I think the article is self explaintary and clear.ย The hate directed against the LGBTQ+ seems irrational and immoral.ย Why is it immoral if it is being done by religious groups?ย Because they have no qualms about lying, giving false and misleading information, and forcing their church doctrines on others who don’t agree with those doctrines. Below are just a few quotes fromย the article.ย The last one from florida would make pointing out the truth about how a person is acting or speaking illegal, but doing the racist bigoted stuff would stay legal. Hugs
Anti-trans bathroom bans made aย comeback, with four passed in Alabama, Idaho, Ohio and South Carolina.
Policy changes enactedย barriersย to gender markers and name changes for IDs/personal documents inย Arkansas and Florida.
Florida introduced a bill thatย limited free speech, making public accusations, whether true or false, of a person being homophobic, transphobic, racist or sexist equivalent to defamation and punishable by fine. The bill did not pass.
A central theme of anti-LGBTQ+ organizing and ideology is the opposition to LGBTQ+ rights or support of homophobia, heterosexism and/or cisnormativity, often expressed through demonizing rhetoric and grounded in harmful pseudoscience that portrays LGBTQ+ people as threats to children, society and often public health.
Top Takeaways
In 2024, the number of anti-LGBTQ+ groups increased by about 13% from the previous year. Anti-LGBTQ+ groups maintained a trend in heavy mobilization across multiple strategies with increasing political and financial support from the hard right.
Anti-trans narratives were instrumental to the 2024 election at all levels of government, especially at the local level where anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-inclusive education activism continue to heavily overlap. The politicization of gender-affirming health care and LGBTQ+-inclusive school curricula contributed to what has been characterized as the โmost Anti-LGBTQ electionย in decades.โ Republicans spentย almost $215 Millionย on TV ads to smear trans people,ย surpassing adsย on rival issues such as economy, immigration and housing. Another wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation broke records at state and federal levels, but such bills wereย not as nearlyย as successful as last year.
Anti-LGBTQ+ groups are heavily invested inย the courtsย and pushing policy change by judicial decision. Hard right and anti-LGBTQ+ extremists on social media continue their campaign to โmake pride toxicโ by targeting inclusive business and marketing practices while anti-LGBTQ+ legal groups take up administrative law and lobbying strategies to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion practices in the public and private sectors under the guise of โviewpoint diversityโ and โreligious freedomโ advocacy. ย
Key Moments
Throughout the state legislative sessions, anti-LGBTQ+ movement organizations continued their facilitation of a decades long effort to foment anti-trans moral panic in public discourse. Legislative assaults broke records for the fifth consecutive year, albeit with fewer successes.
Several factors slowed the trend, including coordinated community responses and reporting, such as the SPLCโsย Project CAPTAIN, on the networks that perpetuate anti-LGBTQ+ talking points and legislation๏ฟผ. Legislation trends of concern include:
A Florida billย promotedย insurance coverage conversion therapy for detransition. The bill passed the House, butย diedย in the Senate.
Anti-trans bathroom bans made aย comeback, with four passed in Alabama, Idaho, Ohio and South Carolina.
Policy changes enactedย barriersย to gender markers and name changes for IDs/personal documents inย Arkansas and Florida.
Florida introduced a bill thatย limited free speech, making public accusations, whether true or false, of a person being homophobic, transphobic, racist or sexist equivalent to defamation and punishable by fine. The bill did not pass.
In February 2024, anti-trans influencers spun a disinformation campaign to exploit the tragic shooting at Lakewood Church in Houston by alleging the shooter was trans. Hard-right social media influencers, equipped with talking points that help fuel gun purchases, used this and other mass shootings in 2024 to perpetuate anti-immigrant and anti-trans conspiracy theories. Despite claiming anti-trans activism helps โprotect children,โย the SPLC reportedย that in the wake of mass shootings, anti-trans extremists divert attention from meaningful reforms to prevent gun violence, which is the leading cause of death for children in the United States.
In response to online campaigns by hard-right social media personalities, many major brandsย scaled backย Pride merchandise in 2024. Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) reported anti-LGBTQ+ ย protests at Pride events decreased in 2024; however, GLAAD documentedย 110 anti-LGBTQ+ย incidents during June 2024. In addition, the SPLC monitored at least 74 bomb threats targeting LGBTQ people and events between January 1 and June 30, 2024.
Theย Colorado Republican Partyย posted โBurn all the #pride flags this Juneโ and shared a video clip titled โGod Hate F__s.โ There was no shortage of vandalism: In Poulsbo, Washington, 14 Pride banners were slashed, and overย 200 pride flagsย were stolen from the town center in Carlisle, Massachusetts. Throughout June, SPLC tracked dozens of protests, bomb threats and harassment campaigns directed at civil society groups like Pride committees and LGBTQ+-inclusive religious congregations. Hate groups including MassResistance,ย Gays Against Groomers, Protect Texas Kids, White Lives Matter, and Aryan Freedom Network were active at Pride events in June 2024.
In July and August 2024, anti-trans influencers manufactured controversy over the gender identity ofย Olympic athletesย Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting. Thisย anti-trans controversyย exclusively targeted Taiwanese and Algerian athletes, scrutinizing the legitimacy of their womanhood. The crux of arguments made by the anti-trans actors re-animated misogynoir stereotypes to exclude women of color from being considered women based on white Eurocentric beauty standards of femininity. The series of events suggests eugenics and racism underlie transphobia and exhibited how anti-trans hysteria disproportionately impacts women of color on an international scale.
In September 2024, the anti-LGBTQ+ hate groupย Family Research Councilย held its annual Pray Vote Stand conference. FRC hosted a variety of anti-immigrant commentary ranging from Katy Faust, president of the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Them Before Us, urging attendees to โbreed outโ immigrants and trans people. At the conference, Oklahoma superintendent of public instruction Ryan Walters alleged illegal immigrants were bringing fentanyl into schools; and the summit featured population control myths espoused by both anti-abortion and anti-vax panelists. FRC devoted multiple plenary sessions to anti-trans, anti-abortion and anti-immigrant coded topics.
The election of the first trans member of congress, Sarah McBride, was immediately met with a trans bathroom ban on all restrooms on the House side of the Capitol complex. The resolution was introduced by Nancy Mace and supported by House Speaker and former Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Mike Johnson. Mace postedย anti-trans slursย on X following aย bathroom sit-inย at the Capitol in protest of the bathroom ban. The protesters were arrested and taken to the Capitol Police station; Mace then posted a video showing her outside the stations saying, โSome trโโs got arrested protesting my ban.โ She then began reading them their Miranda rights along with demeaning commentary about the protesters.
States will continue to be labs for experimenting with anti-LGBTQ+ public policy. The legislative early filing period in Texas shows 32 anti-trans bills already filed for the 2025 legislative session. This year will show a continued pressure on erasing trans people from public life. With Donald Trumpโs re-election, federal civil rights enforcement litigation will likely swing against LGBTQ+ inclusion.
Authors of Project 2025 areย being tappedย as cabinet picks for the second Trump administration. Project 2025 is an authoritarian and theocratic road map, and anti-trans scapegoating makes up key policy recommendations.
Background
Anti-LGBTQ+ groups in the United States oppose LGBTQ+ rights but also generally support heterosexism, an ideology that assumes heterosexuality is the only โnormalโ sexuality, and/or cisnormativity, an ideology that assumes oneโs gender identity always matches the sex one was assigned at birth. Anti-LGBTQ+ groups primarily consist of Christian Right groups but also include such organizations as the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) that purport to be scientific. Anti-LGBTQ+ groups in America have employed a variety of strategies in their efforts to oppose LGBTQ+ rights or support heterosexism and/or cisnormativity, including engaging in the crudest type of name-calling.
