The 2012 ballot isn’t the only place where a raging debate on same-sex marriage is taking place in Minnesota. Three same-sex couples filed an appeal in July in their bid to overturn Minnesota’s Defense of Marriage Act, and groups on both sides of the issue have filed paperwork with the court offering strongly worded arguments on the issue of marriage equality.
Lawyers for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a national conservative Christian legal organization, sent a letter to the Anoka-Hennepin School District this week urging it to maintain its “neutrality policy” on sexual orientation. The letter comes in response to a possible lawsuit by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Council for Lesbian Rights, two groups that have accused the district of creating an unsafe environment for LGBT students. The ADF argues that no changes are needed in the district, which has seen a spike in student suicides, including among LGBT students.
Minnesota for Marriage is touting a poll released last week by the religious right group, Alliance Defense Fund, that showed a majority of Americans believe that marriage should be defined as between one man and one women. That poll, which found 62 percent of Americans back that definition, was conducted by Republican pollster Public Opinion Strategies and has been criticized for its odd sampling as well as biased questioning.
The superintendent of a central Minnesota school district says a lawsuit against it by an anti-abortion legal group is a misunderstanding and that the litigation came out of the blue last Thursday. A representative of the Alliance Defense Fund, a national group that has sued numerous school districts, says the school should not be surprised by the lawsuit and claims it continues to violate students’ rights by not listing the All Life Is Valuable Club as “curricular.”
The national religious right legal group Alliance Defense Fund filed suit in the U.S. District Court of Minnesota last week on behalf of a student who is trying to form an anti-abortion rights group at the St. Michael-Albertville High School. The All Life Is Valuable (ALIV) Club was denied permission to become an “officially recognized club” because school administrators said it didn’t “support the student body as a whole.”
A judge has rejected an attempt by the Minnesota Family Council to intervene in a lawsuit challenging state law that bans same-sex marriage. Three same-sex couples filed a lawsuit against the state of Minnesota earlier this year arguing that the Defense of Marriage Act signed into law in 1997 violates the state Constitution. The Family Council argued that it should be part of the lawsuit, in part, because if DOMA is ruled unconstitutional, it will cost them millions to fight same-sex marriage. The court said the group has no standing to defend DOMA.
Twin Cities Pride and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board are locked in a disagreement over whether the Pride Festival, a gathering of nearly 300,000 LGBT people and allies held annually in Loring Park, should be compelled to allow an anti-gay group to distribute Bibles at the event. Festival organizers say they paid ten of thousands of dollars to secure the park for this weekend’s celebration, giving them a right to control the message of the event. The Park Board has given the OK to Brain and Lois Johnson to distribute the Bibles, saying it is merely standing up for free speech.
In response to a lawsuit filed in Hennepin County last month challenging Minnesota’s ban on same-sex marriage, the Minnesota Family Council is bringing in the Alliance Defense Fund, an evangelical legal group founded by James Dobson. ADF attorney…
Under pressure from the religious-right legal outfit Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), the city of Elk River removed an ordinance that banned religious groups from holding worship services in the city’s library. The council voted on Aug. 17 to remove the restriction.
The Internal Revenue Service’s investigations into alleged tax violations by two Minnesota-based churches have been thwarted by procedural problems. Those cases highlight the special tax-exempt status churches receive under federal law, but also problems at the IRS. While reforms are underway, the religious right is planning to take advantage of a neutered IRS by encouraging a mass law-breaking day when churches endorse candidates from the pulpit.
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