Family Research Council manipulates the IRS to have it declared a church while continuing to dip into politics

How's this for a kick in the teeth? According to the investigative journalism site ProPublica, anti-LGBTQ hate group the Family Research Council is now considered a church by the IRS: 

 The Family Research Council’s multimillion-dollar headquarters sit on G Street in Washington, D.C., just steps from the U.S. Capitol and the White House, a spot ideally situated for its work as a right-wing policy think tank and political pressure group. 

 From its perch at the heart of the nation’s capital, the FRC has pushed for legislation banning gender-affirming surgery; filed amicus briefs supporting the overturning of Roe v. Wade; and advocated for religious exemptions to civil rights laws. Its longtime head, a former state lawmaker and ordained minister named Tony Perkins, claims credit for pushing the Republican platform rightward over the past two decades. 

 What is the FRC? Its website sums up the answer to this question in 63 words: “A nonprofit research and educational organization dedicated to articulating and advancing a family-centered philosophy of public life. In addition to providing policy research and analysis for the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the federal government, FRC seeks to inform the news media, the academic community, business leaders, and the general public about family issues that affect the nation from a biblical worldview.”

 In the eyes of the Internal Revenue Service, though, it is also a church, with Perkins as its religious leader. 

 According to documents obtained via the Freedom of Information Act and given to ProPublica, the FRC filed an application to change its status to an “association of churches,” a designation commonly used by groups with member churches like the Southern Baptist Convention, in March 2020. The agency approved the change a few months later. The FRC is one of a growing list of activist groups to seek church status, a designation that comes with the ability for an organization to shield itself from financial scrutiny. Once the IRS blessed it as an association of churches, the FRC was no longer required to file a public tax return, known as a Form 990, revealing key staffer salaries, the names of board members and related organizations, large payments to independent contractors and grants the organization has made. 

The article goes on to point out how FRC and other groups (such at the Liberty Counsel and the American Family Association) manipulate the IRS rules to have themselves declared as churches so that they can hide their financial matters while also actually politicking such as announcing the event below:

You will notice that in the graphic above, FRC is careful to say that it doesn't sponsor the appearance of any candidate for public office or support any candidate. However, no one is stupid as to how this tilts.

On its webpage sponsoring the event, FRC says:

Join Family Research Council and FRC Action for our second annual Pray Vote Stand Summit! We will equip and encourage believers as we discuss current cultural issues impacting faith, family, and freedom and evaluate these through the lens of a biblical worldview. We will cover important topics like protecting the unborn, the importance of the nuclear family, domestic and international religious liberty, and our education system as well as ways we can act and influence these for the benefit of our families, churches, communities and nation. As we do this, the PVS Summit will encourage believers to embrace the true source of our strength, the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word. Join us as we pray, vote, and stand in these challenging days!

ProPublica's article also points out that complaints were made to the IRS about what FRC was doing, but they have been ignored. Nor did the IRS make any agents available for ProPublica when the site submitted questions to them.

But one portion of the article resonated with me and should resonate with the rest of us as we now see the unashamedly open way FRC and groups like it are expanding their power in the name of Christian nationalism:

The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies the FRC, Liberty Counsel and the American Family Association as hate groups for their anti-LGBTQ stances and advocacy. But (the Political Research Associates researcher Fred) Clarkson . . . said focusing on that designation misses the larger sphere of the FRC’s political influence. In recent years, he said, the FRC’s rhetoric and actions have influenced politics away from democracy and in a direction that is “distinctly theocratic.” 

 “Abortion and LGBT issues are not the war,” he said. “They’re battles in the war.”

'Canadian LGBTQ+ youth center attacked by extremist Libs of Tik Tok' & other Mon midday news briefs

Canadian LGBTQ+ youth centre attacked by extremist Libs of Tik-Tok​ - Just a mess. 

Trans woman sues Chick-fil-A after an employee sexually harassed & threatened to beat her up - I hope she wins.

U.N. Steps Up Efforts Against Anti-LGBTQ+ Violence and Discrimination - We will see. 

Most Texas, Florida voters say transgender youth should have access to gender-affirming care - I'm sure the right will push some lies to blunt that response. '

Haters tried. Haters failed. Paltry protestors doesn't stop popular TX drag show

 

Haters tried. Haters failed.

