Michele Bachmann has confirmed that she will speak at the Values Voters Summit in Washington, DC, in October. Bachmann has attended the summit, put together by the Family Research Council, an organization that is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, for the past four years.
Anoka-Hennepin School District, the largest in the state of Minnesota, has been at the center of a tug of war between the LGBT community, which says the district is not safe for students, and religious right parents, who want all mentions of LGBT issues stricken from school curricula and programming. At issue is a policy that restricts LGBT content in the schools, a policy the school district said on Monday it would not change. In response, a pair of civil rights groups filed a lawsuit Thursday morning. In addition, federal authorities have opened an investigation into the school district.
Several religious right groups — including those listed as anti-gay hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center — rushed to Michele Bachmann’s defense following reports that she and her husband Marcus’ Christian counseling clinic performs therapy intended to cure homosexuality. The groups argued that the controversial therapy is successful and that media reports of the practices of Bachmann’s clinic amount to anti-Christian bias.
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.
The Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Center for Lesbian Rights sent a letter to the Anoka Hennepin School District on Tuesday demanding that the school district abandon its “neutrality policy,” which bars discussion of LGBT issues in district schools, and step up efforts to address bullying and harassment.
Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty has spent the past few weeks trying to curry favor with a slew of conservative religious figures, some so extreme they’ve been labeled “hate groups” by the Southern Poverty Law Center. He’s gone public about his plan to reinstate of the military’s ban on openly gay and lesbian servicemembers if elected president and claimed that America was founded “under God.” While Pawlenty has always been a social conservative, he hasn’t worn it on his sleeve this prominently. But will these new friends help or hamper his likely 2012 bid for president?
The Anoka-Hennepin School District and a lesbian coupled elected by their peers as royalty of Champlin Park High School’s Snow Days celebration reached an agreement on Saturday that will allow Sarah Lindstrom and Desiree Shelton to walk into the ceremony together. The Southern Poverty Law Center had filed a lawsuit against the district on Friday on behalf of the couple; that suit has now been dropped.
A lawsuit was filed in federal court Friday afternoon over the Anoka Hennepin School District’s refusal to allow a lesbian couple to walk together in the Snow Days coronation ceremony at Champlin Park High School. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the two students by the Southern Poverty Law Center, alleges that the school district violated the students’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, as well as the Minnesota Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Faegre & Benson, LLP, sent a letter to the Anoka-Hennepin School District on Friday threatening to take the district to court if it does not allow a lesbian couple elected by the student body to walk together during the Champlin Park High School Snow Days coronation ceremony on Monday.
Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, appearing on Bryan Fischer’s radio program on Wednesday to talk up his new book, said that if he’s elected president, he’ll reinstate Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the military’s ban on openly gay and lesbian servicemembers. Fischer works for the American Family Association, a group that the Southern Poverty Law Center named a hate group in November for spreading falsehoods about Muslim and LGBT Americans.
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