Dear
LGBTQ communities are under attack. Texas, Arkansas, Florida and other states continue to restrict rights by equating gender-affirming care for trans youth with child abuse, and by attempting to bar mention of sexual orientation, gender identity, and LGBTQ families and communities in classrooms.
Dangerous anti-LGBTQ rhetoric is heightening. While there has been extensive media coverage of these anti-LGBTQ bills, mainstream analysis has largely ignored key players advancing these laws and shaping the narrative, namely the Christian Right.
The similarities in the bills introduced across states is not coincidental. Project Blitz, a coalition providing model bills for Christian Right state legislators, has resurfaced with a new legislative playbook, which includes sample legislation to establish parental oversight committees over libraries, attack LGBTQ rights and more. In a webinar hosted last year, This Year and Next in Anti-LGBT Advocacy, PRA panelists and guests detailed the influence that Christian Right organizations have in designing and promoting these bills, and the devastating effects they have on the LGBTQ community.
The Christian Right and its network of organizations like the Heritage Foundation, Family Policy Alliance, and Alliance Defending Freedom have been building power by targeting LGBTQ communities. Last year, they published ten principles that purport to protect children, aiming to prohibit teachers from talking about LGBT people, bar trans students from accessing gender-affirming care, restrict students’ access to comprehensive sex education, and affirmatively permit parents to submit their children to conversion therapy.
Our new Inform Your Philanthropy Series is deepening donors' understanding about the Christian Right’s central role in eroding democratic possibilities, while discussing the strategies to mitigate their influence. This series is open to anyone who identifies as a donor (contact Aidan Orly at [email protected] for more information).
Attacks against LGBTQ communities are difficult and disheartening, and yet, we are inspired by the incredible work done by frontline organizers and activists every day to build true democracy. PRA stands in solidarity with our constituents and LGBTQ communities.
With hearts open and fists up,
The PRA Team
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New Report!
By The Unmasking Fidelity Coalition
Fidelity Charitable became the nation's largest grantmaker in 2019, largely due to their growth in the Donor Advised Funds sector. The Unmasking Fidelity Coalition details the millions of dollars being given to right-wing organizations, and demands that Fidelity Charitable disclose their gifts, and divest from systemic oppression.
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New from PRA
Countering Violent Extremism programs purport to understand and dissuade "extremism", but a closer look at organizations and players in these programs show problematic framing and marginalization of communities.
An excerpt of our roundtable on January 6th, where panelists discussed the trajectory of the ongoing insurrection and strategies to uphold democracy.
Shane Burley reviews James Ridgeway's updated and re-released book Blood in the Face: The Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, Nazi Skinheads and the Rise of a New White Culture.
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New From Religion Dispatches
As anti-LGBTQ laws proliferate around the country, conservatives have latched on to "grooming" as their new buzzword. This fixation on "grooming" and child welfare is not new, but has a long history on the Christian Right.
When the First United Church of Oak Park decided to only use music from people of color for Lent, it was first picked up by Turning Point USA. Then local news. Then the New York Post. Then Fox and Friends—and that's when the hate truly flooded in.
On April 3, Russian Patriarch Kirill delivered a sermon in the imposing Cathedral of the Armed Forces that promoted a dangerous revisionist history that "legitimizes the ongoing violence as necessary and even... holy."
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For more analysis and resources, browse our most recent articles and 40-year archive on our website.
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A special thank you to our 40th anniversary sponsors!
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