ThinkProgress filed this report from the ALEC conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.
This past weekend, hundreds of conservative lawmakers and lobbyists gathered in New Orleans for the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) annual meeting. The four-day conference was sponsored by a who’s-who of corporations, from BP to Walmart to Altria, that pay upwards of $100,000 for the opportunity to write legislation friendly to their interests and pass it along to state lawmakers. The corporate front group is so concerned with secrecy that it instructed hotel security guards to physically attack two ThinkProgress journalists covering the event.
However, it wasn’t just conservative legislation that was being passed around during ALEC’s meeting. Among the materials handed out to every attendee were anti-LGBT pamphlets from the Family Research Council, including the “Top Ten Myths About Homosexuality” and the “Top Ten Harms Of Same-Sex ‘Marriage’”.
The supposed myths included “people are born gay,” “sexual orientation can never change,” “homosexual conduct is not harmful to one’s physical health,” and “homosexuals are no more likely to molest children than heterosexuals.” In its second pamphlet, the FRC told conference-goers that expanding marriage to include same-sex couples will somehow mean “fewer people would marry,” “fewer people would remain monogamous,” and polygamy will soon result.
Previous in TP LGBT
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies as applicable, which can be found here.