In yesterday's post, Minnesota's marriage equality opponents to offer New Jim Crow public accommodation bill, Bluestem looked at the connection between Minnesota's anti-equality advocates and the Alliance Defending Liberty, which is widely credited for writing "New Jim Crow" bills that will allow private businesses to refuse goods and services to LGBT people.
Discriminating against people in providing housing, insurance, goods and services, contracts, health benefits, hospital visitation rights, and employment on the basis of sexual and gender identity has been illegal in Minnesota since 1993. Same-sex marriage became the law in 2013.
Forum News political writer Don Davis reported that a similar bill will be offered in the 2014 session of the Minnesota legislature.
In Watch CNN's Cuomo Call Out The Extremist Group Behind Arizona's Anti-Gay Bill, Media Matters' Luke Brinker documents how the Alliance Defending Liberty has not only promoted the "New Jim Crow" policies against same sex couples, but actively supported other forms of discrimination based on sexual and gender identity as well. Brinker reports:
CNN anchor Chris Cuomo highlighted the extreme anti-LGBT history of the legal organization that helped write an Arizona bill that would allow individuals and businesses to refuse to serve gay people on religious grounds, noting the group's record of opposing LGBT equality under the guise of protecting religious liberty.
As the Religion News Service noted on February 21, the principal drafters of the Arizona anti-gay segregation measure were the right-wing Center for Arizona Policy and the Scottsdale-based Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). Spokespersons from both organizations have commented publicly on the bill, but media coverage has featured scant attention to the strident anti-LGBT positions taken by ADF in particular. . . .
A look at ADF's record supports Cuomo's characterization.
In its earlier incarnation as the Alliance Defense Fund, ADF filed a brief supporting anti-sodomy laws in Lawrence v. Texas, the 2003 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws criminalizing gay sex. The organization has defended state bans on marriage equality and represented business owners who refused to serve gay couples. ADF has also opposed anti-bullying efforts in public schools and declared that a gay-inclusive Boy Scouts of America would be an assault on religious liberty.
Internationally, ADF has defended a Belize law that impose a 10-year sentence for gay sex, applauded India's recent Supreme Court ruling reinstating the country's ban on gay sex, and dispatched its chief counsel to meet with the legislative leader behind Russia's anti-gay crackdown.
Cuomo's decision to hold the ADF accountable for its history of anti-gay extremism is a praise-worthy but rare occurrence in mainstream media. As important as it is to debunk right-wing talking points about these anti-gay segregation laws, it's equally important to make sure that the public understand what kinds of extremist organizations are working to enact these laws across the country.
Other than that, they totally love everybody and everything everywhere.
Image: A meme from last fall's Minnesota Religious Freedom Forum, via Facebook.
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