Gay Lobbyg On The Hill Has Short Yet Strong History : NPR

Contents:

• GAY LOBBYG ON THE HILL HAS SHORT YET STRONG HISTORY
• EX-GAYS SCEND UPON D.C. TO LOBBY AGAST LGBTQ RIGHTS
• EL LOBBY GAY EXISTE… PERO NO LO QUE PIENSAS
• GAY LOBBY’S NEXT TARGET: BENEFS ALL 50 STAT
• EX-GAY AND TRANSGENR GROUPS LOBBY CONGRS AGAST LGBTQ RIGHTS BILLS
• GAY-RIGHTS GROUPS PH OBAMA FOR EXECUTIVE ORR ON DISCRIMATN
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

GAY LOBBYG ON THE HILL HAS SHORT YET STRONG HISTORY

The pany, whose CEO, Tim Cook, is the natn’s most visible gay executive, has ployed s lobbyists to oppose legislatn that lims protectns for trans and gay people or their fai Iowa, Florida, Texas and at least six other stat. The pro-LGBTQ group Equaly Florida said an email that s staff hadn’t noticed any of Apple’s lobbyg agast the new state law that rtricts teachers om talkg about genr and sexualy the classroom, which crics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law. Supporters of the new law say would ensure that the state’s youngt stunts learn about sexual orientatn and genr inty om their parents and not at school, but opponents say will create a hostile environment for gay and transgenr children or children om LGBTQ fai.

“The efficy of makg big public statements is lower than ed to be, ” said Jsi Shortall, managg director of the gay rights bs group Texas Compet. The ACLU works to ensure that lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, & queer people belong everywhere and n live openly and thentilly whout discrimatn, harassment, or vlence. The ACLU Lbian Gay Bisexual Transgenr Project seeks to create a jt society for all LGBTQ people regardls of race or e.

EX-GAYS SCEND UPON D.C. TO LOBBY AGAST LGBTQ RIGHTS

Gay Lobbyg On The Hill Has Short Yet Strong History One argument ed by nservativ the Supreme Court s is that gay Amerins have bee so polilly powerful that they don't need special attentn om the urts.

EL LOBBY GAY EXISTE… PERO NO LO QUE PIENSAS

Whether or not that's te, 's clear that advocy groups for the lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr muny have built a strong work of lobbyists and polil activists Washgton.

One argument ed by nservativ the Supreme Court s is that gay Amerins have bee so polilly powerful that they don't need special attentn om the urts. SCOTT SIMON, HOST: One argument ed by some nservativ the Supreme Court s is that gay Amerins have bee so polilly powerful and proment they don't need special nsiratn om the urts. Whether or not that's te, is clear that lbian-gay-bisexual-and-transgenred advocy groups have built a strong work of lobbyists and polil activists Washgton, D.

GAY LOBBY’S NEXT TARGET: BENEFS ALL 50 STAT

Now she's wh the liberal Center For Amerin STACHELBERG: You need to have both an effective lobby to ph members of Congrs to support the gay and lbian muny on the one hand, terms of advocy and tellg stori. But '93, Clton signed the "don't ask, don't tell" law, effectively keepg many gays out of the the lobbyg effort gaed strength as more gays me out, and more voters and policians disvered they had gay fay members and iends. He's head lobbyist for the social nservative group Fay Rearch MCCLUSKY: I mean this is polics, and money has an credible fluence on polics, be good or McClky says tablishment Republins are unr the sway of nsultants like Karl Rove; big outsi spenrs like hedge fund billnaire Pl Sger, who has a gay son; and fundraisers like former Republin Party Chairman Ken Mehlman, who's openly for the Democrats, McClky predicts they'll never aga nomate a printial ndidate who don't support same-sex marriage.

That one party is now bought and paid for by a lot of the homosexual It hardly looks that way to Fred Saz at the Human Rights Campaign. A group of people om across the untry who formerly intified as gay and transgenr have scend upon Washgton this week to share their stori and lobby agast two proposed LGBTQ-rights group is ma up of 15 members of Church Uned and Changed, two California-based anizatns that seek to provi muny for, and protect the rights of, “formers” — dividuals who formerly intified as lbian, gay, bisexual or bills the group is lobbyg agast are H.

