Category: Courts / Laws / legal

Well-funded Christian group behind US effort to roll back LGBTQ+ rights

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/19/alliance-defending-freedom-lgbtq-rights-america

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

person holding a pride flag above people's heads

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

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.

Members of the far-right Patriot Front at a rally in Washington in May.

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.”

Spain’s new ‘transgender’ law breaks new ground on LGBTIQ+ rights

https://www.euronews.com/2023/04/06/how-spains-transgender-law-is-changing-the-lives-of-those-affected

By Valérie Gauriat  & Davide Rafaelle Lobina  •  Updated: 11/04/2023

A new law in Spain allows people to freely change gender from age 16. Euronews reports on what this means for the children, adults and families concerned.

A new national law for “real and effective equality for trans people” came into force in Spain on 2 March 2023, allowing a person to change their gender identity in the civil register without undergoing a two-year hormonal treatment or obtaining a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria, as required by previous legislation.

Euronews reporters Valerie Gauriat and Davide Rafaelle Lobina travelled to Madrid to hear the testimonies of those who are affected by the law.

Ezekiel: Gender transition ‘not a decision you take lightly’

Ezekiel is a 23-year-old sports coach whose dream is to become a firefighter. But behind his athletic figure lie years of inner struggle, as Ezekiel was born a woman. 

He started his physical transformation after years of feeling like he didn’t belong in his own skin. 

“I looked in the mirror and thought to myself that I couldn’t take it anymore. I needed to talk to people about it, to be recognized for who I was, and that I had to start my transition to feel comfortable with myself”.

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Ezekiel started hormone therapy two and a half years ago, and underwent a mastectomy.

“It’s a big change. It’s like jumping into the void, hoping there is some water below,” Ezekiel told Euronews. “It is a very difficult process. It is not a decision you take lightly.”

Thanks to the new law, Ezekiel is glad that he will be officially recognised as a man. Spain is one of the few European countries that allow citizens to determine their official gender through a simple administrative declaration. 

We followed Ezekiel to the Madrid Civil Register Office, where he submitted his gender change request; he will have a new identity card in three months, aftger ratifying his demand.

“I’m happier than ever!”, he exclaimed, coming out of the Register office.”This will make a lot of things easier. I won’t have to give all sorts of explanations when applying for a job for instance. It will also help with my courses to become a fireman; my diploma will be consistent with my gender,” he explains.

Euronews
Ezekiel Latorre Fernandez, 23, sports coach: “Happy as ever”Euronews

The new law for broke all the locks remaining the previous legislation.

Like the World Health Organization, it depathologizes transsexuality.

And allows self-determination of gender on simple request from the age of 16, and with parental consent from the age of 12.

A first in the European Union. And one of the most controversial points of the law.

“At 16 people can work, have sexual relations, abort; they should also be able to chose their gender”

Spain’s Ministry of Equality claims it’s Europe’s most progressive law LGBTIQ+ rights

“In Spain, at 16 people can work, they can have sexual relations, women can have an abortion if they want”, said  Secretary of State for Equality, Ángela Rodríguez Martínez. “It is reasonable that people should also be able to declare their own gender. In addition, this law dissociates the change of sex in the civil register from the need to take hormones or undergo any type of surgical intervention. In the event of a change of mind, it would just be a matter of canceling the change at the register with all the legal guarantees needed.”

Arguments which do not convince those who feel the new law is too lax.

Vicenta Esteve Biot is  a member of the working group on transsexuality at the General Council of Psychology of Spain. For this psychologist, the abolition of medico-psychological diagnoses for sex change in the civil register could encourage too hasty transitions.

“The problem with this law is that it does not leave time to reflect. It’s not the same thing to follow a process accompanied by a professional who can help you make your own decisions when you need to make them, and not before or in a rush. People need to make well-considered decisions. And not just trans people, but also families. There are parents who take the initiative to avoid the suffering of their children. And it’s just as bad to be ahead of your kids as it is to be behind and holding them back. »

Encarni Bonilla Huete: ‘The problem is society, not gender identity’

Encarni Bonilla Huete is the president of the Chrysallis Association, which brings together families with transgender children who are fighting against stigmatisation. 

“Our youths are increasingly diverse and demand diversity. Either we adapt to it or we move further apart from them,” she said.

She explains that her 12-year-old son Marc “was assigned the wrong sex at birth and that 18 months ago he was able to express that he was a boy.”

Encarni and her husband decided to support his transition, after he verbalised it and asked them for help.

