In the last 50 years, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer movement in the United States has achieved tremendous progress toward equality, much of which has been spearheaded by the Human Rights Campaign, our members and supporters and our coalition partners.
However, this progress has spurred a ferocious and dangerous backlash.
Today, one of the biggest threats to LGBTQ+ equality is the Alliance Defending Freedom, a staunch and virulent enemy of equality and a well-funded rightwing legal advocacy organization that has been deemed an anti-LGBTQ+ “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
ADF poses an existential threat to our community, writing anti-transgender legislation for school boards and statehouses across the country and arguing against same-sex marriage, conversion therapy bans and reproductive rights at the federal level, all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.
You may not know this, but ADF also reaches out to legislators to write anti-equality bills directly. In 2022 alone, it authored at least 130 bills in 34 states; more than 30 were passed into law. Each one of these bills actively harms LGBTQ+ people.
Founded in 1994, ADF has been targeting LGBTQ+ people for decades. Not only do these extremists want to roll back and dismantle civil rights for the LGBTQ+ community and push queer people back into the closet — they also want to infiltrate virtually every space of government and public life in the United States and impose a rightwing white Christian nationalist agenda in our country. Most recently, ADF’s former paid spokesperson and attorney, Mike Johnson, was elected Speaker of the House, second in line to the presidency.
