ADF says discrimination comes with a price (*so they can profit from it)

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08/26/2013

by Jeremy Hooper

When it comes to hiding the obvious fundraising motivation that lies behind the "pro-family" movement's constant claims, the other side is just getting sloppy. Check out this Alliance Defending Freedom graphic, which claims a photographer who wanted to discriminate had to pay a "price" for pointedly denying business to a lesbian couple:

[ADF]

Well of course ADF wants to put a price tag on stories like this; ADF has bills to pay! Even though the New Mexico high court did the obvious, ruling that a business that seeks itself to the public must comply with local nondiscrimination laws, ADF wants to convince its supporters that helping ADF stay in business will somehow change the merits in this case. It won't, but ADF traffics in this kind of false hope.

A few years back, when I mentioned a particularly disingenuous thing that his own organization did, a guy who works at one of the anti-equality groups you read about here on G-A-Y actually said to me, "Yeah, but that's just fundraising." It was actually shocking to hear someone on the inside admit what is so obvious to people like me. The fact of the matter is that opposition groups deliberately rile up the other side and give them these falsely optimistic memes because it is the only way—THE.ONLY.WAY.—they can keep making money off of this fight. If they are honest about the inevitability of things like marriage equality or if they delve into the obvious reasons why business owners must follow fair business practices (be it in terms of race, gender, sexual orientation, etc), then their supporters will rightly look elsewhere. They need to have these kinds of campaigns in order to keep the lights on. Many of them know that it's "just fundraising"—they just don't want their support base to know it.

Unfortunately for them, I was always the kind of kid who pulled back the curtain.

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