Anti-LGBTQ+ groups on the SPLC hate list often link being LGBTQ+ inherently to criminal behavior; claim that the marriage equality and LGBTQ+ people in general are dangers to children and families; contend that being LGBTQ+ itself is dangerous and support the criminalization of LGBTQ+ people and transgender identity. These groups also believe in a false conspiracy that LGBTQ+ people seek to destroy Christianity and the whole of society. More recently, hard-line anti-LGBTQ+ groups have promoted their discriminatory laws and policies that limit the rights of LGBTQ people under the guise of religion, blurring the lines between the separation of church and state and discarding anti-discrimination civil rights policies. These same groups have promoted legislative models to push anti-trans legislation into law under a conservative religious assumption that gender can only be understood as either โmaleโ or โfemale.โ
Many leaders and spokespeople of SPLC-designated anti-LGBTQ+ groups have used degrading and derogatory language to describe LGBTQ+ people. Others disseminate disparaging information about LGBTQ+ people that are simply untrue โ an approach no different from how white supremacists and nativist extremists propagate lies about African American people and immigrants to make these communities seem like a danger to society. Viewing LGBTQ+ people as unbiblical or simply opposing marriage equality does not qualify an organization to be listed as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group.
2024 Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate Groups
* โ Asterisk denotes headquarters.
Abiding Word Baptist Church, Revival Baptist Church
Orange Park, Florida
Advocates Protecting Children
Arlington, Virginia
Alliance Defending Freedom
Scottsdale, Arizona
American College of Pediatricians
Gainesville, Florida
American Family Association
Indianapolis, Indiana
Tupelo, Mississippi *
Franklin, Pennsylvania
American Vision
Powder Springs, Georgia
Americans for Truth About Homosexuality
Columbus, Ohio
ATLAH Media Network
New York, New York
California Family Council
Fresno, California
The Campus Ministry USA
Terre Haute, Indiana
Center for Christian Virtue
Columbus, Ohio
Center for Family and Human Rights (C-FAM)
New York, New York*
Washington, D.C.
Chalcedon Foundation
Vallecito, California
Child and Parental Rights Campaign
Johns Creek, Georgia
Church Militant/St. Michaelโs Media
Ferndale, Michigan
Concerned Christian Citizens
Temple, Texas
D. James Kennedy Ministries
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Do No Harm
Glen Allen, Virginia
Faith2Action
North Royalton, Ohio
Faithful Word Baptist Church
Tempe, Arizona
Straight Paths Baptist Church
Tucson, Arizona
Family Action Council of Tennessee
Franklin, Tennessee
The Family Foundation of Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Family Policy Alliance
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Family Research Council
Washington, D.C.
Family Research Institute
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Family Watch International
Gilbert, Arizona
First Works Baptist Church
Anaheim, California
Florida Family Voice
Orlando, Florida
Focus on the Family
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Frontline Policy Council
Atlanta, Georgia
Gays Against Groomers
Fountain Hills, Arizona
California
Georgia
Kansas City, Missouri
Monroe, North Carolina
Vancouver, Washington
Milwaukee, Wisconsin*
Generations
Elizabeth, Colorado
Genspect
Chicago, Illinois
Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment (H.O.M.E.)
Downers Grove, Illinois
Illinois Family Institute
Tinley Park, Illinois
Liberty Baptist Church
Rock Falls, Illinois
Liberty Counsel
Orlando, Florida
Louisiana Family Forum
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
MassResistance
Torrance, California
Pocatello, Idaho
Idaho
Waltham, Massachusetts*
New Jersey
Fort Worth, Texas
Houston, Texas
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Gilette, Wyoming
Lander, Wyoming
Massachusetts Family Institute
Wakefield, Massachusetts
Mission: America
Columbus, Ohio
Montana Family Foundation
Laurel, Montana
Pacific Justice Institute
Sacramento, California
Santa Ana, California
Miami, Florida
Mississippi
Reno, Nevada
Salem, Oregon
Seattle, Washington
Partners for Ethical Care
Chicago, Illinois
Pass the Salt Ministries
Hebron, Ohio
Pennsylvania Family Institute
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Pilgrims Covenant Church
Monroe, Wisconsin
The Pray In Jesus Name Project
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Probe Ministries
Plano, Texas
Public Advocate of the United States
Merrifield, Virginia
Revival Baptist Church
Clermont, Florida
Ruth Institute
Lake Charles, Louisiana
Save California
Sacramento, California
Scott Lively Ministries
Springfield, Massachusetts
Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine
Twin Falls, Idaho
Stedfast Baptist Church
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Cedar Hills, Texas *
Strong Hold Baptist Church
Norcross, Georgia
Sure Foundation Baptist Church
Indianapolis, Indiana
Vancouver, Washington*
Seattle, Washington
Spokane Valley, Washington
Them Before Us
Seattle, Washington
Tom Brown Ministries
El Paso, Texas
True Light Pentecost Church
Spartanburg, South Carolina
United Families International
Gilbert, Arizona
Verity Baptist Church
Sacramento, California
Warriors for Christ
Mount Juliet, Tennessee
Westboro Baptist Church
Topeka, Kansas
World Congress of Families/International Organization for the Family
Rockford, Illinois
I really love how he talks about his job regarding his religion.ย How he is to be a light but not force people to live by his faith.ย It was how the man who saved me when I was 17 by sending me to an SDA church school summer program felt.ย He never sought to impose his faith on anyone, he tried only to show them how his faith helped him and let them decide if it was correct for them.ย Hugs
There is a video at the site linked.ย How ever as you read through this remember that this is the group that wrote project 2025 and the main author of that Christian nationalist screed is Russell Vought who has a powerful position in the tRump administration.ย This is entirely about pushing a fundamentalist Christian lifestyle and worldview on the US public with heavy emphasis on quiverful which ishave as many children as possible for Christian families most of whom in that movement lived impoverished on one income.ย The idea is more kids butts in church pews now leads to more adult butts in those pews increasing tithes and money in the collection plates.ย Church attendance has decreased steadily and this is designed to increase it again.ย ย Plus it removes rights for women and LGBTQ+ families.ย ย The parents get the money only if women / the mothers marry young, forgo an advanced education, stay out of the work place, and have child after child after child like a breeding stock farm animal.ย It is only for the “right or correct types of families” and harms those who are not the “right” kinds of families.ย Plus it is totally racist with the poor people being cut out of the funds.ย The fact is minorities make on average far less than white families due to inherent racism and CRT, which is a real thing.ย Hugs
Last week,ย I wrote about the Heritage Foundationโs Saving America by Saving the American Family: A Plan for the Next 250 Years. The plan is, essentially, to make women drop out of school, marry young, have tons of babies, rely financially on their husbands, be unable to divorce, and wind up in the poor house if they donโt follow these rules. But I wanted to zero in specifically on the policy section of the piece, which comes at the very end and which I havenโt seen get the coverage it deserves. Because what the Heritage Foundation is proposing is a massive cash transfer from poor single mothers to better-off married couples. This really is the plan: Take from the poor to give to the โrightโ kind of families. Make poor mothers work, and pay better-off ones to stay home. Further impoverish single mothers to force them to marry.
