Right-Wing Media Attempts to Rescue ADF, Sessions From Explaining Secret Speech
The Trump administration鈥檚 combination of continuously attacking mainstream media and relying on right-wing outlets to carry their message played out again last week in service of the Attorney General.
Events began Tuesday, when BuzzFeed reporter Dominic Holden broke the news that Attorney General Jeff Sessions was scheduled to deliver remarks hours later at a closed-to-press event hosted by the anti-LGBT hate group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
After refusing comment for two days, the ADF went on the offensive, backed by their allies in the right-wing media. Rather than address why the organization聽sought to conceal the AG鈥檚 speech, ADF attacked the mainstream press for writing about its聽work vilifying LGBT rights in the U.S. and abroad and for referencing the Southern Poverty Law Center鈥檚 work.
The Department of Justice similarly refused comment for two days, and then to a聽rabidly partisan website,聽The Federalist, rather than posting to the DOJ's website or providing to the press at large. The remarks have not yet been posted on the DOJ鈥檚 website,聽though Sessions appeared in his official role.
ADF was listed as an anti-LGBT hate group by the 人兽性交 in 2016 due to the ADF's聽long history of demonizing the LGBT community and the ADF's聽efforts to criminalize homosexual activity abroad. The ADF is a formidable organization, boasting a budget of over $30 million and a pro bono network of lawyers numbering in the thousands. Many of its recent cases in the U.S. have involved attacking attempts to further trans equality, particularly in terms of trans students. The ADF currently has a case before the Supreme Court about a Christian baker who argues that his faith is a defense to not serve LGBT people.
ADF鈥檚 attack on ABC News was a convenient dodge about the ADF's聽extensive anti-LGBT record.
All throughout the day Thursday and into the weekend, much of the right-wing press promoted the ADF. Fox News, The National Review, The Daily Caller, The Daily Signal (the Heritage Foundation鈥檚 blog), Newsmax, LifeZette, Townhall, The Blaze, NewsBusters (Newsbusters/Media Research Council is funded by one of Trump鈥檚 biggest donors in Robert Mercer), Independent Journalism Review, Patriot Post and聽Christian Post聽were among the sites that did. The story became the 人兽性交 and the so-called biased mainstream media, not the significance of the AG's attempt聽to deliver an off-the-record speech to a group with a record like ADF, and not the fact that a government agency has refused transparency regarding a speech given by one of its officials.
It shouldn鈥檛 be surprising where Sessions鈥� comments eventually appeared. The Federalist is well known for its anti-LGBT and specifically anti-trans writings.
In his speech, Sessions revealed that the DOJ is nearing completion of its official guidance regarding 鈥渞eligious liberty,鈥� and promised that it would use a more recent interpretation of the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA, as its basis.
Sessions also invoked Dr. Martin Luther King聽Jr., saying, 鈥渉is movement was a religious one.鈥� True enough, but merely invoking God and King doesn鈥檛 settle the question.
As we鈥檝e written previously about the anti-LGBT right鈥檚 efforts to advance additional RFRA bills at the state level:
Religious liberty is a cherished constitutional value, enshrined in the First Amendment. But, as earlier efforts to offer biblical justification for slavery and Jim Crow segregation have taught us, religious liberty should not be used as an excuse to discriminate.
The danger of these laws goes far beyond the way in which courts may ultimately balance them with statutory and constitutional protections against discrimination. The peril also lies in the atmosphere of bigotry and discrimination that will be created by legitimizing the very idea that LGBT rights threaten religious liberty.
That bigotry has been proudly displayed in the pages of The Federalist. In 2014, Slate detailed the 鈥渙diously transphobic鈥� by Federalist contributor Mary Hasson. ThinkProgress uncovered that The Federalist's聽anti-trans bias is literally embedded in . In March, The Federalist posted an anonymous piece allegedly from an attendee from a trans rights conference. It ends with this diatribe that attacks the idea that trans people should be treated with respect:
Even after being trained, I still have questions. If gender is not biological, then why do we think someone who claims to be trans-black is crazy? Under what moral standard do we prosecute polygamists? Why don鈥檛 we consider depression or suicide adequate lifestyle choices? Why is transgender considered a fulfilling life but those with Downs Syndrome should be aborted? Apparently, the only thing society can agree on is that nothing鈥檚 worse than being a straight, white man.
as 鈥渁 reliable apologist for anti-LGBT discrimination, predictably depicting its opposition to non-discrimination protections as a noble defense of liberty against a heavy-handed government.鈥�
That inversion -- the idea that right-wing Christians who oppose LGBT rights are facing real persecution simply because LGBT rights are gradually being realized -- is central to ADF鈥檚 mission.
It鈥檚 clear that the Attorney General鈥檚 appearance at the ADF event and his decision to address the controversy by publishing his remarks at The Federalist should be a troubling sign as to where this administration stands with regard to the rights of LGBT Americans.
In keeping with the DOJ's聽original secrecy, the DOJ, The Federalist聽and ADF have not responded to requests for comment about how the Attorney General鈥檚 remarks made it to The Federalist and why they鈥檙e not yet on the DOJ's website.