From MSN:

About 100 activists lined the sidewalk outside of Hamburger Mary's, an LGBTQ-friendly restaurant in downtown, Sunday to stand against a handful of anti-transgender protesters from North Texas who came to demonstrate outside a drag show at the restaurant. 

 The dozen or so protesters with Protect Texas Kids, a group that claims children are being “indoctrinated” by gay and transgender activists, were largely drowned out by boos and chants from the counter-protesters who vastly outnumbered them. “Stop the hate, stop the fear, everyone is welcome here,” the crowd chanted. Soon after the protest started, a small group of men, some of them wearing Nazi regalia, arrived to join the anti-trans protesters, shouting homophobic slurs and Nazi slogans across Prairie Street. 

 . . . Outside the restaurant on Sunday, the 100 or so counter protesters danced along to the disco and funk music booming from Hamburger Mary's, holding up large cloth banners to protect patrons from view and cheering when some of the performers came out to take pictures. The anti-trans demonstrators and counter-protesters lobbed insults at each other from across Praire Street, but the standoff never amounted to a physical confrontation. 

(Kelly) Neidert, a well-known conservative activist, said her group traveled from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, to denounce a performance that she acknowledged was taking place at a privately-owned business, but one that she said was “inherently sexual.” “I don’t think parents should be allowed to take their kids to these events, and I think that there should be a law banning it from happening,” Neidert said. 

 The anti-trans demonstrators left Hamburger Mary’s after about three hours, followed shortly after by the counter-protesters. For the counter-protesters, their large turnout, compared to the paltry showing from the anti-trans demonstrators, was proof that Houstonians would not abide hate.

'Far-right pushing lie that Highland Parker shooter is transgender' & other Fri midday news briefs

Far-right falsely says that the Highland Park shooter is transgender to stop gun control push​ - Here we go again. They did that the last time. And I am aware of how spooky it is for me to say 'the last time.'

Texas trans activist, 11, flees the state after years of advocacy - The family did what it had to do, but it's wrong that they have to go.

‘This is disgusting’: Display at Kansas City church defaced with anti-LGBTQ message - For crying out loud . . . 

Couple parted by the pandemic finally gets their happily ever after - This is soooo sweet! 

New anti-LGBTQ group has me 'GAG'ging with laughter - My post from last night because sometimes the best way to combat homophobia is to point out how ridiculous it is.

New anti-LGBTQ group has me 'GAG'ging with laughter

Have y'all heard of this new anti-LGBTQ group called 'Gays Against Groomers.' The group will have you to believe that it is a coalition of gays who think that the 'radical gays' are making us all look bad supposedly sexualizing and indoctrinating kids. It's the old "America would accept and tolerate LGBTQ people if we didn't try so hard to be outrageous' argument on steroids combined with the even older lie that LGBTQ people are 'recruiting' children.

We know nothing about this group except for how it conveniently sprang up on Twitter out of nowhere, appropriates right-wing lies against LGBTQ people, and that the conservative propaganda industry is trying hard to make it seem legitimate.

I say it's all astroturfed bullshit, probably from the same grimy political crevice which created and funds that droll Libs of TikTok. And like Libs of TikTok, 'Gays Against Groomers' uses the modus operandi of mischaracterizing tweets and slandering people as examples of LGBTQ people supposedly sexualizing children.

Or, as the tweet below shows, making up all sorts of nonsense about LGBTQ people, teachers, and drag queens which borders on parody.

Even the name is a joke. 'Gays Against Groomers' or 'GAG' for short? Does the group even know the irony of it all? It claims to be against sexualization while reeking of sexualization.

 If the group isn't legitimate, it wouldn't surprise me. Far right conservatives have a tract record of making fools of themselves when they attempt to portray themselves as  "appropriate gays." Of course if this group is in any small way legitimate, then it's obvious that its either telegraphing some serious internal homophobia or some serious carnal desires which I suggest its members need to take care of instead of pushing up on the rest of the LGBTQ community.

Hating on us ain't gonna get you laid.

'Facebook, Instagram allowing anti-LBTQ rhetoric to flourish on platforms' & other Thur midday news briefs

Facebook allowed dangerous anti-LGBTQ rhetoric to spread across the platform during Pride Month​ - Bombarding us with madness. 