 “I knew I was out of place somehow, but I didn’t know how to express myself. When I started to develop, I felt very bad.I didn’t want to see my body.” explains Marc. And then when I realized I was a boy, I felt much better. My relationship with my parents, with my friends, with myself is now much better. » Asked whether he thinks about the future, Marc briefly ponders and smiles:

“Sometimes I think about what it will be like to take hormones, what people will think of me when I go to school, or what it will be like to work as a trans person. The world may be very different tomorrow. Anything can happen. I try to focus on the present. »

His mother is adamant that the family’s life has changed for the better. 

“He had an inner rage that prevented him from being happy. All that has disappeared, and he’s a very happy child now.” says Encarni. “It’s not gender identity that’s the problem, it is society, which doesn’t accept diversity and doesn’t accept difference. And that’s why it must evolve,” she added.

Euronews
Encarni Bonilla Huete, supportive of Marc’s transitionEuronews

“I’m asking those who are against my transition to let me live my life. They shouldn’t speak about it as they don’t know what it’s like, and I’m asking them to let me be happy,” concludes Marc.

Nebraska forbade cops from stealing cash from motorists, but a loophole let them carry on doing it

Nebraska forbade cops from stealing cash from motorists, but a loophole let them carry on doing it

Seward County has become Nebraska’s capital of “civil forteiture,” in which Sheriffs deputies pull over out-of-state motorists, confiscate any cash they find, and send them on their way without charging them with crimes. Though the state banned the practice years ago, a loophole in the law’s wording effectively nullifies it and there’s little point fighting to get the money back because local courts won’t give it to you.

In the past decade, Seward has seized money in at least 90 state civil forfeiture cases, nearly double any other Nebraska county. In those cases, they initially seized a total of $2.2 million from motorists. Drivers rarely fight to get their money back. Those who do rarely win, according to court records. The $2 million kept by the county was split. Half went to a state fund for schools. Half went to a county fund overseen by a board of police chiefs, the Nebraska State Patrol, the county attorney and the sheriff. Records from meetings of that board, held at a Pizza Kitchen in Milford, detail how they decided to spend the seized dollars.They bought stun guns and bulletproof vests for the Seward and Milford Police Departments. They bought a sheriff’s cruiser with the words “Paid for by drug proceeds” emblazoned on the back. They bought an $18,000 drone for the Nebraska State Patrol. And they recently spent $15,000 on two ballistic shields, bought after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

Thieves, plain and simple. The deputies doing it, the Sheriffs running it, and the judges rubber-stamping it all know what they are up to.

Ron DeSantis Is All In—on Creating an American Autocracy

Ron DeSantis Is All In—on Creating an American Autocracy

His plan to outflank Trump would scale up the calculated system of repression he designed in Florida.

Yet the Republicans want to cry unfair over Biden for political reasons to help trump

Let’s talk about Hunter Biden’s charges….

Let’s talk about Esper talking about Trump….

More news, memes, and comments.

TX Gov Signs Ban On Diversity Efforts At State Colleges

Next on the chopping block.. mandatory wheelchair ramps.

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DeSantis: My DOJ Will Prosecute Diversity Initiatives
One of those “things,” DeSantis noted, would be going after diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. “For example, like the Civil Rights Division, our Civil Rights Division in Justice will do all discrimination,” DeSantis promised. Much of the DOJ Civil Rights Division’s recent work includes targeting hate crimes, discrimination in prison and employer abuses of immigrants

GayOldLady6 days ago

Bootsie sees “diversity inclusion” as a threat to his white heterosexual male, Christian dominance. He must have very low self esteem, a fragile sexual identity and feel inferior to race, gender, ethnic and religious identities that don’t mirror his own. Bootsie is an insecure little tyrant and I bet he’s 🤏

DeSantis Vetoes Flood Control Funds For Blue Counties
With the exception of Sarasota County, all of the counties mentioned above went for Biden in 2020. In Orange, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, Biden won by double digits. Miami-Dade went for Biden by eight points.

In a separate article, Florida Politics notes that DeSantis also vetoed funding for the arts and even playgrounds in blue counties. Yesterday DeSantis vetoed funding for repairs and maintenance of public broadcasting stations.

JoeMyGodMod2 days ago

Not vetoed by DeSantis yesterday: $108 million for his new private army.

