{"id":77532,"date":"2019-01-24T10:26:02","date_gmt":"2019-01-24T15:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/offensive-adf-returns-to-what-solidified-them-as-a-hate-group-in-america\/"},"modified":"2019-01-24T10:26:02","modified_gmt":"2019-01-24T15:26:02","slug":"offensive-adf-returns-to-what-solidified-them-as-a-hate-group-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/offensive-adf-returns-to-what-solidified-them-as-a-hate-group-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Offensive: ADF returns to what solidified them as a “hate group” in America"},"content":{"rendered":"

Offensive: ADF returns to what solidified them as a “hate group” in America<\/b><\/p>\n

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Photo Credit: YouTube<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Most are familiar with the cases of the bakers and florists and photographers who have gone to court with claims that their choice to turn away paying LGBTQ customers is somehow a right to which they are entitled. Many are also familiar with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the hate group<\/a>\u00a0designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC),\u00a0and the messaging they’ve used in their cases. Ever since marriage equality won at the U.S. Supreme Court, these cases have been at the forefront of the far right\u2019s onslaught against LGBTQ rights.<\/p>\n

What has linked all of these cases up to this point are the complaints from the customers that were turned away. In all prior cases, it was the LGBTQ person or couple<\/a> at the center filing some sort of complaint that sparked legal action. It wasn\u2019t something esoteric or theoretical, but rather a tangible case wherein a customer sought a service, and a business owner denied the same.<\/p>\n

But since the ADF’s partial\/narrow\/procedural\u00a0\u201cwin\u201d in the Masterpiece Cakes case<\/a>\u00a0in 2018, the anti-LGBTQ legal shop is getting cocky. In fact,\u00a0they aren\u2019t even waiting for a complaint before filing their latest suits. In a new case out of the ADF\u2019s home state of Arizona, they are representing plaintiffs who are proactively filing suit against local nondiscrimination ordinances in hopes of having these LGBTQ protections overturned before they even having any application to their clients\u2019 lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The case involves two young artists, Joanna Duka and Breanna Koski, who run a custom\u00a0printing business called Brush & Nib Studio. Since this business operates in the Phoenix area, and the Phoenix area has an ordinance [Phoenix City Code Section 18.4 (B)<\/a>]\u00a0containing\u00a0sexual orientation and gender identity protections,\u00a0Ms. Duka and Ms. Koski are living in fear that some day a happy same-sex<\/a> couple<\/a> will come in and request wedding invitations. Or perhaps a trans<\/a> woman<\/a> will seek a flyer for a celebration. Or maybe an LGBTQ ally will ask for a poster honoring her gay<\/a> child.\u00a0Whatever the situation, Duka and Koski want the ability to turn away the request on the sole basis of the sexual orientation or gender identity of the party requesting or being honored by the work. They want this this discriminatory super power so badly, in fact, that\u00a0they went in front of the Arizona Supreme Court<\/a>\u00a0making this very argument.<\/p>\n

And let me repeat:\u00a0No one has even asked Ms. Duka or Ms. Koski to create such an invite. They aren\u2019t even claiming\u00a0anyone has!\u00a0They\u2019re just taking time out of their lives to strip away protections that are already in place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is also further confirmation of the ADF\u2019s all-out assault against LGBTQ rights. They\u2019re not playing defense against the supposed \u201creligious exemption\u201d assaults that pesky LGBTQ human beings are posing against them by mere virtue of being living members of a fair and free society. The ADF has\u00a0given up that game. They\u2019re now going on the offensive against fair and free society in order to set a stark precedent that would lead to more and greater repercussions for LGBTQ consumers. They aren\u2019t even acknowledging that the ordinance they\u2019re challenging<\/a>\u00a0contains these so-called “religious exemptions” for religious organizations! Instead, they\u2019re sticking their necks in and\u00a0demanding\u00a0a discriminatory \u201csolution\u201d when there hasn\u2019t even been a problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Which is to say, they are acting like the ADF of old. While this organization has been wearing a \u201cnice\u201d mask for the past few years, likely inspired by the backlash they received after making the SPLC\u2019s hate group list<\/a>. But let’s\u00a0not forget:\u00a0ADF is the same organization whose founder wrote a book that compares\u00a0LGBTQ activists to Nazis and aggressively promotes “conversion therapy” practices (full text of the book here<\/a>). This is the same organization that for many years ran an event called the Day of Truth<\/a>, which involved promoting so-called \u201cex-gay<\/a>\u201d propaganda in the nation\u2019s schools. This is the same organization that has fought against LGBTQ rights in every major court case<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And now their mask is off. We now know that nothing changed except their PR campaigns. This is the same ADF, and their agenda is still to ban, block, and \u201cconvert\u201d LGBTQ Americans.\u00a0This latest attempt to go on the offensive against LGBTQ acceptance\u00a0isn\u2019t really anything new, but rather a return to form for a group that has always been, well\u2014offensive.<\/p>\n

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January 22, 2019<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Issues:\u00a0<\/div>\n