Americans for Truth about Homosexuality
{{Short description|American advocacy organization}}
{{Infobox non-profit
| name = Americans for Truth
about Homosexuality
| image = AFTAH Logo.jpg
| image_size = 240px
| caption = Logo
| founder = Peter LaBarbera
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| tax_id = 54-1829289 (EIN)
| location = Naperville, Illinois
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| founded_date = 1996
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| focus ="To expose the homosexual activist agenda"
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| revenue = $110,000 (2009){{cite web | url=http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2009/541/829/2009-541829289-067cd7cc-Z.pdf | title=IRS Form 990 federal tax return | publisher=GuideStar | accessdate=October 1, 2012}}
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| homepage = {{URL|http://americansfortruth.com/}}
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Americans for Truth about Homosexuality (AFTAH) is an organization which describes its mission as "exposing the homosexual activist agenda".{{cite web |url=http://www.aftah.org/about/ |title=About Americans for Truth and Founder Peter LaBarbera |publisher=Americans for Truth |accessdate=August 2, 2011 |archive-date=September 3, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110903105302/http://www.aftah.org/about/ |url-status=dead }} AFTAH rejects the idea that sexual orientation is innate and believes that people can "leave the homosexual lifestyle".{{cite web|title=About Americans for Truth and Founder Peter LaBarbera|url=http://americansfortruth.com/about/|publisher=AFTAH|accessdate=September 9, 2012}} AFTAH contends that there is a fundamental conflict between gay rights and religious freedom.{{cite news|title=First civil unions|url=https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-258003947|accessdate=|newspaper=Daily Herald|date=June 3, 2011|location=Arlington Heights, IL|archive-date=July 20, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720033349/https://www.gale.com/databases/questia|url-status=dead}} The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) designated it as an anti-LGBT hate group.{{cite news|last=Dininny|first=Shannon|title=Civil-rights history gets boost; Whitman College students to teach subject this week|newspaper=The Seattle Times|date=January 16, 2012|location=Seattle, WA}}{{cite news|last=Cruz|first=Hector|title=Naperville anti-gay group slams Elisabeth Hasselbeck for recent pro-gay marriage remarks|newspaper=Chicago Examiner|date=August 26, 2010|location=Chicago, IL|quote=Earlier this year, AFTAH was labeled as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for spreading hateful proganda, and claiming that homosexuality can be cured.}}
History
AFTAH was formed as a part-time enterprise in 1996 to oppose the "radical homosexual agenda." It was reorganized in 2006 by Peter LaBarbera. It was a 501(c)(3) United States tax-exempt organization until stripped of that designation in 2010, following years of failing to file the appropriate paperwork.{{cite web|last=Harmon |first=Andrew |url=http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/08/01/IRS_Revokes_Antigay_Groups_Tax_Exempt_Status/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120215065054/http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/08/01/IRS_Revokes_Antigay_Groups_Tax_Exempt_Status/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2012-02-15 |title=IRS Revokes Antigay Group's Tax Exempt Status |publisher=The Advocate |accessdate=2011-08-02 |df=mdy }} AFTAH's tax exempt status was reinstated in 2012{{cite web |last=LaBarbera |first=Peter |url=http://americansfortruth.com/2012/10/10/irs-reinstates-americans-for-truth-about-homoseality-as-501c3-tax-exempt-organization/ |title=IRS Reinstates Americans For Truth About Homosexuality as 501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Organization |publisher=Americans For Truth About Homosexuality |accessdate=2013-12-23 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20131223072025/http://americansfortruth.com/2012/10/10/irs-reinstates-americans-for-truth-about-homoseality-as-501c3-tax-exempt-organization/ |archive-date=December 23, 2013 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }} but again revoked in 2015.{{cite web |url=https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/displayAll.do?dispatchMethod=displayAllInfo&Id=639108&ein=541829289&country=US&deductibility=all&dispatchMethod=searchAll&isDescending=false&city=&ein1=54-1829289&postDateFrom=&exemptTypeCode=al&submitName=Search&sortColumn=orgName&totalResults=2&names=&resultsPerPage=25&indexOfFirstRow=0&postDateTo=&state=All+States |title=Americans for Truth About |website=IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search |accessdate=May 15, 2019}}
AFTAH is notable for using discredited work of Paul Cameron of the Family Research Institute which claims that gays and lesbians live vastly shorter lives than heterosexuals.{{cite magazine |first=Evelyn |last=Schlatter |title=18 anti-gay groups and their propaganda |date=November 4, 2010 |magazine=Intelligence Report |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2010/18-anti-gay-groups-and-their-propaganda |publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center }}
Activism
In 1997, LaBarbera, then an editor for the Family Research Council, criticized US President Bill Clinton for supporting the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) stating: "He's out there using his presidential power to boost the gay lobby. I think there is an increasing acceptance [of homosexuality], but the majority of Americans are put off by the kind of homosexual advocacy they are seeing."{{cite news|last=Thurman|first=Skip|title=Clinton to Openly Advocate Gay Rights|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/1997/1107/110797.us.us.4.html|accessdate=September 9, 2012|newspaper=The Christian Science Monitor|date=November 7, 1997}}
In 2009, AFTAH filed a lawsuit in US federal court against a Naperville, Illinois, Holiday Inn Select, because of the cancellation of a banquet the AFTAH planned to hold October 6, 2007, at the hotel. The hotel cancelled the AFTAH event after learning that it would likely draw protests from the Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network.{{cite news|last=Cichon|first=Kathy|title=Christian group sues Naperville hotel|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1N1-12AC7BC0A1812600.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130125112934/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1N1-12AC7BC0A1812600.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 25, 2013|accessdate=September 9, 2012|newspaper=The Herald News|date=August 31, 2009|location=Joliet, IL}} That same year, LaBarbera, while speaking at the Reclaiming Oklahoma for Christ Conference, called for a government study of the dangers of homosexual sex.{{cite news|last=Witkowski|first=D'Anne|title=Creep of the Week: Peter LaBarbera|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-2045888441.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160325041735/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-2045888441.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 25, 2016|accessdate=September 9, 2012|newspaper=Between the Lines|date=July 30, 2009}}
Criticism
In 2010, AFTAH was designated as an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for spreading "hateful propaganda", and claiming that homosexuality can be "cured".
See also
References
{{Reflist|2}}
External links
- {{official|url=http://americansfortruth.com/}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2012}}
Category:Organizations established in 1996
Category:1996 establishments in the United States
Category:Organizations based in Illinois
Category:Organizations that oppose LGBTQ rights in the United States