Anti-LGBTQ Discrimination
Alliance Defending Freedom is a leading advocate for treating LGBTQ Americans like second class citizens and using religion as an excuse to discriminate.
Attacking Young People
ADF has drafted policies for schools to discriminate against transgender students.
In 2016, ADF represented a school that wanted to maintain discrimination against transgender students and parents who sued a school for affirming transgender students.
ADF supports the discredited and dangerous practice of anti-LGBTQ conversion therapy, a harmful attempt to “cure” or “repair” sexual orientation or gender identity that is opposed by the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and virtually all reputable medical professionals.
ADF supports allowing taxpayer-funded adoption and foster care agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ parents seeking to adopt.
Legalized Discrimination
ADF has written and advanced legislation mandating public discrimination against transgender people, pushing these boilerplate bills throughout the country.
They support allowing employment discrimination against transgender people and oppose efforts to include gender expression or gender identity in existing civil rights protections.
ADF has developed “religious liberty” legislation and case law that allows denial of goods and services to LGBTQ people on the basis of religion.
Exporting Extremism Internationally
In 2015, ADF International filed an intervention in the European Court of Human Rights advocating against repealing laws that required sterilization for transgender people, arguing, “equal dignity does not mean that every sexual orientation warrants equal respect.”
Their anti-LGBTQ agenda is nothing new. They defended state sodomy laws in Lawrence v. Texas as protection against a “distinct public health problem.” Anti-sodomy laws were ultimately struck down in the US, but ADF International continues to support criminalization of gay sex abroad, including in Jamaica, Belize, and India.
More Resources
Human Rights Campaign
According to the Human Rights Campaign, Alliance Defending Freedom is the nation’s largest anti-LGBTQ legal group, with thousands of lawyers and an annual budget of more than $50 million. Learn more.
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) tracks ADF’s actions and has designated them a hate group for their regular defamation of LGBT people. According to the SPLC, ADF “has become one of the most influential groups informing the [Trump] administration’s attacks on LGBT rights.” Learn more.
Media Matters for America
Media Matters for America has produced an interactive research book outlining the anti-LGBTQ positions of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). These positions were identified through extensive review of public statements by ADF and its representatives, reports on the group’s legal and political activities, and publicly available materials created by the group. Download the PDF.