This article was originally posted at Townhall. Conservative news sources were shaken up for a few days this summer when several outlets picked up Rolling Stone Magazine’s story on Tim Gill, “Meet the Megadonor Behind the LGBTQ Rights Movement.” The greatest concern was with Gill’s pledge to “punish the wicked” by passing laws in swing and Southern states that criminalize people who believe we are created male and female and that marriage is the union of man and woman. Yet after a brief period of fixation on this quote, the story has retreated into news cycle history. And so, since the circus
Over the last few years, a similar sequence of events has become routine whenever state lawmakers try to pass legislation protecting religious liberty or opposing the Left’s gender ideology. First, Democrats, leftist groups and the media immediately come together to vilify the lawmakers in question for daring to oppose the LGBT agenda. And then, invariably, large corporations and business groups release their own statements decrying how such “anti-LGBT” legislation will be bad for the business climate and lead to disastrous economic consequences. The National Pulse has written previously on the hypocrisy of the “Big Business Democrats,” who now partner with the
In a piece published today at National Review, The Heritage Foundation’s Ryan T. Anderson joined a growing group of prominent conservative voices sounding the alarm on a major issue for the movement: the increasing disparity in political spending and activity on social issues, such as religious liberty, between the Left and the Right. Religious liberty has been defended almost exclusively by lawyers, pastors, academics, and other people at 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations. As Maggie Gallagher has noted numerous times, social conservatives have largely ignored actual politics. We talk about politics and we litigate to keep the courts from deciding issues against us, but
Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) unveiled a $26 million plan for the 2018 elections. Their new offensive will almost double their current political staff and will focus on the key swing states of Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Nevada. HRC’s goal, according to The Washington Post, is to “[r]eplicate what happened in North Carolina in Senate, House and governor’s races across the nation next year and make the LGBT vote one of the most forceful voting blocs in the progressive movement.” Replicating the Democrats’ playbook in North Carolina will be an extremely effective tactic for HRC, but only
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) announced earlier this week they are launching a project to convince the NCAA to restrict sports championship events — such as March Madness tournament games — to liberal-leaning states. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Deformation (GLAAD), and Lambda Legal have all signed onto the initiative, which “urges” the NCAA to “reaffirm … previous commitments to nondiscrimination and inclusion by avoiding venues that are inherently unwelcoming and unsafe for LGBT people.” And these demands don’t simply apply to particular venues. The letter also calls on the NCAA to avoid holding
The spin has begun from the results of the North Carolina governor’s race. Even as the votes are still being counted, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is suggesting that Governor Pat McCrory’s tight re-election race should warn Georgia officials against pursuing religious-freedom legislation in the 2017 session. This conclusion, though entirely predictable coming from the AJC, isn’t supported by the facts. McCrory catapulted into the national spotlight last spring by signing a bill protecting the privacy of women and girls in taxpayer-funded restrooms. This thoroughly unremarkable action provoked the rage of wealthy radical interests from outside the state, who vowed to pull
On Thursday, Loyola University of New Orleans willingly relinquished its ability to claim a religious exemption from federal Title IX requirements. In a letter to the Department of Education, university officials wrote that they no longer need such exemptions because they no longer provide students health insurance. The Department of Justice’s website describes Title IX as “a comprehensive federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity.” Many religious colleges and universities have sought exemptions from Title IX in the past because the law’s associated regulations require that health insurance offered
Well, that didn’t take long. Now that Donald Trump has effectively secured the Republican nomination for president, far-left special interest groups like the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) are launching a blitzkrieg of misinformation and propaganda. On Tuesday, Brandon Lorenz, Communications Campaign Director at HRC, wrote a blog post criticizing the “Four Ways Donald Trump Would Roll Back LGBT Equality As President.” In the post, Lorenz cites a letter Donald Trump sent American Principles Project (APP) in December of last year promising to sign the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA) if the bill reached his desk as President. You can read a brief summary about FADA here — what it