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Glaad said: ‘The ADF is simply an anti-LGBTQ group trying to abuse levers of
government to push discrimination and keep their warped sense of control.’
Photograph: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
Glaad said: ‘The ADF is simply an anti-LGBTQ group trying to abuse levers of
government to push discrimination and keep their warped sense of control.’
Photograph: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
LGBTQ+ rights



WELL-FUNDED CHRISTIAN GROUP BEHIND US EFFORT TO ROLL BACK LGBTQ+ RIGHTS

Advocacy groups condemn Alliance Defending Freedom as ‘a danger to every
American who values their freedoms’


Adam Gabbatt in New York
@adamgabbatt
Mon 19 Jun 2023 11.00 BSTLast modified on Mon 19 Jun 2023 11.44 BST
 * 
 * 
 * 



With the US besieged by a rightwing culture war campaign that aims to strip away
rights from LGBTQ+ people and others, blame tends to be focused on Republican
politicians and conservative media figures.

But lurking behind efforts to roll back abortion rights, to demonize trans
people, and to peel back the protections afforded to gay and queer Americans is
a shadowy, well-funded rightwing legal organization, experts say.



Since it was formed in 1994, Alliance Defending Freedom has been at the center
of a nationwide effort to limit the rights of women and LGBTQ+ people, all in
the name of Christianity. The Southern Poverty Law Center has termed it an
“anti-LGBTQ hate group” that has extended its tentacles into nearly every area
of the culture wars.

In the process, it has won the ear of some of the most influential people in the
US, and become “a danger to every American who values their freedoms”, according
to Glaad, the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization.

‘More extreme, more violent’: experts’ warning over khaki-clad Patriot Front
Read more

Through “model legislation” and lawsuits filed across the country, ADF aims to
overturn same-sex marriage, enact a total ban on abortion, and strip away the
already minimal rights that trans people are afforded in the US.

Under the Trump administration, the group found its way into the highest
echelons of power, advising Jeff Sessions, the then attorney general, before he
announced sweeping guidance to protect “religious liberty” which chipped away at
LGBTQ+ protections.

The organization counts among its sometime associates Amy Coney Barrett, the
supreme court justice who the Washington Post reported spoke five times at an
ADF training program established to push a “distinctly Christian worldview in
every area of law”.

ADF is engaged in “a very strong campaign to put a certain type of religious
view at the center of American life”, said Rabia Muqaddam, senior staff attorney
at the Center for Reproductive Rights.

“[The ADF campaign] extends to abortion, it extends to LGBTQ folks, to
immigration, to what kind of religion we think is America, what kind of people
we think are American,” Muqaddam said.

“It’s as dramatic as that. I think we are in a fight to preserve democracy and
preserve America as a place where we do tolerate and encourage and empower
everyone.”

ADF was founded in 1994 by a group of “leaders in the Christian community”,
according to its website. Among those leaders was James Dobson, the founder of
the anti-LGBTQ+ Focus on the Family organization who has said the 2012 Sandy
Hook mass shooting, in which 20 children and six adults were killed, was a
“judgment” from God because of declining church numbers.

Its leaders remain involved in niche interpretations of Christianity. Kristen
Waggoner, the ADF chief executive, also serves as legal counsel to Assemblies of
God, a church which encourages worshippers to speak in tongues and believes in
“divine healing” – the power of prayer – as a medical tool.

Over the past two decades, ADF has been a main driver in dozens of pieces of
rightwing legislation and lawsuits.

The organization is currently behind the lawsuit 303 Creative, Inc v Elenis,
which the supreme court is expected to decide this month, and which could chip
away at LGBTQ+ rights. It’s a case that is classic ADF – a seemingly
manufactured issue which the group has managed to chase all the way through the
American legal system.

The plaintiff, 303 Creative, is a website design company. 303 Creative has never
made wedding websites, but its owner, Lorie Smith, claims her first amendment
rights are being impinged because, if she were to start making wedding websites,
she would not want to make them for same-sex couples – which would violate
Colorado’s anti-discrimination laws.

Another ADF obsession is abortion. It was involved, Muqaddam said, in crafting a
15-week abortion ban in Mississippi – which prompted a legal case that found its
way to the supreme court – eventually resulting in Roe v Wade, which guaranteed
the right to abortion, being overturned in 2022.

“Alliance Defending Freedom has been instrumental in the dismantling of Roe and
the ongoing efforts to eliminate abortion nationwide,” Muqaddam said.

“They enacted a law that they knew was unconstitutional, they enacted it for the
purpose of generating case after case after case to push it out to the supreme
court until they found a court that was sympathetic to their argument,” Muqaddam
said.

She added: “I think that’s exactly what is happening in the LGBTQ context as
well. Their goal is to limit individual rights as much as possible.”

The ADF website shows the breadth of its involvement in rightwing culture wars.
The organization touts its work opposing abortion, on opposing same-sex marriage
and opposing trans rights.

“We advocate for laws and precedents that promote human flourishing by
recognizing the important differences between men and women and honoring God’s
design for marriage between one man and one woman,” ADF’s website reads.

But Emerson Hodges, a research analyst at the SPLC, said what ADF is really
doing is attempting to “undo LGBTQ social and legislative progress”.

“They go under the guise of religious liberty, and religious freedom. What that
means, though, is this religious liberty to discriminate and the religious
freedom to invalidate LGBTQ individuals,” Hodges said.

Worryingly, there are signs that ADF, and other groups like it, are growing in
influence. As Republican politicians and rightwing media fan the flames of an
extremist culture war, NBC reported that donations to ADF, which is a registered
non-profit, more than doubled from 2011 to 2021.

As it has grown in influence, ADF’s “model legislation” has found its way into
state legislatures across the country, as the group attempts to strip away
LGBTQ+ rights, and the rights of trans people in particular.

> They’ve worked to ban the right to choose, and are in cahoots with other
> extremist groups to oppress marginalized people

Glaad

“Just about every anti-LGBT legislation that you’ve seen probably in the past
decade was probably copied or paraphrased off of a model legislation built by
Alliance Defending Freedom,” Hodges said.

“They provide legal advocacy support, litigation and policy models for
government officials.”

An article on ADF’s website states that it is a “biblical truth” that “men and
women are physically different”, and the organization has duly worked to prevent
trans people taking part in women’s sports.

The group sued a school district in Minnesota in 2016, and in 2021 a judge in
Connecticut dismissed an ADF lawsuit which sought to prevent transgender
athletes competing in high school sports. The same year, ADF backed a lawsuit
brought by a teacher in Virginia who had said he would not use a transgender
child’s preferred pronouns because that would amount to “sinning against our
God”.

In April, ADF, which did not respond to a Guardian request for comment, filed in
Oregon on behalf of a Christian woman who wanted to foster children, but said
she would not agree to “respect, accept, and support … the sexual orientation,
gender identity, [and] gender expression” of a child placed with her, the
Statesman Journal reported.

“[ADF’s] obsession with targeting LGBTQ people is unhinged and drastically out
of touch with supermajorities of Americans who support LGBTQ people and laws to
protect us from discrimination,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and chief
executive of Glaad.

“Everyone should understand the truth: the ADF is simply an anti-LGBTQ group
trying to abuse levers of government to push discrimination and keep their
warped sense of control.

“They’ve also worked to ban the right to choose, and are in cahoots with other
extremist groups to oppress marginalized people. ADF is a danger to every
American who values their freedoms – to be ourselves, live freely, and be
welcome to contribute and to succeed in every area of society.”

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