Instagram is allowing accounts to spew hate at LGBTQ people, while also claiming to support the community - Ugh! On Instagram, too. 

How to Support Drag Queen Story Hour With Community-Led Safety - Don't back down an inch. 

Out pro wrestlers racked up titles during Pride month - Not bad. This is significant because it means that pro wrestling groups see LGBTQ wrestlers as money makers. That's why they booked them to win titles.

Rolling Stone article calls out possible ethical breach between SCOTUS justices and anti-LGBTQ hate group

 

SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas wants to revisit decisions favoring LGBTQ Americans. Rolling Stone magazine just pointed out a possible breach of ethics between him and an anti-LGBTQ hate group.

This article from Rolling Stone magazine needs more attention. It underscores just how brazen far right conservatives and some SCOTUS justices are:

At an evangelical victory party in front of the Supreme Court to celebrate the downfall of Roe v. Wade last week, a prominent Capitol Hill religious leader was caught on a hot mic making a bombshell claim: that she prays with sitting justices inside the high court. “We’re the only people who do that,” Peggy Nienaber said. 

 This disclosure was a serious matter on its own terms, but it also suggested a major conflict of interest. Nienaber’s ministry’s umbrella organization, Liberty Counsel, frequently brings lawsuits before the Supreme Court. In fact, the conservative majority in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which ended nearly 50 years of federal abortion rights, cited an amicus brief authored by Liberty Counsel in its ruling. 

 In other words: Sitting Supreme Court justices have prayed together with evangelical leaders whose bosses were bringing cases and arguments before the high court. Nienaber is Liberty Counsel’s executive director of DC Ministry, as well as the vice president of Faith & Liberty, whose ministry offices sit directly behind the Supreme Court. She spoke to a livestreamer who goes by Connie IRL, seemingly unaware she was being recorded. 

“You actually pray with the Supreme Court justices?” the livestreamer asked. “I do,” Nienaber said. “They will pray with us, those that like us to pray with them.” She did not specify which justices prayed with her, but added with a chortle, “Some of them don’t!” The livestreamer then asked if Nienaber ministered to the justices in their homes or at her office. Neither, she said. “We actually go in there.”

Here's something which makes it worse. The Liberty Counsel has been called an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center:

With the expansion of equal rights for LGBT people, especially, the Liberty Counsel has come into their own, working to attempt to ensure that Christians can continue to engage in anti-LGBT discrimination in places of business under the guise of “religious liberty.” 

Through lawsuits and its annual Awakening conference in Orlando, the Counsel attempts to enforce the idea that Christian beliefs and law trump all other law. Staver has warned about homosexuality, abortion, and the consequences for Christians who oppose homosexuality and marriage equality, saying they will be targeted for their views. He even went so far as to call for a new revolutionary war as marriage equality advanced. In March of 2015, Staver stated that he would personally advocate disobedience to any U.S. Supreme Court ruling that favored marriage equality, and that “collectively, we cannot accept that as the rule of law.”

 During the 2015 brouhaha over Indiana’s religious freedom law, Staver likened “the homosexual lobby” to terrorists, claiming that “it’s hard to negotiate with people who are irrational and who are inventing things that simply don’t exist.” He has also supported the criminalization of homosexuality both in the U.S. and in other countries, stating in one instance that Malawi’s anti-homosexuality laws were in its “own best interests” after the U.S. reportedly withheld monetary aid to the country because of its efforts to outlaw homosexuality.

 In the Counsel’s amicus curiae brief in the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas lawsuit in which the Supreme Court decriminalized sodomy, the attorneys writing (including Staver) called for the court to uphold anti-sodomy laws, stating that “This Court again should decline to deprive states of the power to enact statutes that proscribe harmful and immoral conduct.” The Liberty Counsel went on to say that statistical evidence “demonstrates, however, that those who engage in homosexual conduct are at increased risk for numerous diseases as compared to heterosexuals.”

What the Liberty Counsel has done in the past to attack LGBTQ rights deserves special attention, particularly in light of recent comments by Justice Clarence Thomas that the court should revisit decisions made for LGBTQ people, including the outlawing of the sodomy laws. According to the Rolling Stone article, Thomas was as one of the justices the group prayed with.