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News: Masterminds Behind US Religious Freedom Bills Exposed
Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 14,321
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Masterminds Behind US Religious Freedom Bills Exposed
The current push for expanded state "religious freedom" laws is thanks in large part to the work of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), an extreme right-wing legal group that's worked to criminalize gay sex across the globe.
A $39 million non-profit Christian legal group, ADF bills itself as an organization that works for the "right of people to freely live out their faith." The group has laid the groundwork for "religious freedom" laws across the country, using their legal work to peddle the myth that Christians are under attack by the "homosexual agenda." But behind this religious freedom rhetoric, the group promotes an extreme anti-LGBT agenda, namely working internationally to criminalize gay sex.
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As the "800-pound gorilla of the Christian right," the group has become a fixture on Fox News in stories about "Christian persecution," where the group is perhaps best known for defending anti-gay business owners who refuse to serve gay customers. But ADF's agenda is far more extreme than defending discriminatory florists and bakers in court.
While the group prefers to talk about its "religious liberty" work when in the media spotlight, ADF also actively works internationally to promote and defend laws that criminalize gay sex. ADF's formal support for anti-sodomy legislation dates to at least 2003, before the Supreme Court made its landmark decision in Lawrence v. Texas. ADF, which was at the time still known as the Alliance Defense Fund, filed an amicus brief in the case, defending state laws criminalizing gay sex. In its brief, ADF spent nearly 30 pages arguing that gay sex is unhealthy, harmful, and a public health risk.
Since the Lawrence decision declared anti-sodomy laws unconstitutional, ADF has taken its extremist agenda abroad, working in Jamaica, Belize, and India to support laws that imprison gay people for having sex. The organization annually expands its network of international (and domestic) lawyers at its Legal Academy, a week-long lawyer training event that, among other things, teaches attendees how to "battle the radical homosexual legal agenda." In exchange, the trainees are obligated to provide 450 hours of free legal services over a three-year period to ADF or other organizations "that forward the mission of the alliance." According to ADF, nearly 1,800 lawyers have participated in its training program.
The organization's media kit explicitly supports this radical position, and instructs media to call violent attacks against LGBT people "so-called 'hate' crimes," to refer to the LGBT rights movement as the "homosexual agenda," and to call trans people "cross-dressing" and "sexually confused." The organization's leader, Alan Sears, released a book in 2003 in which Sears claims that homosexuality and pedophilia are "intrinsically linked."
WHAT ABOUT RELIGIOUS FREEDOM BILLS?
While ADF has worked publicly to make the national case for expanded RFRAs, the group is quieter about their coordinated legal and lobbying efforts to pass "religious freedom" laws. ADF first emerged as the driving force behind RFRAs in 2014, when the organization helped write Arizona's SB 1062. The bill, which sparked national controversy and was ultimately vetoed, would have expanded legal protections for businesses refusing service to gay customers. At the time, CNN's Anderson Cooper noted that ADF was behind the "genetic code" of SB 1062 and similar religious freedom laws across the country. MSNBC's Chris Hayes similarly documented ADF's involvement in writing the law, while also noting the group's support for criminalizing gay sex abroad.
ADF has had a hand in helping craft a number of similar RFRAs across the country. Gregg Scott, vice president for ADF, has characterized enacting RFRAs as "a legislator's most important duty." Last year, ADF senior counsel Joel Oster testified in favor of Kansas's RFRA, which was signed into law in April 2013. ADF recently pushed for a RFRA in Colorado, where on March 9 ADF senior counsel Michael J. Norton testified in defense of a "State Freedom of Conscience Protection Act," another license to discriminate "religious freedom" bill that was killed in the Colorado House. ADF also had a hand in writing Georgia's recently tabled RFRA.
The organization also promoted a RFRA in Arkansas, a law they claimed would be "destructive" if it included explicit LGBT protections.