The Heritage Foundation wants to eventually end cash welfare as we know it (โCredits designed specifically to benefit poor single mothers may be well intended, but they have proven to incentivize single motherhood in poor communities,โ Heritage laments). They donโt propose totally doing away with welfare benefits here, I suspect because they realize that would be a nonstarter. But they do propose taking resources that currently mostly benefit poorer families and redirecting them to wealthier ones, so long as those wealthier families have married parents. The Heritage proposal would only give its proposed benefits to married couples (policies should โprivilege marriageย as directly and explicitly as possible,โ Heritage writes, emphasis theirs). It would only give benefits to married couples in which one partner works and makes above a certain income. And it would incentivize women dropping out of the workforceโฆ unless theyโre poor or single.
Here are the specifics.
Child tax credits only for married couples who are the childโs biological parents, who are working, and who make at least $30,500.ย The Heritage proposal would get rid of the Earned Income Tax Credit, because that credit gives more money to struggling single parents than better-off married ones, as well as the Child Tax Credit, and replace them with what they call a Family and Marriage (FAM) tax credit of $4,418 per child per year for four years. But this credit would phaseย inย for families once theyโre earning $30,500 per year โ in other words, poor families wouldnโt qualify. It would only go to married parents โ single parents wouldnโt qualify. It would only go to biological parents โ step parents wouldnโt qualify. A person could be working full-time, but even if theyโre earning above minimum wage, they may not qualify for this tax credit.
Bonuses for larger families โ but only for married couples, only for biological parents, and not for the poor.ย Additionally, Heritage proposes a 25% per-child bonus to their FAM tax credit for third children and beyond. But, again, poor families are out of luck, as only couples with at least one working spouse qualify, and that spouse has to make at least $30,500.
More money for higher earners, none for the lowest.ย The FAM credit phases in at $30,500, and goes up from there relative to income. Thatโs right: This is government family support that givesย more moneyย to families that already haveย more money. And it gives the most money to families that are the most stable: Those with two married parents who make more than six figures. The credit doesnโt begin to scale down until a family makes $110,000, and even then, the wind-down is small (beginning at just 5%). Why set up a program that gives people more money as they make more money? Because โthe FAM creditโs phase-in would incentivize work.โ All of this means that a married couple with three children making $400,000 a year would get $14,000 additional dollars from the US taxpayer โ while a single mom making $20,000 a year would get nada.
No help after a childโs fourth birthday.ย As it stands, parents can claim the Child Tax Credit until a childโs 17th birthday. The Heritage plan cuts parents off when their kid turns four. They claim that these early years are when parents need the most help. But children donโt stop needing food and a roof over their heads once theyโre kindergarten age. The Heritage Foundation is clear that the purpose of this plan isnโt to support children, but to incentivize parents to have more of them: โThe FAM credit is designed specifically for families with newborns or young children. Lawmakers interested in family policy may be inclined simply to expand the CTC. However, this approach would be inefficient as a family formation incentive. Only a small fraction of the benefit would go toward new parents, while most of it would go to families that are already formed.โ They continue: โmany other family benefits, such as the CTC, are backloaded to later in life when many parents are on more solid financial footingย and may be past their prime child-bearing years.โ Emphasis mine, because this is truly stunning: The Heritage Foundation only wants to give parents tax credits for their (expensive) children if those parents (mothers) are in their โprime child-bearing yearsโ and might make more babies. Eggs too old? No child tax credits for you.
Pay women to stay home.ย The Heritage Foundation could have proposed a generous paid leave program, which would allow parents of newborns to stay home and care for them in that crucial first year. But their aim is not to make sure that young children receive the best possible care. Their aim seems to be to get women out of the workforce. And so theyโve instead offered a $2,000 per-child credit for one parent (almost always the mother) to stay home and care full-time for her child โ but again, this only applies to married couples where one spouse (almost always the husband) is working and makes more than $30,500 per year. Youโre a single mom who wants to stay home with your child? Tough luck, get to work. Youโre a low-income married parent who wants to stay home with your child? Tough luck, get to work. If the concern really were for children โ if the view really was that young children are best off being cared for at home by a parent โ then this policy would apply to all parents of young children. But thatโs not the concern. The concern is that women arenโt living their lives in the way Heritage deems acceptable.
Fund this whole scheme by getting rid of Head Start.ย Head Start is an incredible program that has had vast positive impacts, increasing high school and college graduation rates, adult incomes, health outcomes, and overall wellbeing. Studies have found it even decreases child abuse and neglect. This proposal would effectively end it, and use the money saved to give tax breaks to wealthy married couples with children.
Pay people to marry young.ย The final Heritage policy is a $2,500 deposit into a savings account for every new baby born in the US โ but the only way to get the full benefit of that money as an adult is to marry well before the age of 30. That is, when an American is born, the government will deposit $2,500 into a savings account for them, which they cannot touch until they either marry or turn 30. At either marriage or age 30, they can start to withdraw from the account, but only over three years โ so about a third of the original value per year. They get the full withdrawal amount each year (roughly one-third of the total account value) if, in each year, they are married but not yet 30. If theyโreย overย 30, whether theyโre married or not, they pay a tax penalty. In other words, to get the full benefit, you have to marry by 27 โ below the average age of first marriage for women (28.6) and men (30.2) alike. Again, the point is not to incentivize marriage; itโs to incentivize women especially marrying as young as possible, despite early marriage being tied to higher divorce rates.
xx Jill
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Again all this is about is a Christian nationalist desire to mimic Russia and remove all LGBTQ+ representation from the public view in the name of “protecting children from porn” as if just being or media representing LGBTQ+ people is pornographic and sexual.ย These people feel anything not straight and cis is sexualizing and abusing children simply because they do not want the LGBTQ+ people to exist. Hugs
Side note.ย Ron got home last night 3-2-2026 about 6 pm.ย I made him a supper of a salad and two hamburgers with the fixings.ย He was so happy.ย I was happy.ย We went to bed and snuggled which made Tupac who has snuggled me every night a bit unhappy but he pressed in from the other side.ย All day Ron and I have been together, unloading the car, doing laundry, Ron started on the floors in the kitchen, and we are making a pork tenderloin, potatoes, brown gravy, carrots, and greenbeans for supper.ย It is so good to have my husband home.ย I understood why he had been gone for the better part of three months but it sure is grand to have him home.ย I feel better, anxieties lower, and happy feeling up. Also for those worried I was not eating which I was not, I ate like a pig at a trough tonight, having a first heaping plate of everything and then going back for a second heaping plate.ย The end of the second one was a bit challenging to finish but I did.ย I offered to pick up the last bits of left overs but ron said he would do it.ย I think he noticed I was trying to hide that I was swaying and wobbleing when I walked due to my pain levels. Hugs
Discussion of gender is not sexualization. Making books available to students that represent the diversity of their experiences and showcase the numerous ways to be a person in the world is not sexualizing them. Such an interpretation says far more about the adults and the perspectives theyโre applying to books than it does about the books or their intended audiences.
Following this weekโs State of the Union Address, House Republicans worked quickly to advance legislation to ban books from public schools nationwide. House Resolution 7661 (H.R. 7661), also known as the โStop the Sexualization of Children Actโ would modify the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 by prohibiting use of funds under the act โto develop, implement, facilitate, host, or promote any program or activity for, or to provide or promote literature or other materials to, children under the age of 18 that includes sexually oriented material, and for other purposes.โ
The bill was introduced by House Representative Mary Miller (Republican, Illinois). 17 additional Representatives cosigned it.
