The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)
has labeled as “fake news” reports that it supports the
criminalization of gay sex.
ADF has been in the headlines lately
because the legal group is representing several clients who believe
they have the right to deny services to the LGBT community. The
Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in one case involving a
Colorado baker.
(Related: Baker
who refused gay couple says Jesus would do the same.)
Also, the group last week hosted
Attorney General Jeff Sessions at its Summit on Religious Liberty in
California, where he promised the group that the Department of
Justice is preparing guidance to protect “religious liberty.”
(Related: At
ADF summit, Jeff Sessions promised DOJ guidance on “religious
freedom.”)
In a press release condemning Sessions'
participation in the event, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)
described ADF as a “hate group” that “specializes in supporting
the criminalization of homosexuality abroad.”
Speaking to One News Now, a Christian
news site, ADF Director of Communications Kerri Kupec lashed out at
ABC News for repeating SPLC's description of ADF as a “hate group,”
calling it “journalistic malpractice.”
“I have no idea where that came
from,” Kupec said of SPLC's claim that the group supports the
criminalization of gay sex. “That's fake news, for sure.”
SPLC President Richard Cohen responded
in a statement.
“The Alliance Defending Freedom
spreads demonizing lies about the LGBT community in this country and
seeks to criminalize it abroad. If the ADF had its way, gay people
would be back in the closet for fear of going to jail. It was
inappropriate for Attorney General Sessions to lend his credibility
to the group by appearing before it, and it was ironic that he would
suggest that the rights of ADF sympathizers are under attack when the
ADF is doing everything in its power to deny the equal protection of
the laws to the LGBT community,” Cohen said.