{"id":71702,"date":"2018-08-09T08:25:41","date_gmt":"2018-08-09T12:25:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/jeff-sessions-slammed-after-telling-anti-lgbtq-hate-group-adf-you-are-not-a-hate-group-watch\/"},"modified":"2018-08-09T08:25:41","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T12:25:41","slug":"jeff-sessions-slammed-after-telling-anti-lgbtq-hate-group-adf-you-are-not-a-hate-group-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/jeff-sessions-slammed-after-telling-anti-lgbtq-hate-group-adf-you-are-not-a-hate-group-watch\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Sessions Slammed After Telling Anti-LGBTQ Hate Group ADF, \u2018You Are Not a Hate Group\u2019 \u2013 WATCH"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeff Sessions Slammed After Telling Anti-LGBTQ Hate Group ADF, \u2018You Are Not a Hate Group\u2019 \u2013 WATCH<\/b>
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Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke to the Alliance Defending Freedom, designated an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, in an address that was streamed live<\/a> on Facebook (above).<\/p>\n

Sessions told the group that it is not a hate group.<\/p>\n

Said Sessions:<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just call<\/a> people names like hate group, does that sound familiar? I\u2019m from Alabama the home of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a group that has done vital work\u2026There were hate groups in the South and I suppose in the nation today there are some\u2026certainly there are. They attack, in my region, the life liberty and the very worth of minority citizens\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWhen I spoke to ADF last year, I learned that the Southern Poverty Law Center had classified ADF as a \u2018hate group\u2019 Many in the media simply parroted that as a fact\u2026They have used this designation as a weapon and they have wielded it against conservative organizations that refuse to accept their orthodoxy and choose instead to speak for their conscience and their beliefs. They use it to bully and intimidate groups that fight for religious freedom, these constitutional rights of the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continued Sessions, in a line that received a large round of applause: \u201cYou and I may not agree on everything \u2014 but I wanted to come back here tonight partially because I wanted to say this: You are not a hate group.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SPLC released a statement in response to Sessions\u2019 assertion.<\/p>\n

SPLC President Richard Cohen explained the designation in a letter to Sessions:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a manner analogous to how the Department of Justice\u00a0defines hate crimes<\/a>, we identify hate groups as\u00a0those that vilify others<\/a>\u00a0because of their race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability \u2013 prejudices that strike at the heart of our democratic values and fracture society along its most fragile fault lines,\u201d Cohen wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust as sincerely held religious beliefs would not be a defense to a hate crime prosecution, vilifying others in the name of religion should not immunize a group from being designated as a hate group, in our view.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cohen pointed to groups such as the\u00a0Family Research Council<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Alliance Defending Freedom<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 groups that regularly use their public platforms to demonize the LGBT community. Both, for example, \u201cpromote the myth that there is a link between homosexuality and pedophilia.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLinking the LGBT community to pedophilia as the FRC and the ADF have done is not an expression of a religious belief,\u201d the letter says. \u201cIt is simply a dangerous and ugly falsehood. As you know, FBI hate crime data show that the LGBT community is the minority group most likely targeted for violent hate crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cohen added:\u00a0\u201cThe Alliance Defending Freedom spreads demonizing lies about the LGBT community in this country and seeks to criminalize it abroad. If the ADF had its way, gay<\/a> people would be back in the closet for fear of going to jail.\u00a0It\u2019s inappropriate for the nation\u2019s top law enforcement officer to lend the prestige of his office to this group. And it\u2019s ironic to suggest that the rights of ADF sympathizers are under attack when the ADF is doing everything in its power to deny the equal protection of the laws to the LGBT community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Jeff Sessions Slammed After Telling Anti-LGBTQ Hate Group ADF, \u2018You Are Not a Hate Group\u2019 \u2013 WATCH<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad Gay News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Jeff Sessions Slammed After Telling Anti-LGBTQ Hate Group ADF, ‘You Are Not a Hate Group’ – WATCH<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n