H.R. 7661 is an anti-trans bill, and tucked within its provisions are those that ban books for those under 18 that โinclude sexually oriented material.โ This is the same vague language used in numerous states across the U.S. to ban books from public schools and public libraries. This bill includes โlewdโ and โlasciviousโ dancing as prohibited topics or themes. No such books for young readers exist, but facts donโt matter to a regime seeking total and complete control.
The bill goes on to further define โsexually oriented materialโ asย anythingย broaching the topics of โgender dysphoria or transgenderism.โ The latter is an intentionally harmful word used as a cudgel to harm trans people. Such a broad definition also ensures that this kind of bill could be applicable in any situation where it would benefit the banners. It isnโt a stretch to see a bill like this used to outright ban all books by or about LGBTQ+ people under the guise of it being โsexually oriented.โ
Though this legislation would apply to institutions using funds from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, thereโs little question that it would expand to include all public libraries, not just those in public schools. Weโve already seen this very thing play out across the country.
These local-level policies, alongside state-level policies likeย Iowaโs Senate File 496ย andย Idahoโs House Bill 710โboth still working their way through numerous lawsuitsโprovided the roadmap for the proposal of federal-level book ban legislation. It was only a matter of time, and theย ongoing onslaught of anti-trans legislationย and rhetoric that has grown exponentially under the Trump-Vance regime made this the prime moment.
ย
Discussion of gender is not sexualization. Making books available to students that represent the diversity of their experiences and showcase the numerous ways to be a person in the world is not sexualizing them. Such an interpretation says far more about the adults and the perspectives theyโre applying to books than it does about the books or their intended audiences.
You can read theย full text of H.R. 7661 here, including its list of cosponsors. Right now, your best way to have your voice heard about this hateful and discriminatory bill is to call your House representatives and urge them to veto this bill at every opportunity. There are yearsโ worth of resources from which you can pull about where and how all of these bills are calculated and targeted, and you can pull from the numerous ongoing lawsuits challenging similar bills and policies at the local and state level. Let your lawmakers know that youโre watching them and their voting records, especially if theyโre among the roster of those proposing the legislation.
These bills arenโt about removing books; books are just one of the tools. These bills are about the complete and total erasure and removal of queer people from American life.
Don't be fooled by this bill's name– this is a book banning bill that will exclude LGBTQ books from all public schools NATIONWIDE.Call your congresspeople and tell them to VOTE NO on this nakedly bigoted book banning bullshit. http://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-c…
The conflation of porn and LGBTQ (but specifically trans) issues is purposeful. It's part of the Project 2025 plan to criminalize LGBTQ+ ppl.It starts with books. It moves to bathrooms. Then it moves to govt IDs. We're in it already.You don't need to be an expert to see where this goes next.
Nazi Republican Mary Miller who has quoted Hitler in the past now wants to ban strippers in public schools…and she's all in with banning any book that dares mention LGBTQ+ issues…www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/02/gop-…
Texas is at the forefront of pushing Christian nationalism along with all its prejudices. Misogyny, strict gender stereotypes, and enforcedย being straight.ย ย They require young people to marry in opposet gender marriages and produce as many children as possible.ย Why?ย It promotes their faith while filling church pews which funds more money for the church.ย Hugs
Suit against Debra Lynch is latest from Texasโs Republican attorney general amid ongoing attacks on abortion pills
Ken Paxton, Texasโs attorney general, outside the US supreme court in Washington DC on 1 November 2021.ย Photograph: Rod Lamkey/Newscom via Alamy
As part of its ongoing crusade against abortion pills,ย Texasย sued a nurse practitioner on Tuesday, accusing her of shipping pills into Texas in defiance of the stateโs abortion ban.
The nurse practitioner, Debra Lynch, operates a Delaware-based group called Her Safe Harbor, which mails abortion pills to women living in states with abortion bans. Now, Texas wants a court to block Lynch from โperforming, inducing or attempting abortionsโ in Texas, on the grounds that Texas law only permits physicians to facilitate abortions in cases of medical emergencies.
Groups like Her Safe Harbor have proliferated in the four years since the US supreme court overturnedย Roe v Wade, as Delaware and a handful of other blue states have enacted so-called โshield lawsโ. These laws typically aim to protect abortion providers from out-of-state prosecutions, lending legal cover to providers who ship pills across state lines.
But such efforts have enraged anti-abortion advocates and sparked a legal war between states that protect abortion rights and states that ban the procedure. Texas has already sued a New York-based doctor, Margaret Carpenter, over allegations that she mailed abortion pills into the state, while Louisiana has indicted both Carpenter and a California-based doctor namedย Remy Coeytaux. Officials in New York andย California, which also have shield laws on the books, have refused to cooperate with those efforts.
Theย safeguards offered by each stateโs shield law vary. Eight states, including New York and California, clearly allow providers to use telemedicine to prescribe abortion pills to patients located in states where the procedure is banned. But legal experts have questioned whether Delawareโs shield law, which was first passed in 2022, always protects providers who offer telemedicine across state lines.
Delawareโs law was expanded in late 2025, in part to clarify that officials may not aid out-of-state investigations into abortion providers โย a move that may offer Lynch additional protection. The Texas case may then depend on when, exactly, Lynch mailed abortion pills into the red state, according to Mary Ziegler, a professor at the University of California, Davis school of law, who studies the legal history of reproduction.
But, Ziegler added: โIt doesnโt sound like they know when any of the abortions happened.โ
The cases against Carpenter and Coeytaux largely rest on allegations of specific abortions. The Texas case against Lynch, however, focuses on media reports that feature Lynchย saying she mails pills to Texansย orย advises Texansย who want abortions.
After Ken Paxton, the Republican attorney general of Texas, sent a cease-and-desist letter to Her Safe Harbor and other abortion-providing groupsย in August, Lynch said she had no plans to stop mailing pills. In fact, in the hours after news of the letter broke, the group received more than 150 requests for pills from Texas, Lynch said at the time.
โNone of our providers are primarily concerned with our own wellbeing or our own legal status,โ Lynch previously told the Guardian. โAll the horrors that women are facing because of these ridiculous bans and restrictions outweigh anything that could possibly happen to us as providers, in terms of a fine or a lawsuit or even jail time, if it were to come to that.โ
Lynch did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
I often say that a lot of anti-trans anti-gay anti-LGBTQ+ people have their feelings because they don’t feel different from the cis straight majority so can’t understand or accept that such things because they simply don’t feel that way.ย If they don’t feel it it can’t be real which is the same with how many white people feel about racism.ย Remember the old question of how do you know you’re gay or trans or lesbian or nonbinary or what ever simply because the people who grew up straight and cis felt normal in society?ย But if you ask them when they knew or how they knew they were straight and / or cis they are confused. If a boy at 10 comes out as gay the parents freak out, but if that same kid starts showing interest in girls the parents are ecstatic about their boy growing up.ย Why the difference?ย Because one fulfills their expectations and the other … well it just is not like them.ย It simply comes down to tradition and what feels normal for them.ย Every person who asked me if I tried to change my sexual orientation and there have been so many, to them I ask have you?ย They act offended.ย Why would I do that and I reply, then why should I.ย Then if they persist for some reason that I should do conversion therapy I ask could they convert from their straight / cis desires to being LGBTQ+?ย Again they are stunned why they would do that and instantly claim not I couldn’t do that.ย Then again why ask me to do it?ย Hugs
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On Oct. 7, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments inย Chiles v. Salazar, a case that challenges Coloradoโs ban on conversion therapy.
