fox News because of the Google controversy. She claimed that she wasn't homophobic because she has a gay son.
Homophobe? I don't think so. You know, I, I, I've never talked about it publicly, but I have a gay son whom I love beyond all measure. And he and his community have welcomed me, have helped me grow, have helped me to understand. There’s no hatred there. That’s my child you are talking about.
One has to ask what growth and understanding is she talking about, particularly when viewing tweets she has sent against the Equality Act.
The page James links to spins all sorts of lies and horror stories about what could happen (but of course won't) if the Equality Act becomes law. The prediction of mayhem if a pro-LGBTQ law is passed is an old, but effective talking point of the anti-LGBTQ industry. But as it pertains to James, for someone who claims to have been welcomed and embraced by the LGBTQ community, she seems to be tone deaf as to the problems we face when it comes to discrimination. It's even worse when one sees how she is passing along information designed to undermine efforts to combat this discrimination.
