Attention focused on the homophobic deeds of the organization Alliance Defending Freedom and the Southern Poverty Law Center naming them and other religious right organizations as hate groups has exploded into a huge controversy. Granted, this controversy is overshadowed by the GOP continuously Keystone Cops-like efforts to repeal Obamacare and the firestorm over Trump’s alleged Russia connections during last year’s election.
Nevertheless, it is huge ado, because now ADF is dragging ABC News into the storm.
From One News Now:
A leading Christian law firm is pushing back against an ABC News story that labels them a “hate group,” describing it as “journalistic malpractice.” Alliance Defending Freedom invited Attorney General Jeff Sessions to a conference on religious freedom last week. In an apparent attempt to link President Trump’s attorney general to some scandal, ABC News – reporting on the AG’s participation in the conference – trotted out an accusation that ADF was an “anti-gay hate group.” ADF’s director of communications, Kerri Kupec, says the phraseology was an old trope made up by the left-leaning Southern Poverty Law Center.
One News Now’s article was a biased, one-sided interview with Kupec whining about how supposedly SPLC is intolerant to ADF’s seemingly innocent goals of “protecting religious liberty.” Usually, I would be crying foul, but not this time.
Kupec, you see, proceeded to put ADF in a hole with the following claim:
In its report, ABC says ADF (according to SPLC) “specializes in supporting the criminalization of homosexuality abroad.” To which, Kupec responds: “I have no idea where that came from. That’s fake news, for sure.”
So is Kupec saying that her organization doesn’t support the criminalizing of homosexuality in foreign countries? Or if we were to parse her words to exact phrasing, is she saying she doesn’t know where that idea came from? If the latter is the case, one wonders if Kupec is lying or has she not checked the history of her employer?
The media watchdog group Media Matters (via its companion site Equality Matters) provided specific examples in 2014 of ADF supporting the efforts in foreign countries (such as India, Jamaica, and Belize) to criminalize homosexuality.
What’s more, a few days ago, another watchdog site, Think Progress, provided specific proof that ADF worked to keep the sodomy laws here in the United States. These were the same laws overturned in 2003 by the SCOTUS case Lawrence vs. Texas. What’s interesting about all of this is that recently, Media Matters pointed out that several right-wing groups and news services are coming to ADF’s defense by attacking SPLC. And just like Kupec, they are avoiding the issue at hand, i.e. the accusations lodged against ADF.
But just like One News Now’s feeble attempt to provide ADF some cover, their attempts will be unsuccessful because the LGBTQ community has truth on our side. And an extensive paper trail backing it up.
But to repeat my question - when Kupec said she doesn’t know where the accusations that ADF supports criminalizing homosexuality in foreign countries came from, was she being woefully ignorant of her organization’s history? Or was she simply lying?