Most recently, ADF helped "advise" Indiana lawmakers during the debate over the state's controversial RFRA. ADF's litigation counsel, Kellie Fiedorek, even stood behind Indiana Gov. Mike Pence during the private ceremony signing the bill into law:
^Oops!
ADF's reach extends all the way to state legislators where ADF alums and even currently allied attorneys introduce and sponsor "religious freedom" legislation. One of the sponsors of a recently introduced RFRA in North Carolina is House Rep. Jacqueline Schaffer (R), who proudly boasts her "continu[ed] involvement in promoting religious freedom" as "an Allied Attorney" with ADF. Similarly, in Louisiana, House Rep. Mike Johnson (R) has introduced the "Marriage and Conscience Act," a virulently anti-LGBT bill that explicitly allows discrimination against same-sex couples. Johnson previously served as a senior attorney and media spokesman for ADF.
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http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/04...e-is-wo/203297
So what was that about bills not being about discrimination? 
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Member Since: 4/3/2014
Posts: 19,477
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Bye
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 14,321
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Brewer dodged a bullet, she'd have let them win and would've lost the Superbowl.
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Member Since: 4/3/2014
Posts: 19,477
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Yo this **** is way too timely to just be popping up around the same time as people putting their names in the race for presidential candidacy.
Makes me wonder if this whole thing has just been a seed planted by the Right for next year's election. This won't be the end of it. This bill will be a big topic in the election debates.
Like bye
You know what I mean?
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 14,321
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Quote:
Originally posted by Rihinvention
Yo this **** is way too timely to just be popping up around the same time as people putting their names in the race for presidential candidacy.
Makes me wonder if this whole thing has just been a seed planted by the Right for next year's election. This won't be the end of it. This bill will be a big topic in the election debates.
Like bye
You know what I mean? |
There was one paragraph I didn't copy because I don't like giving Fox News promo  but basically the organization and them have been in bed since the Arizona bill. ADF files cases they know they will lose (they have filed for rehearings of cases the Supreme Court ALREADY ruled on) just to get media attention and feeds Fox new, juicy headlines. This is ADF's revenge for gay marriage, they used to be an anti-abortion group in the 90s, but started campaigning hard after gays when the Matthew Shepard tragedy happened and were afraid people would be too sympathetic with LGBT after that.
On elections, yes, Cruz is already taking these bills and running with them to please the hardline Evangelical vote.
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 43,331
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Member Since: 8/13/2012
Posts: 32,832
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TRASH 
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 14,321
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Any Croats reading this, these are the people who claimed responsibility for riling up the Church and getting the marriage referendum on the ballot. They bragged about it on twitter, but I reminded them civil unions passed too  A similar group was also traced to the flop Slovak referendum
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Member Since: 9/16/2011
Posts: 50,981
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It never ceases to amaze me how many groups like this exist and how powerful they are, despite the fact that I'm more informed than the average person because the anti-gay movement has been a topic of discussion in numerous classes I've taken.
It's scary ****.
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 14,321
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Quote:
Originally posted by JakeKills
It never ceases to amaze me how many groups like this exist and how powerful they are, despite the fact that I'm more informed than the average person because the anti-gay movement has been a topic of discussion in numerous classes I've taken.
It's scary ****.
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This group is worth almost $40 million...
Luckily courts are starting to hold people accountable, Scott Lively is going to be held for crimes against humanity because he co-wrote a Ugandan bill to stigmatize people there even more 
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Member Since: 12/15/2011
Posts: 9,940
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Member Since: 1/4/2012
Posts: 7,329
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Member Since: 3/16/2012
Posts: 13,657
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The fact that these assholes invade other countries and make sure life is a living hell for LGBT all over the world. 
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 14,321
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Quote:
Originally posted by Eric.
The fact that these assholes invade other countries and make sure life is a living hell for LGBT all over the world. |
They have a Congress Of Families meeting in Russia annually 
We have photos with politicians and quotes from Senate debates, but if only we could get a spy to their VIP-only meetings.
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