Shapiro Host Attacks Fox For Supporting Groups Who Work To Combat LGBTQ Youth Suicide, Homelessness
According to Walsh, a suicide prevention hotline is a “sexually explicit chat room.” His 24-post Twitter thread went viral overnight. Walsh has called the rainbow flag a “symbol of hate” and said that he’d rather be dead that have a trans child. Earlier this year he called for executing doctors who treat trans children.
Elagabalus2 days ago
They make LGBT children’s lives miserable by indoctrinating their parents to hate them, and then when their parents throw them out of the house these monsters complain that there’s someone there to help them. It doesn’t get more evil than that.
Texas Gov Signs Bill Nullifying Local Laws That Mandate Water Breaks For Construction Workers: Cruelty/Point
DeSantis PAC Trains $100M Get Out The Vote “Army”
Mention DeSantis’s wife, Casey, her cancer diagnosis and his military service.

Never before has a presidential effort invested in doors in the way the DeSantis machine is doing. By Labor Day, Never Back Down aims to have about 2,600 trained canvassers in the 18 early nominating states, many with hotel rooms and rental cars, iPads and evolving scripts, not to mention a paycheck from working in a position that is now advertised on job boards as between $20 to $22 an hour.

knock-knock

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Bungee2 days ago

“We want our army out in the field to be able to provide a concierge type of service,” the group’s chief operating officer Kristin Davison said. “There are people that don’t make it through the school. We are not going to graduate someone who is not up to the standards of what we want at the doors.”

Sounds kinda groom-y.
Just don’t try shoving an agenda down my throat.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/06/18/trump-trial-classified-rules/

How government rules for classified papers could help Trump delay his trial

Graymail, ‘Goldilocks rule’ and silent witnesses could help the former president put off case until after 2024 election

The law created a series of pretrial steps that must be taken to decide exactly what classified information will be used in court, and how. Lawyers who have worked such cases view the law as a time-consuming and difficult set of procedures that can be extremely beneficial to any defendant seeking to delay a trial.


Really American 

@ReallyAmerican1


OH THIS IS GOOD!! A Pennsylvania Republican lawmakers lawsuit against a local newspaper just backfired spectacularly, exposing DAMNING 2020 election emails between top state officials and the Trump administration.

State Senator Dan Laughlins defamation lawsuit against “The Erie Reader” opened him up to discovery, and ended up revealing a series of emails pertaining to Trump’s pressure campaign on Pennsylvania Republicans to illegally overthrow the election in 2020.

High level communications between far-right gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, and member of Trump legal team Christina Cobb, is part of the information that’s been released. In those emails, Mastriano expressed his concern that Trump’s proposal to overturn the election was “illegal.”

The emails also detail how Trump PERSONALLY called Mastriano and pressured him to overturn the election, and even furnished false documents about Dominion Voting Systems “rigging the election against Biden” in an effort to do so.

“We’re not saying a word on this crap,” Laughlin said in an email after he got word of the plan, worried about his own parties attempt to unlawfully overturn the election. It seems like the emails implicate Trump in yet another crime. Unreal.
House Republicans Will Try Again To Censure Schiff
DeSantis Vetoes Funding For “Woke” Zoo Upon Urging Of Anti-LGBTQ Rep Who Is Butthurt Over Trans Protest
Fine appeared on JMG in May 2022 when he tweeted what many interpreted as a threat to assassinate President Biden.

Before that, Fine appeared on JMG when he called for felony charges after Florida Democrats staged a sit-in over the racist US House map submitted by DeSantis. 

And before that, he appeared here when he threatened to defund a Florida Special Olympics event and called a local school board member a “whore” because she’d been invited its fundraiser gala and he was not.

Fine was a sponsor of the bill that stripped Disney’s self-governing status. His family owns annual passes to the “woke” theme park giant.

He recently arranged for a Florida town to honor a war criminal who was convicted of executing four Iraqi prisoners. He last appeared here in April 2023, when he declared, “Damn right, we ought to erase” LGBTQs.

Fine is also a sponsor of Florida’s bill criminalizing drag shows in view of minors. Of note, his wife runs a self-described “sultry” burlesque show that would violate her husband’s law.

Ed B2 days ago

So…. The zoo goes “neutral” and that’s “woke”?

Caitlyn Haiku Ed B2 days ago

To fascists, anything that doesn’t directly support them is the enemy.

mikeiver Ed B2 days ago

Anything that is not exuberant support of them is going woke. Expect attack if you fail their purity test.

(((GC))) – End the filibuster! Ed B2 days ago

While the haters loudly call on companies to remain “neutral” in the “culture wars” (rather than acknowledge the existence and equality of LGBTQ+ individuals, and of many kinds of healthy relationships and families).

Jay Silversmith2 days ago
We got it, xtians. You’ve been appointed by god to judge everyone. Everyone is going to hell but you. You’ll all fly up into the sky. Now go the fuck away.

