Alliance Defending Freedom Accused by Ally of âDisingenuousâ Lobbying at Tennessee Legislature
In a Feb. 23 blog post, David Fowler, former Tennessee state senator and current president of Family Action Council of Tennessee (FACT), took aim at the lobbying efforts of anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Alliance Defending FreedomĚý(´ĄśŮšó).
While praising Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alitoâs reasoning in a recent case to which ADF submitted an amicus brief, Fowler accused the longtime FACT ally of supplying âinconsistentâ information to state legislators about the legal power of state governments to encode conservative âparental rightsâ into state law.
According to Fowler, Alitoâs opinion highlights weaknesses in the testimony an ADF lawyer recently gave to the Tennessee Senate Judiciary Committee about a  called the Familiesâ Rights and Responsibilities Act (FRRA). The testimony also contradicts ADFâs federal lobbying efforts, according to Fowler, suggesting a strategy to encourage state lawmakers to adopt anti-LGBTQ+ regulations that the group also claims are the purview of the federal government. Ultimately, Fowler claims, ADFâs âinconsistentâ lobbying practices are evidence of a plan among prominent âChristian legal or policyâ groups to increase the power of the federal government over so-called âparental rights.â
The dispute reveals potential cracks in the anti-LGBTQ+ coalition over how to define and enforce their conception of parental rights.
A âwhopping inconsistencyâ: ADF and federal regulation of parentsâ rights?
Fowlerâs article primarily takes issue with the way ADF lobbies at the state and federal level for so-called âparental rightsâ bills â proposals that generally create broad protections for religious objections to educational and medical practices that ultra-conservative Christian activists typically disagree with, such as LGBTQ+-affirming health care or counseling. In Tennessee, the FRRA proposal includes penalties for public employees and doctors who violate the new âparental rightsâ spelled out in the bill.
Fowler criticizes ADF for encouraging state legislators in a Feb. 20 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to adopt the bill by saying that Congress has no power to regulate âparental rights,â while the group previously endorsed a federal law, also called FRRA, allowing Congress to exercise that power. This âwhopping inconsistencyâ between what ADF told the state legislators and its actions at the federal level is âdisingenuous at best,â Fowler said.
Fowler accused ADF of âgiving to Tennesseans in one hand what is necessary to placate me ⌠while, with the other hand, working in D.C. to take it away.â According to Fowler, ADF is helping establish federal control over âparental rights,â which he said is what ADF âis after, regardless of what it tells Tennesseeâs legislators.â He said that he would âview with skepticismâ any potential language developed by ADF to âfixâ the problems he sees with the state bill.
In a footnote to the piece, Fowler also criticizes multiple anti-LGBTQ+ hate and antigovernment groups and their allies, including ADF, Family Watch International, and Moms for Liberty for supporting âfederalizing parental rights.â
Softening the edges
Fowler is a longtime crusader against marriage equality in Tennessee, having  against a bill banning child marriage in 2018 because, he argued according to local media, it would interfere with his legal challenges to marriage equality in the state. Like other family policy councils operating in more than 35 states, FACT claims on its website several âstrategic alliances,â including partnerships with Focus on the Family, Family Research Council and ADF. In his Feb. 23 blog post, Fowler never mentioned ADF by name, but the article links to ADFâs website.
While the original post was published Friday, Feb. 23, the blog was republished the following Thursday, according to a Hatewatch review of cached copies of the page stored on several internet search sites and Fowler.
The updated language appears to soften some of the critiques. For example, Fowler removed his description of ADFâs lobbying tactic as a âwhopping inconsistencyâ and his âskepticismâ about any legislative language ADF proposed to âfixâ the state FRRA. Fowler also removed his assessment that ADF was attempting to âplacateâ him, because he âraised a huge stink," while the group continued its federal lobbying efforts to support a national FRRA.
In a statement to Hatewatch, Fowler said the blog was deleted and republished to clarify language related to the federal FRRA, but said, âNothing was changed with respect to links showing ADFâs support of the federal billâ and added that ADFâs leadership is âwell awareâ of his position.
Two days before Fowler published the edited post, local media reported that an ADF attorney  the Tennessee state Capitol to hold a press conference with state lawmakers about a different bill. Neither Fowler nor FACT was listed on the ADF press release announcing the press conference.
Photo illustration by ĂŰĚŇ´ŤĂ˝