Shortly after, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) sent an email to their supporters quoting Paul in Ephesians 6:12: โFor our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.โ
The email goes on to say, โYou might think that a law like this might be just a โColorado problem.โ Sadly, laws like this exist in 22 other states,โ referencing other parts of the U.S. that have instituted conversion therapy bans.
This sort of language about conversion therapy is nothing new for the Christian legal group representing Kaley Chiles. Unlike most legal organizations, ADF is sharply anti-LGBTQ. Since their inception over 30 years ago, the group has fought toย maintain anti-sodomy laws, uphold the right toย discriminate against gay couplesย andย overturn Roe v. Wade.
In recent years, a major element of their fight has been to legalize the discredited practice of conversion therapy.
The Supreme Court appears poised to rule in favor of ADF, which could effectively invalidate conversion therapy bans for minors by licensed professionals across the U.S. This victory would add to the organizationโs already-high win streak, whichย they sayย is around 80%.
โI donโt think anyone is undermining LGBTQ rights as relentlessly as ADF,โ Peter Montgomery, research director at the advocacy group People for the American Way, told Uncloseted Media and GAY TIMES. โTheyโre shaping the culture for generations to come.โ
Althoughย nearly everyย major medical association has denounced conversion therapy, ADF is arguing that disallowing the practice is a violation of the U.S. Constitutionโs First Amendment.
โThis case is part of its crusade to turn religious freedom into a license to harm others,โ says Amy Tai, the co-author of an amicus brief in Chiles v. Salazar that is urging the Supreme Court to uphold the Colorado law. โIt is part of a larger effort and movement to harm LGBTQ people and strip them of their constitutional rights.โ
ADF, originally the Alliance Defense Fund, was founded by evangelical anti-gay activists in 1994. Alan Sears, their former CEO and president, co-authored โThe Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today.โ The bookย callsย homosexuality a โdisordered sexual behaviorโ and equates it with pedophilia and states that gay people on college campuses are involved in โthe promotion of sexual relations between adults and children.โ
D. James Kennedy, another founder, hasย preached about โreparativeโ therapyย for gay folks. In a 1993 fundraising letter for his Christian media organization Coral Ridge Ministries,ย he askedย โWould you want your son, daughter, or grandchild sharing a shower, foxhole, or blood with a homosexual?โ
A third founder was the late James Dobson, whoย advised several presidentsย and argued that conversion therapy could โcureโ people.
Since ADF launched, many powerful political figures with anti-LGBTQ beliefs have worked for them. While working as an ADF spokesperson between 2002 and 2010, House Speaker Mike Johnsonย described gay folksย as โdestructiveโ and argued that support for homosexuality could lead to support for pedophilia.
Kristen Waggoner speaking at a press conference in 2018 (Groversawit)
And their current president,ย Kristen Waggoner, has delegitimized the harm conversion therapy causes by defining the practice as merely having conversations.
Today, their influence in the U.S. government is stronger than ever, with ties to all three branches. In addition to Speaker Johnson, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett has beenย a paid speaker for ADF at least five timesย since 2011. And in May,ย President Donald Trump appointedย Waggoner to the newly-formed Religious Liberty Commission.
All of these resources and connections are employed to advance an anti-LGBTQ agenda. โThey want to see what they see as the God-defined order for gender and marriage be imposed into law,โ Montgomery says. โThey are trying to create a legal regime in which people can claim religious beliefs to opt out of laws that apply to everyone else.โ
History of Fighting to Criminalize Homosexuality and Legalize Conversion Therapy
Over time, ADF has incorporated these viewpoints into their litigation to try and dismantle legal protections for LGBTQ people.
โJust 20 years ago, they were still arguing in court that states should be able to criminalize gay people,โ says Montgomery.
In 2000, for example, ADFย fundedย amicus briefs in Dale v. Boy Scouts of America, a case where an assistant scoutmaster sued the Boy Scouts after the organization revoked his membership for being gay. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of ADF.
In 2003, when support for gay marriageย was still lowย in the U.S., theyย filed an amicus briefย to uphold the criminalization of gay sex in Lawrence v. Texas, arguing that the state has a right to regulate โpublic health and morality.โ The group lost the case and sodomy laws were banned nationwide.
As public opinion changed and gay marriage became legal across America in 2015, ADF shifted to more nuanced arguments. โNow, because they know that most Americans favor LGBTQ equality, theyโve really reframed their arguments [around] religious liberty and free speech,โ says Montgomery.
The organization has since set its sights on overturning state bans on conversion therapy. In 2018, ADF Senior Counselย Matt Sharp arguedย against a California bill that classified conversion therapy as fraud. And in 2019, theย group sued New York Cityย for a similar law, which led the city to reverse the ban out of fear the case would reach the Supreme Court.
A few years later, in 2021,ย ADF fought to overturnย a statewide conversion therapy ban in Washington, where they represented Christian therapist Brian Tingley. In this instance, they argued that Washingtonโs law censored Tingley from speaking about gender dysphoria.
Aย federal appeals court unanimously upheld Washingtonโs law, with Circuit Judge Ronald Gould shutting down ADFโs argument, writing that: โWashington, like other states, has concluded that health care providers should not be able to treat a child by such means as telling him that he is โthe abomination we had heard about in Sunday school.โโ
Learning from their mistakes, ADF tried again with Chiles v. Salazar, claiming the Colorado law discriminates against Chilesโ viewpoint. Chiles is an evangelical therapist whoย received her counselingย training and education from a seminary.
Inย their argumentsย to the Supreme Court, ADF says the conversion therapy ban encourages therapists to help minors explore LGBTQ identities and condemns assisting patients to align with their assigned gender.
Though intended to ban conversion therapy for all LGBTQ people, ADFโs case focuses on gender identity, capitalizing onย souring U.S. public opinionย on trans rights.
โChiles believes that people flourish when they live consistently with Godโs design, including their biological sex,โ ADF wroteย in a petitionย to the Supreme Court.
โADF has tried to draw a connection between laws prohibiting conversion therapy and states attempting to force mental health professionals or doctors to treat transgender youth,โ Christopher Stoll, senior staff attorney at the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, told Uncloseted Media and GAY TIMES. But if the law passes, conversion therapy would become legal to practice on all LGBTQ people.
Another part of ADFโs success stems from manufacturing legal battles to advance cases that match their goals.
Chiles, for example, had not incurred any legal penalty from the Colorado district attorney. Instead, ADF filed a pre-enforcement lawsuit, claiming that she had censored herself and stopped accepting patients for conversion therapy following the lawโs passage.
โAll of these cases are, in a sense, made up cases. โฆ Theyโre brought on behalf of therapists who have not actually been subject to any kind of investigation or penalty by either state or local governments,โ says Stoll, who is representing Kansas City, Mo. as ADF and Missouriโs Attorney General challenge the cityโs ban on conversion therapy.
This strategy is what makes ADF stand out. Montgomery says that unlike many other legal organizations, ADF also helps file lawsuits and writes the bills that directly challenge precedents and legislation they hope to change.
This was in part how they were effective in overturning Roe v. Wade. ADF drafted the Gestational Age Act, which banned abortion in Mississippi after 15 weeks of pregnancy. That law then became the central point of the Dobbs case, which overturned abortion rights nationwide.
