Anti-LGBT Hate Group Funneling Money To Iowa GOP Candidates

The state associate of an anti-LGBT hate group is donating thousands of dollars in state legislative races, according to finance reports filed with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board (IECDB). The Family Leader PAC has donated more than $5,000 to eight candidates since 2015.

The Family Leader describes themselves as being “in association with the Family Research Council, a pro-family, nonpartisan public policy organization based in Washington D.C. TFL works cooperatively with FRC President Tony Perkins and in coalition with numerous other state and national public-policy groups.”

The Family Research Council is designated as an anti-LGBT hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, for making “false claims about the LGBT community based on discredited research and junk science” as well as working “to denigrate LGBT people in its battles against same-sex marriage, hate crimes laws, anti-bullying programs and the repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.” The Family Research Council goes beyond national policy, working “at the grassroots level, conducting outreach to pastors in an effort to “transform the culture.”

In Iowa, The Family Research Council has found a local partner in The Family Leader, an organization that backs the use of conversion therapy to ‘cure’ LGBTQ youth, and whose President Bob Vander Plaats has compared homsexuality to pedophila as well as compared Supreme Court rulings in favor of same-sex marriage to past rulings in favor of slavery.

Click here to read the full description of the Family Research Council provided by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

During this election cycle, The Family Leader has donated to a handful of legislative candidates, totalling $5,650, in order to shore up support for their far-right agenda in the statehouse. Waylon Brown, the challenger to Senator Mary Jo Wilhelm, received the most of anyone with $3,000. It’d be interesting to know why Brown is so beloved among the far-right religious extremists in Iowa. Chris Hagenow and Ken Rizer, two incumbent House Republicans in moderate suburban swing districts also got funding. That might be acceptable to some voters in the most conservative areas of the state, but likely less so in Hagenow and Rizer’s districts where voters are much more accepting of gay people.

Below is the list of known donations, according to IECDB filings:

by Pat Rynard
Photo by Gage Skidmore
Posted 10/26/16