This, he said, is evinced by the fact that gays have achieved clout and succs as scientists, thors and Thoron, an LGBTQ rearcher at Human Rights Watch, lled the assertn of the “formers” unfound and said the bills they’re lobbyg agast are “long overdue.

EX-GAY AND TRANSGENR GROUPS LOBBY CONGRS AGAST LGBTQ RIGHTS BILLS

Time and time aga, the anizatn ni havg anti-gay bias, even though the paper trail documentg anti-gay stanc go back s. In 2011, the New York Tim terviewed a man who claimed the Salvatn Army nied him and his boyiend shelter the ‘90s “unls we broke up and then left the ‘sful homosexual liftyle’ behd, ” the man, Bill Browng, said.

The Tim also published the Salvatn Army’s “Posn Statement” on homosexualy, which has sce been leted om the anizatn’s webse:. Homosexual nduct, like heterosexual nduct, requir dividual rponsibily and mt be guid by the light of scriptural teachg.

Many Salvatn Army shelters do help LGBTQ people — but crics say harm-rctn servic don’t make up for anti-gay lobbyg. In his recent op-ed, Hudson explaed that even if some Salvatn Army lears are themselv anti-gay, their personal beliefs are outweighed by the servic the anizatn provis to at-risk LGBTQ people.

GAY-RIGHTS GROUPS PH OBAMA FOR EXECUTIVE ORR ON DISCRIMATN

In other words, the Salvatn Army do provi lifavg servic, cludg food and shelter, to LGBTQ people facg homelsns, but also appears to have no problem wh s learship potentially exprsg homophobic views that help ntribute to broar discrimatn agast LGBTQ people. Por lo general, el térmo lobby gay sale bo lír religsos, polítis nservador o tegrant anizacn po gay-iendly o el Frente Nacnal por la Faia. Mientras haya ciudadanos u anizacn terados en promover una agenda en favor los rechos LGBT+, fivamente habrá un lobby gay.

Notably, Chick-fil-A never explicly said would permanently stop donatg to anti-gay groups or anizatns that discrimate agast LGBTQ people — jt said was changg s philanthropic givg mol. In 2012, the Chigo-based Civil Rights Agenda issued a statement claimg that Chick-fil-A had promised to “no longer give to anti-gay anizatns, such as Foc on the Fay and the Natnal Organizatn for marriage.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

As ThkProgrs reported 2017, Chick-fil-A ntued to bankroll anti-gay groups like the Fellowship of Christian Athlet, the Salvatn Army, and the Pl Anrson Youth Home through s foundatn. A year earlier, a Pennsylvania Chick-fil-A’s cisn to donate food to a marriage semar nducted by the Pennsylvania Fay Instute, a group known for s anti-gay advocy, prompted a natnwi boytt of the cha. Cathy issued a vio statement rponse to the boytt, which he claimed the pany “serv all people” and that, while he personally believ the “biblil fn of marriage, ” his pany don’t have an “anti-gay agenda.

In 2011, the same year a Pennsylvania Chick-fil-A anchise donated food to a lol anti-gay anizatn, the LGBTQ advocy group Equaly Matters obtaed tax rerds which revealed that the Cathy fay had donated more than $1. 9 ln to anti-gay groups 2010 through the WShape Foundatn, the Cathy fay’s charable givg anizatn found by Tett Cathy 1984. 1 ln gift to the Marriage & Fay Foundatn, a group that promoted so-lled tradnal marriage and opposed both gay marriage and divorce; $480, 000 to the Fellowship of Christian Athlet, an athletic anizatn that requir applints to agree to a “sexual pury statement” that nmns LGBTQ people for livg “impure liftyle[s]”; and $1, 000 to Exod Internatnal, a group that promot anti-gay nversn therapy.

For Chick-fil-A’s opponents, the problem was bigger than Cathy’s anti-gay ments, was that he was apparently puttg his money where his mouth was, and he had a lot of money to go around. Though Chick-fil-A never managed to fully shed s reputatn as a homophobic purveyor of lic chicken sandwich, ntued to expand s natnal prence, pecially above the Mason-Dixon le. The Cathys’ “dissonant view, ” as one brand nsultant lled , may have fally hurt Chick-fil-A’s bottom le — pecially now that a popular, non-homophobic alternative to Chick-fil-A’s sandwich has emerged.