โTheyโre just engineered to test these legal arguments, when really no dispute has arisen,โ says Stoll.
When asked for comment, an Alliance Defending Freedom Media Relations Specialist redirected Uncloseted Media to aย websiteย criticizing the Southern Poverty Law Center, saying the group mischaracterizes ADF as a hate group.
How ADF Operates Globally
ADFโs efforts to dismantle conversion therapy and LGBTQ rights span far beyond the U.S. Alliance Defending Freedom International (ADFI)ย boasts about effortsย in 70 countries, where they push anti-LGBTQ legislation as far as possible in each country.
In 2012, ADFโs then-legal counsel Piero Tozziย spoke at a conference in Jamaica, advocating for the prohibition of gay sex, stating that the โretention of the legislation prohibiting sodomy is a bulwark against this agenda.โ And in 2013, members ofย ADF defended a statute in Belizeย that characterized LGBTQ sex as โcarnal intercourse against the order of nature.โ
โTheyโre one of the most powerful and influential Christian right religious extremist groups that we have operating in Europe,โ Neil Datta, executive director of the European Parliamentary Forum on Sexual and Reproductive Rights, told Uncloseted Media and GAY TIMES.
Datta says with offices in six cities with international human rights centers, ADFI contacts political allies throughout the continent, feeding them legal briefs and direct arguments. Then, those partners take that information and rejig it to align with their countryโs political discourse.
โTheyโre hiring Europeans, training them in the American model of social issues litigation from an anti-rights perspective, and then hoping that [they] will be running with this in European courts,โ Datta says. โThey bring know-how and capacity to the continent.โ
Datta says the U.S. is where the organization conducts its litmus tests for anti-LGBTQ laws and legal arguments: โIn the U.S., you have 50 little courts that you can try things out in,โ he says. โ[ADF] has their own range of different areas that they would like to be active in, and they hunt for opportunities where they can make some progress.โ
That includes the defense of Finnish politician Pรคivi Rรคsรคnen,ย who in 2021ย was tried for hate speech for condemning a Lutheran church for supporting a Pride event. With ADFIโs assistance, Rรคsรคnen wasย acquittedย in 2023.
Making Headway to Ban Conversion Therapy Abroad
While ADFI has yet to succeed in overturning conversion therapy bans in Europe, Datta says some politicians with links to the group have promoted reintegrative therapy, another form of therapy thatย attempts to help folksย suppress same-sex attraction. While the term attempts to distance itself from conversion therapy, it uses similar procedures to theย condemnedย practice.
However, Datta says ADFI is taking steps to shift the discourse by lobbying against the Digital Services Act, a European Union regulation for online hate speech.
In October, ADFI pennedย a letterย to the European Commission asking the organization to review the law. ADF has also posted various blogs on the legislation,ย one posing a hypotheticalย about gender identity, stating, โLetโs say you went on Facebook โฆ to post something as common sense as believing that there are only two genders. โฆ If someone were to report that as hate speech, the E.U. could pressure Meta โฆ to remove the post lest it face those stiff financial penalties.โ
ADFI has also expanded its horizons to Africa. In May, Bettina Roska, an ADFI legal officer based in Geneva,ย joined a consortium of anti-LGBTQ advocates in a Pan-African conference on โfamily valuesโ in Nairobi, Kenya.
โThey are trying to do the same thing in Africa, around the African Union, and the African human rights system,โ Jamie Vernaelde, senior researcher at Ipas, a non-governmental organization that focuses on reducing the harm of U.S. foreign policy, told Uncloseted Media and GAY TIMES.
Back in the U.S., the Supreme Courtย will ruleย on Chiles v. Salazar before the end of its current term next year. Their decision will potentially clear the way for conversion therapy to be practiced nationwide and abroad.
Vernaelde says that if Chiles v. Salazar is successful, ADF is hoping to bring their fight against conversion therapy worldwide in the same way they are expanding their anti-abortion lawsuits. Today, the group is attempting toย undo abortion protectionsย in the U.K. with the help of allies in the countryโs right-wing Reform party.
โThis is a template that they can use in other places that they can spread as widely as they want through their networks,โ says Vernaelde.
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Just like maga a small very vocal group of people are demanding the entire country roll back all progress made since the 1950s by minorities.ย Any new discovery by science no matter the field because it clashes with their holy book which they misread to form their warped view of reality.ย They do not care to let other others live their lives as they get to live theirs in peace and freedom.ย No they demand that everyone follow and live by their church doctrines because that way their god will favor them, come back sooner to give them rewards while killing the rest of us.ย ย Think of it, these people are OK with creating a situation where the majority die horribly to please his god as long as they get rewarded.ย Seems selfish to me not Christian.ย Also another important point is the constant repeating of the Christian surge of republican voters despite it being a lie is to shore up the idea that there was voter fraud that stole the midterms from the republicans.ย Think of it tRump people used a normal occurrence of vote totals shift as mail in votes are counted as evidence of fraud leading to the Jan 6th insurrection.ย Below I will post a quote from the article that will be used by republicans to show the democrats stole the midterms.ย ย Hugs.ย ย
Even as GOP leaders who can read a poll know that the upcoming elections are not looking good for their party, this fantasy of a Christianizing America is leading the everyday MAGA faithful to believe otherwise. A September poll from Septemberย showsย that 89% of Republicans think their party will win the midterm elections, which is up seven points from April. In fact, the party is forecast toย lose seatsย as its support continues to erode under Trumpโs chaotic mismanagement.
A United States and Christian flag are sandwiched together (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Turning Point USAย ended 2025 with AmericaFest, a blowout conference for theย MAGAย powerhouse organization started in 2012 by the now-deceasedย Charlie Kirk. Asย describedย by Teresa Wiltz at POLITICO, โthe vibe felt less like a political panel than an evangelical revival.โ Watching the speeches from this fireworks-laden shindig, Wiltzโs observation felt like an understatement. Many speeches from the eventโs main stage were simply sermons extolling a fundamentalist, evangelical Christianity as the one true faith.
โWeโre here for one name, and thatโs Jesus,โ declared Bryce Crawford, a 22-year-old whoย makes videosย of himself accosting strangers, including mentally ill homeless people, under the guise of โwinning soulsโ for Christ. He went on declare that โweโre in the last daysโ and that every person who doesnโt believe in his version of the gospels will soon โbe cast into hell.โ
โWeโre all on our knees, shoulder to shoulder, under the blood of Christ,โย proclaimedย the British comedian Russell Brand, who isย facingย seven charges of sexual assault, including three rape charges, in the United Kingdom. He includedย Ben Shapiro, by name, in his list of believers, even though Shapiro is Jewish. He then proceeded to insist that Christianity is the key to resolving theย conflictย between Israel and Gaza, which have primarily Jewish and Muslim populations.
Even rapperย Nicki Minaj, newly out as MAGA, understood the primary assignment was talking up Christianity,ย claimingย that she has had โthe kind of faith that you think a person is crazyโ since she was a little girl.
AmericaFest, as its name implies, is supposed to be a political event, not a church service. By including speakers like Shapiro and Ohio gubernatorial candidateย Vivek Ramaswamy, who is Hindu, TPUSAโs organizers were even nodding to the idea that the GOP is supposed to believe in religious freedom and diversity. Or, as Vice President JD Vanceย put it, โWeโre all part of the same American family.โ Yet he quickly undercut that message by proclaiming that โBy the grace of God, we will always be a Christian nation.โ While Vance may claim that you donโt have to be a Christian to be an American, implicit in his words is the idea that only Christians are truly Americans, and everyone else is, at best, second class.