Wintercat Jamieboy Highballs2 days ago edited

One thing that Worf mentioned once, Klingons do not have gods. They did, but they were so troublesome that they killed them. Kahless is just a sort of warrior Buddha, a real person who lived with honor that they try to live up to.

I like that.

MTG: Pride Flags Are Now “Symbols Of Aggression”
“I called them out because the Pride movement is not about rights for gay people anymore, that’s been totally determined for a very long time. Every single American has equal rights.

Doug1056 days ago

A common statement from the religious side of this issue goes something like this “stop shoving your gay agenda down our throats”. In the same breath, they go on to say, “You don’t see us shoving our religion down your throat”.
Well then…
Have you ever had a homosexual knock on your door (usually around dinner time) asking if you have found Elton John?
Have homosexuals ever passed laws that make the government print “In Homosexuality We Trust” on your money?
When was the last time homosexuals passed laws that rewrote the Pledge of Allegiance to say, “One Homosexual Nation”?
Have homosexuals erected a monument with Marc Jacobs’ top 10 fashion rules at your local courthouse?
Have any homosexual groups spent millions trying to pass laws to outlaw marriage between a woman and a man?
Have homosexual activists worked to pass laws limiting birth control, abortion, etc?
Did a homosexual ever prevent you from buying liquor or a car on Sunday?
Is there a book promoting homosexuality in almost every hotel room in the country?
Have homosexuals pushed for laws to make the missionary position illegal?
Have homosexuals tried to pass a law allowing them to legally refuse service to Christians?
Right, they have never shoved their religious agenda down our collective throats.

ic Peterson Doug1056 days ago

Do the homosexual children beat up the straight ones while the teachers pretend not to see?

EdmondWherever Doug1056 days ago

Do we idolize a book which calls for their deaths?

Beagle🌻 Doug1056 days ago

Have the police raided churches and arrested all of the congregants?

Within your lifetime, praying in the privacy of your home been a felony punishable by several decades in prison?

Raymond Neal Doug1055 days ago

You’re right it’s practically all they do. They’re hell bent on converting the world to their toxic religion.

Cops: TN Pastor Stole From Food Bank To Pay Hooker

Union Claims Starbucks Has Banned Pride Decorations

BartmanLA6 days ago

The march of the rabid right terrorists continues, threatening corporations and businesses with everything up to and including potential violence unless they capitulate. Sickening.

Rambie BartmanLA6 days ago

IIRC Anheuser Busch fired some marketing executives before Targer capitulated to them. These “wins” only emboldened them more and now Starbucks.

Strepsi weshlovrcm6 days ago

I am going to Pride this year (I haven’t always) and will encourage everyone to get out in the damn streets. I am hearing sooooo much of this insidious “but not in front of the children” far-right /
Russian / Nazi propaganda, wnich was tired nearly 50 years ago when Anita Bryant called her organization SAVE THE CHILDREN”. In my generation the number of self-identified queer people was 2% – for Gen Z, it’s 20% – we need to be counted!

Trump Admits Republicans Hate Trans People More Than High Taxes

Donald Trump discussed his plans to combat critical race theory and “…transgender insanity” at his speech in Greensboro, North Carolina and received a standing ovation. Trump took note of the reaction: “It’s amazing how strongly people feel about that. I talk about cutting taxes, people go like that, i talk about transgender everybody goes crazy. five years ago you didn’t know what the hell it was.”

Fighting Back Against The GOP War On Trans Rights | Erin Reed | TMR

Sam hosts independent journalist Erin Reed to discuss the recent spate of anti-trans bills working their way through state legislatures across the country. Then they’re joined by Joshua Landis, head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, to discuss Syria’s recent re-introduction into the Arab League. First, Sam runs through updates on the Florida grand jury Trump case, Mark Meadows’ testimony against Trump, the continuing environmental emergency in the American northeast, right-wingers leaving behind their gas stove schtick, Tucker’s Twitter show, and US-Ukraine intelligence on the Nord Stream fiasco, also diving into the absurdity of economists sticking with their decades-old unemployment lies. Erin Reed then dives right into assessing the state of the right-wing’s attack on trans people nationwide, exploring how they got the entire GOP on board despite the topic’s electoral failures, and why Florida is a good case study for the fundamentalist dystopia they want to create. Wrapping up, Erin tackles the similarities we see between transphobic healthcare legislation and abortion TRAP laws, discusses the fight between progressive and fundamentalist states over border rights and trans care, and why parental rights might wind up saving trans lives in court.