Washington, D.C. — The American Legislative Exchange Council ( ALEC ), a far-right organization known for its advocacy of "Stand Your Ground" laws and restrictions on voting rights, has a history of anti-gay propaganda, according to recently released documents.
People for the American Way ( PFAW ) uncovered and released an ALEC memo from 1985, called "Homosexuals: Just Another Minority Group?" that makes the organization's anti-gay animus clear. In the document, ALEC categorizes lesbian, gay and bisexual Americans into six offensive stereotypes, propagates misinformation about the pro-equality legislative agenda, and presents harmful lies about alleged health consequences associated with being gay.
The group also led efforts to criminalize the behavior of people living with HIV and AIDS.
"ALEC is an organization with a long history of pushing harmful bills on legislatures across the country," said Sarah Warbelow, Human Rights Campaign State Legislative Director. "The group is well known for their far-right policies but we now know their history is also rooted in demonizing LGBT Americans. There is a reason that ALEC has struggled in recent years — their vision is no longer one that resonates with mainstream Americans of either party."
In the 1985 memo, ALEC devoted an entire section likening LGB people to pedophiles, saying: "Whatever the type of homosexual, one of the more dominant practices within the homosexual world is pedophilia, the fetish for young children." ALEC went on to say that since "homosexuals cannot reproduce themselves biologically so they must recruit the young."
The memo also said all LGB people could be broken down into six categories: the blatant, the secret lifer, the desperate, the adjusted, the bisexual and the situational. The group assigned offensive descriptions to these categories — for example, the "blatant" LGB person was "the obvious 'limp-wristed' individual," while the "adjusted" person "attend[s] gay bars and pool parties to pick up a lover and try to conduct a 'conventional' gay marriage. However, most marriages between homosexuals are shortlived due to frequent acts of infidelity."
The document also advanced misleading information about health risks associated with being LGB, pointing to "the overall promiscuity of the homosexual way of life…" ALEC went on to blast the federal government for investing in AIDS research and singled out former President Jimmy Carter for allowing LGBT organizations to apply for federal grants.
Americans United for Change issues this press release:
Rep. Jan Schakowsky ( D-IL ) and other lawmakers who have seen firsthand how ALEC's corporate-owned special interest agenda harms their constituents responded to disturbing new revelations about ALEC's upcoming legislative agenda and plans to further sabotage the Affordable Care Act, as well as newly published documents that raise serious issues about the group's status as a so-called charitable organization.
ALEC — the American Legislative Exchange Council, is in D.C. this week for its "State and Nation Policy Summit" has been the moving force behind legislation including the Stand Your Ground laws that protect reckless killers, voter suppression schemes and laws to strip workers of their right to bargain collectively for fair wages, benefits and working conditions.
ALEC is funded by massive "donations," from corporations who in return get to vote as equals with legislators on ALEC task forces. Corporations draft legislation that directly benefits their bottom line, sit with legislators at ALEC conferences and vote on model bills. ALEC state legislative leaders are tasked with getting ALEC bills introduced into law.
Rep. Mark Pocan ( D-WI ): "The only charity work ALEC does is on behalf of needy corporations and lonely legislators. It is past time that ALEC is exposed for what it is—a corporate lobbying firm doing the bidding of corporations. As the article details, they are now trying to not only hide their intensions, but their funding as well in a new "social welfare" organization. The IRS needs to step in and strip ALEC of its ability to rig the democratic system and rob the American taxpayers."
Rep. Jan Schakowsky ( D-IL ): "I was in the state legislature for eight years and saw how ALEC wined and dined legislators while they worked with rich corporations to push anti-consumer legislation. Their latest effort is to repeal the Affordable Care Act and they are pushing the Healthcare Freedom Act, which would suspend the licenses of health insurers that accept subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. This organization really operates in the interest of their corporate investors and not for public interests."
Rep. Ra�l Grijalva ( D-AZ ): "When you lose almost 400 state legislator members, more than 60 major corporate funders and more than a third of your projected income, you might not want to admit it, but it's the free market in action. ALEC has no one else to blame. It was instrumental in forming Arizona's anti-immigrant SB1070 law, which has torn families apart and helped the private prison industry profit at the expense of the communities I represent. This and countless other anti-family laws ALEC helped sponsor are hurting working people around the country. Everyone knows they're looking out for narrow interests that don't support the rest of us. That agenda has consequences, and they're only going to get worse until we beat their me-first message with the truth."
Nebraska State Senator Danielle Conrad, former ALEC member: "What I find most disturbing about these new revelations is that ALEC continues to move away from its right leaning tax focus and plunges deeper into radical social issues that have cost it members and donors. It is disappointing that ALEC is taking such great pains to expand its shadowy network by creating new front groups and contemplating dangerous loyalty oaths while in the same breath pledging to be more transparent. In Nebraska we have worked diligently to build bipartisan support to battle back their controversial proposals like 'Stand your Ground' and racially biased voter suppression."
Lisa Graves, Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy/publisher ofALECexposed.org and PRWatch.org: "The revelations in The Guardian leave no doubt that ALEC is a pay-to-play operation that advances the legislative agendas of corporations willing to pay up. ALEC's financial crisis is a reflection of the power of sunlight after far too many years when ALEC was able to operate largely in secret, pushing the extreme agenda into law of the Koch Brothers, Big Tobacco, and the gun industry. ALEC's forming a ( c )( 4 ) does not undo years of misleading the IRS about its lobbying while giving corporations a tax write-off."