The blunt reality is that AmericaFest wasnโt just overtly religious โ it was steeped inย Christian nationalism. They equated being an American with being a Christian. But being aย Republican, as Crawford suggested in his speech, is synonymous with being an evangelical Christian whose main duty is to convert non-believers. The political message of the event was inseparable from a religious one: that the purpose of the GOP and the MAGA movement is to usher in a religious revival and turn a decadent, secular country into one devoted to a narrow, right-wing version of Christianity.
For decades now, theย Christian rightย has been the most powerful and influential force in the GOP, and yet even by their standards, this marked a dramatic shift toward the theocratic impulse. From a purely rational perspective, this is bad politics. Only 23% of Americansย identifyย as evangelicals. Trump was able to win in 2024 only by convincing large numbers of people outside of evangelical Christianity that he has a secular worldview. This was aided by the fact that he quite clearly doesnโt believe all the Christian language, both coded and overt, his aides coax him to say.
The hype at AmericaFest suggests they are pinning their hopes on this imaginary religious awakening to deliver big wins to the Republicans in Novemberโs elections.
But none of that seems to register with MAGA leadership right now. Theyโve convinced themselves โ or at least are trying to persuade their donors and followers โ that the U.S. is undergoing a massive religious revival.ย Right-wing mediaย has been pushing the view that huge numbers of Americans, especially young Americans, are converting to fundamentalist Christianity. The hype at AmericaFest suggests they are pinning their hopes on this imaginary religious awakening to deliver big wins to the Republicans in Novemberโs elections.
As my colleague Russell Payne and Iย reported onย in November for Salonโs โStanding Room Only,โ Fox News in particular has been running a number of stories claiming a โCharlie Kirk effectโ โ that the MAGA influencerโs killing in September led to a tidal wave of Americans, especially young Americans, discovering or returning to Christianity.
Since then, thereโs been a constant drumbeat of similar claims from right-wing media. โGen Z embracing faith as more young people return to religion,โ Fox Newsย declaredย again on Dec. 21. NewsNation ran a new year segment thatย reportedย a โreligious revivalโ was taking place among the young. This follows manyย similar segmentsย from both channels dating back months, allย swearingย to their largely elderly audience that the Zoomers areย flooding church services, despite what they may be seeing at their own local congregation. Conservative ministers keepย insistingย on social media that waves of young people are converting, even as no such numbers show up in surveys with more rigorous research methods.
Much of AmericaFest was also devoted to propping up the narrative that young adults are giving up sex and secularism for Christian nationalism in record numbers. Anti-trans activist Riley Gaines, 25, spokeย about how Christianity calls on women to โGet married, have babies, have as many as you can and as early in your married life as you can.โ Pastor Keenan Clark, 30, preached, โIf you have not submitted to the lordship of Jesus Christ, though you were a conservative, you will find yourself in the bowels of a devilโs hell.โ Angela Halili, 29, and Arielle Reitsma, 36, hosts of the โGirls Gone Bibleโ podcast, preached about saving sex for marriage because โsexual immorality is the only sin that you commit against your own body.โ
The presence of Halili and Reitsma is a big clue that this Christian hype may be rooted in something other than an outpouring of faith. As Iย reportedย last year, thereโs overwhelming evidence that the two podcast hosts were working as poker girls โ women who make money at underground poker games by offering flirting and often much more to male players โ while launching a Christian channel devoted to preaching the virtues of chastity to young women. Whatever they personally believe, their entire endeavor is rooted in dishonesty, a sin the Bible tends to have more to say about than sexual โimmorality.โ
There isย no evidence-based reasonย to believe thereโs a religious revival among the young that is about to create massive election windfalls for Republicans. On the contrary, a Decemberย reportย from Pew Research found that, โOn average, young adults remain much less religious than older Americans. Todayโs young adults also are less religious than young people were a decade ago.โ
But thereโs little doubt that the kind of people who write massive checks to organizations like TPUSA โ wealthy, older Republicans โ are very interested in hearing that thereโs a religious revival in the U.S. Itโs worth remembering that TPUSA beganย as a secular organization, but in 2020, Kirkย started to shiftย to the Christian nationalist cause, arguing there should be no separation between church and state. With this newly religious agenda, moneyย started to pourย into TPUSA. Better yet, Kirk nabbed the support of extremely rich Republicans, with half of TPUSAโs $55 million haul in 2020 coming from 10 anonymous donors. In contrast, the organization raised only $8 million in 2016.ย
TPUSA and right-wing media arenโt the only groups that have a strong interest in creating the illusion of a mass revival swelling among Americaโs young. Conservative Christian audiences are notoriously gullible, so thereโs a big market out there for attention-seekers and outright grifters to cash in using social media. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok are awash in young people claiming they have access to Biblical prophecy or know how to perform exorcisms, or who, like the hosts of โGirls Gone Bible,โ pair glamorous packaging with claims that young people are embracing an especially sex-free and fundamentalist Christian faith.
There are various degrees of sincerity in these influencers, yet one thing is undeniable: They are exploiting huge audiences of conservative Christians who want desperately to believe in a religious revival and would rather give their time and money to people who are telling them itโs real than to look at the statistics that show that itโs not.ย
Between groups like TPUSA, right-wing media outlets and social media influencers, thereโs now an entire machinery propping up this false narrative that young people are stampeding into the pews. Even as GOP leaders who can read a poll know that the upcoming elections are not looking good for their party, this fantasy of a Christianizing America is leading the everyday MAGA faithful to believe otherwise. A September poll from Septemberย showsย that 89% of Republicans think their party will win the midterm elections, which is up seven points from April. In fact, the party is forecast toย lose seatsย as its support continues to erode under Trumpโs chaotic mismanagement. But none of that matters: TPUSA is here to take Republicansโ money and sell them a story about how all the kids are coming to Jesus โ and to the GOP.
Ellie House and Mike Wendling Gainesboro, Tennessee
BBC/Ellie House
Real estate developer Josh Abbotoy on the site of his planned future development outside Gainesboro. Abbotoy’s customers, including two self-described Christian nationalists, have caused controversy locally
As Josh Abbotoy gazes out at lush green woods and pastureland nestled among Tennessee’s Appalachian hills, he describes what he intends to build here: a neighbourhood with dozens of residential lots, centred around a working farm and, crucially, a church.
“A customer might very well buy and build roughly where we’re standing right now,” he says as we hike up to the top of a ridge.
Mr Abbotoy is founder of the real estate company Ridgerunner, which has bought land here and in neighbouring Kentucky. But his is no garden-variety housing development.
Mr Abbotoy is prominent in US conservative circles and describes his development as an “affinity-based community” – marketed to people not only interested in the peace and quiet of rural life, but in a constellation of right-wing ideals.
“Faith, family and freedom,” he says. “Those are the values that we try to celebrate.”
BBC/Mike Wendling
Josh Abbotoy points to a map of his development in the Ridgerunner offices in Gainesboro
Initially he didn’t attract much local attention after setting up shop in Jackson County.
But in late 2024, a local TV news report broadcast controversial statements made by two of Mr Abbotoy’s first, and most outspoken, customers: Andrew Isker, a pastor and author originally from Minnesota, and C Jay Engel, a businessman from California.
