It Is Real!

The oppression of the LGBTQ+ community is a fact, it is happening now on a scale never seen before and it is worst than the 50s and 60s because it is organized, backed by a political party and well financed!

LGBTQ+ ‘State of Emergency’ Is No PR Stunt

Washington Post

Analysis by Michael Arceneaux | Bloomberg

June 13, 2023

For the first time in its 40-year history, the Human Rights Campaign has declared a “state of emergency” for LGBTQ+ Americans. Some may respond to the announcement with cynicism or indifference. What does it really do anyway? Well, the answer is not “nothing.” And those who fixate on whether the organization is just being hyperbolic or seeking attention miss that the group’s announcement meets the moment we live in head-on.

The first thing that the HRC’s historic move does is give vulnerable communities — which have been targeted (at times violently) by elected officials, companies, celebrities, news networks, school districts and fellow voters — a guidebook for staying safe. It is available for download and includes health and safety information, summations of state-specific laws targeting LGBTQ+ Americans, “know your rights” information, and other resources “designed to support LGBTQ+ travelers as well as those already living in hostile states.”

We have all read about it. First they came after us, then they came after the drag queens, and now gays and lesbians!

If you’re skeptical of the need, consider exhibit A: In the background of growing acceptance of marriage equality and other LGBTQ+ rights found in polling, state legislators are proposing and passing laws designed to complicate the lives of queer and trans people. In its declaration, the HRC cited the passage of over 75 anti-LGBTQ+ bills already this year and noted that it more than doubled the amount passed last year — the worst year on record.

[…]

If you need even more convincing, consider exhibit B: noticeably fewer Pride campaigns this year, and companies known for being even mildly LGBTQ-friendly seem less willing to stand up for us. (I’m looking at you, Target, Bud Light and Los Angeles Dodgers.)

These laws are being back by religious non-profits, are being organized by “think tanks,” and are being funded by billionaires!

PLAG has an article on their website...

ANTI-EQUALITY ORGANIZATIONS

Disagreements over the roles and rights of LGBTQ individuals in society are not enough for us to label an organization anti-LGBTQ: It is the intersection of beliefs with actions taken based on those beliefs that help us (and others) make that determination.

Several of the organizations listed below advocate for the criminalization and penalization of LGBTQ individuals, and for the use of so-called “reparative therapy,” which seeks to “convert” individuals to heterosexuality or “gender norms” as an alternative to being LGBTQ.

The passage of time has seen society’s understanding of its LGBTQ members’ place within their communities evolve for the better, but these organizations are a forceful reminder that the struggle for LGBTQ rights remains an uphill battle.

And they go on to list the organizations.

The Pink News reports that,

Religious bigots The Heritage Foundation spending $1 million on anti-LGBTQ+ Thanksgiving adverts

Religious anti-LGBTQ+ think tank The Heritage Foundation has launched a $1 million campaign opposing the Respect for Marriage Act.

By Lily Wakefield

November 23, 2022

In ads that will air over Thanksgiving during NFL games between New England Patriots and Minnesota Vikings, Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions, and New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys, as well as college football games.

The Heritage Foundation dubs the bill, which would protect same-sex marriage, as an “attack on people of faith”.

According to Fox News, the total bill for the campaign is $1.3 million, including $300,000 worth of digital ads, and is therefore the most expensive campaign run by The Heritage Foundation to date.

[…]

But The Heritage Foundation claims that the “far-left” Act’s supporters are “sneaking” it through to make religious groups vulnerable to litigation and “attacks from the IRS”, and even that it would pave the way for the legalisation of polygamy.

In reality, religious liberty protections were inserted at the final hour to garner Republican support, including ensuring that religious organisations that oppose marriage equality will not lose their tax-exempt status.

NBC reported this about the Heritage Foundation,

Conservative group hosts anti-transgender panel of feminists 'from the left'

Divide and conquer? The conservative Heritage Foundation hosted a panel of “radical feminists” fighting trans rights.

By Tim Fitzsimons

January 29, 2019

[…]

Those invited by Heritage to share their “concerns from the left” included three women from the Women’s Liberation Front, or WoLF, a self-described radical feminist organization best known for its opposition to transgender rights, and Hacsi Horvath, an adjunct lecturer at the University of California, San Francisco, who formerly identified as transgender.

Throughout their hourlong discussion, the four panelists — at least two of them LGBTQ — shared similar views on transgender people and the rights many in the trans community are currently seeking.

[…]

Heron Greenesmith, a researcher at the liberal think tank Political Research Associates, said this latest iteration of cooperation between conservatives and radical feminists (sometimes referred to as transgender-exclusionary radical feminists, or TERFs) is at least in part a reaction to the “incredible gains the trans community has made in terms of civil rights and visibility.”

Follow the money! How many times have you heard that?

Christian Billionaires Are Funding a Push to Kill the Equality Act

Instead of becoming law, The Equality Act is falling victim to what one LGBTQ movement leader called one of “the most sophisticated dark money operations” they’ve ever seen.

The Daily Beast

By Scott Bixby

June 1, 2021 

On Tuesday, after decades allying himself with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities, President Joe Biden proclaimed his first Pride Month as president, “marking a time of hope, progress, and promise for LGBTQ+ Americans across the country,” in the words of the White House. But on Capitol Hill, the president’s biggest commitment to LGBTQ Americans continues to languish, a likely casualty of the Senate filibuster, renewed conservative hostility to transgender people—and a slow-motion, under-the-radar dark money campaign to kill a bill nearly half a century in the making.

The Equality Act, which would make it illegal to discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in most settings, is supported by more than two-thirds of Americans. It passed the House of Representatives in February with a bipartisan majority, and Biden has promised to sign the final bill. But instead of becoming law more than four decades after it was first introduced, it’s falling victim to what one LGBTQ movement leader called one of “the most sophisticated dark money operations” they’ve ever seen.

The source of much of that money, according to a review of tax filings by allied non-profits and some accidental public disclosures provided to The Daily Beast, is the National Christian Charitable Foundation (NCF), the nation’s sixth-largest charity and one of the biggest bankrollers of organizations currently on the front lines in the fight against the Equality Act. The NCF’s list of high-dollar donors includes some of the country’s richest and most powerful families. Among them: Betsy DeVos’ [Former Secretary of Education under Trump] eponymous family foundation, as well as the private foundations of the Anschutz oil dynasty, the late Republican megadonor Foster Friess, Hobby Lobby, and Dan Cathy, the billionaire owner of Chick-fil-A, the six-days-a-week fast-food chain, which promised to stop donating to anti-LGBT causes last year.

This is not the Anita Bryant’s “Save the Children” campaign of the 1970s. This is a well oiled, politically backed, and run campaign that uses mainstream media and social media.