They are self-described “Christian nationalists” who question modern values, such as whether female suffrage and the civil rights movement were good ideas, and call for mass deportations of legal immigrants far in excess of President Donald Trump’s current plan. Another thing they sometimes say: “Repeal the 20th Century.”
The TV report raised an alarm bell amongst some local residents.
“You don’t know who these people are, or what they’re capable of,” says Nan Coons, a middle-aged woman who spoke in a firm southern accent during a recent interview near the town square in Gainesboro – of which this land is a part.
“And so it’s scary.”
Although Abbotoy himself does not identify as a Christian nationalist, he says concerns about his tenants are overblown.
The Ridgerunner development has since drawn national attention. And people in Gainesboro, home to around 900 people and one traffic light, have now found themselves in the middle of a dispute that is a proxy for much bigger political battles.
Podcasters move in
Mr Isker and Mr Engel announced their move to Gainesboro last year on their podcast Contra Mundum – Latin for “against the world”.
On their show, which is now recorded in a studio within Ridgerunner’s Gainesboro office, they have encouraged their fans to move into small communities, seek local influence, and join them in their fight to put strict conservative Christian values at the heart of American governance.
“If you could build places where you can take political power,” Mr Isker said on one episode, “which might mean sitting on the [board of] county commissioners, or even having the ear of the county commissioners and sheriffโฆ being able to do those things is extremely, extremely valuable.”
Contra Mundum
C Jay Engel (l) and Andrew Isker (r) shown during an episode of their podcast
On X, Mr Engel has popularised the idea of “heritage Americans” – a fuzzy concept but one that applies mainly to Anglo-Protestants whose ancestors arrived in the US at least a century ago. He says it is not explicitly white, but it does have “strong ethnic correlations”.
He’s called for mass deportations of immigrants – including legal ones – writing: “Peoples like Indians, or South East Asians or Ecuadorians or immigrated Africans are the least capable of fitting in and should be sent home immediately.”
In their broadcasts and writings they have also expressed anti-gay sentiments. The podcasters deny they are white nationalists.
Both are Ridgerunner customers, and Mr Isker’s church will move into the community’s chapel when it’s complete.
The ‘resistance’
Their hardcore views have alarmed residents, with some locals setting up an informal resistance group.
“I believe that they have been attempting to brand our town and our county as a headquarters for their ideology of Christian nationalism,” says town matriarch Diana Mandli, a prominent local businesswoman who until recently owned a pub on Gainesboro’s central square
Late last year, Mandli led the charge by writing a message on a chalkboard outside her business: “If you are a person or group who promotes the inferiority or oppression of others, please eat somewhere else.”
BBC/Mike Wendling
More signs opposed to the new development followed. When people caught wind that the Ridgerunner guys were holding a meeting at a nearby fast food joint, dozens turned up to confront them.
Ms Coons, whose ancestors have lived in Gainesboro since around the time of the US Revolutionary War, says she engaged Mr Engel in conversation.
“He explained to me that what they’re promoting is what he called ‘family voting’โฆ one vote per family, and of course, the husband in that family would be the one voting” with women frozen out of the electorate.
Mr Engel has since said publicly that it’s not “wrong” for women to vote, although he does support the idea of household suffrage.
BBC/Mike Wendling
Local residents put up a billboard outside of town
In a county that voted 80% for Donald Trump in the last election, Ms Coons is used to living next door to neighbours with conservative views.
But she and others came away from the protest convinced more than ever that the beliefs of their new neighbours were too extreme.
They say they don’t want to run them out of town, but intend to sound the alarm about what they say are extreme views, as well as thwart any future attempt to take over the local government.
“This is where we have to draw the line,” Ms Coons says.
What is Christian nationalism?
Christian nationalism is a nebulous worldview without a single coherent definition.
At the extreme end, as outlined by theorists including author Stephen Wolfe, Christian nationalists advocate for rule by a “Christian prince” – an all-powerful religious dictator, who reigns over the civil authorities and leads his subjects to “godliness”.
Less extreme versions take the form of calls for Christian law to be explicitly enshrined in American legal codes, for religious leaders to get heavily involved in politics, or simply for an acknowledgement of the Christian background of America’s founding fathers.
This multiplicity of definitions has created a strategic ambiguity that experts say has helped Christian nationalism seep into the mainstream.
Big ideas or far-right plan?
Mr Abbotoy’s development is still in the early stages – his company is building roads and organising sanitation infrastructure. When the BBC visited in November, workers were busy knocking down a decrepit old barn, one of many that dot the Appalachian landscape.
But business is brisk. Around half of the lots are already under contract. Mr Abbotoy anticipates that the first houses will be built and new customers will begin moving in at the beginning of 2027.
BBC/Ellie House
Building on the Brewington Farms site will start within months, with new residents moving in soon, in just over a year
Many of his customers, he says, are moving to heavily Republican Tennessee from Democratic-majority states like California and New York.
“People want to live in communities where they feel like they share important values with their neighbours,” he says.
Mr Abbotoy says he doesn’t call himself a Christian nationalist, but describes the criticism of his customers as “absurd” and says they have no intention to try to take over local government.
“They’re talking about big ideas and books,” he says. As for some of their more controversial views, he insists that “rolling back the 20th Century can mean a lot of things. A lot of conservatives would say we took a lot of wrong turns.”
Mr Isker and Mr Engel did not respond to multiple requests for comment and a list of questions.
BBC/Ellie House
Nan Coons belongs to an informal group of Gainesboro residents who are alarmed at their new Christian nationalist neighbours
Small-town fight goes nationwide
The fight here in Gainesboro has drawn in players far from small-town Tennessee.
Mr Abbotoy, who was educated at Harvard Law School, is also a partner at a conservative venture capital fund, New Founding, and a founder of the American Reformer, a website that has published the writings of a number of other prominent Christian nationalists.
His opponents meanwhile have received research assistance and advice from a national organisation, States at the Core, established last year to tackle authoritarianism in small communities. It is funded by a constellation of left-wing organisations. States at the Core declined our request for an interview.
The men of Ridgerunner have pointed to the organisation as evidence that the pushback against their project has been orchestrated by powerful liberals. The locals say this is ridiculous.
“Nobody’s cut me a cheque to say anything,” Ms Coons says.
In Gainesboro, people on all sides see a much bigger story – one of large-scale political fights playing out in rural America.
Republicans have made huge gains in rural areas this century, and in 2024 Trump stretched his lead in rural communities, winning 69% of the vote. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee recently announced a reported eight-figure investment ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, a chunk of which will be dedicated to winning rural voters.
“There’s definitely a renewed, [Democratic Party] focus on rural engagement,” Mr Abbotoy says. “And at the same time, there’s been a wave of people moving to small town America precisely because they like the Bible Belt, they like the conservative traditional culture.”
But Nan Coons and her allies say they aren’t ready to concede rural areas like her hometown to Christian nationalists.
“If we are going to turn this tide, it starts on your street, it starts in your neighbourhood, it starts in your small town,” she says.
“I have to stand for something, and this is where I stand.”
Ken Paxton, Texasโs attorney general, outside the US supreme court in Washington DC on 1 November 2021.ย Photograph: Rod Lamkey/Newscom via Alamy
BBC/Ellie House
Real estate developer Josh Abbotoy on the site of his planned future development outside Gainesboro. Abbotoy’s customers, including two self-described Christian nationalists, have caused controversy locallyBBC/Mike Wendling
Contra Mundum
BBC/Mike Wendling
BBC/Mike Wendling
BBC/Ellie House
BBC/Ellie House
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