The Alliance Defending Freedom, The Heritage Foundation and Promise to America’s Children – are all organisations that, on the face of it, suggest honesty, decency and respect. On the face of it… let’s dig much deeper. In fact, on some issues, these three organisations work very closely together to promote a trans hostile environment.The Promise to America Children says this in regard to their “promises”. In reality, step one of their promises is to deny trans kids proper WPATH based healthcare …and steps two and three are designed to make trans kids’ lives as difficult and exclusionary as possible.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is actually named a hate group by the US human rights organisation Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC). Even their Wikipedia entry, which for sure they or their supporters have access to edit, is far from reassuring, saying:
“Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF, formerly Alliance Defense Fund) is an American conservative Christian legal advocacy group that works to curtail rights and protections for LGBTQ people. We have written about the ADF on previous occasions; they are often a “silent” group that often “makes the bullets” for others to fire.
From their Companies House submissions, we can get an idea of their activism in the UK. But what about in their homeland, the good US of old A?
Like in the UK, the ADF has to make public submissions regarding their “work” filled in their tax records with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
One fact becomes immediately apparent when looking at these records – for the year ending 2019, the ADF had 319 employed staff and 957 volunteers. Even more, telling is the fact that of 319 paid staff, 70 were lawyers. In short, the ADF are not so much a human rights organisation but an advocacy business, and in their “Statement of Program Service Accomplishments”, they say that themselves. It reads [any emphasis is ours]:
Legal advocacy:
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is an alliancebuilding legal organisation that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith. ADF champions Godgiven freedoms that allow for human flourishing while affirming the dignity of every person. ADF exists to facilitate an alliance of likeminded influencers from every sphere of the public square affecting law and culture, and to mobilise this alliance to protect the core values of religious freedom, the sanctity of human life, freedom of speech, and marriage and the family. ADF offers exceptional legal advocacy and expertise through over 70 staff attorneys based in Arizona, Georgia, Virginia, Washington D.C., New York City, and around the world.
Together with a network of 3,700 allied attorneys, ADF has a nearly 80% success rate in our cases and has won 11 Supreme Court victories since 2011. ADF works with over 1,000 allied organisations to create effective strategies for establishing critical legal precedents to preserve religious liberty in state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as international courts and governing bodies such as the European Court of Human Rights and the United Nations. ADF serves our network of allies by providing training, coordination, funding, legal expertise, and litigation services in support of our allied attorneys, church and parachurch organisation leaders, legislators and legislative staff members, business leaders, clients, student leaders, and other key allies.
Their statement continues:
Allied support and training:
As an alliancebuilding legal organisation that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith, ADF is committed to equipping allies to defend and promote religious liberty to the best of their ability, and to transform law and culture so true freedom can flourish. To this end, ADF offers worldclass training for Christian attorneys and professionals, law students, and college students interested in pursuing a career in law, public policy, government, journalism, and other cultureshaping fields. Through the ADF Summit on Religious Liberty, Legal Academy programs, and other training events, practicing attorneys, legal advocates, business leaders, clergy, policy leaders, and media leaders are invited to participate in worldclass training, strategy, and networking sessions around the world. More than 2,100 U.S. and international attorneys have completed an ADF Legal Academy training, and over 3,700 ADF allied attorneys have volunteered pro bono legal advocacy services to local and international communities valued at over $225 million.
This amount far exceeds the cost of these programs. Most U.S. state bars accept accreditation for portions of the legal advocacy training with continuing legal education credit. Through the Blackstone Legal Fellowship, ADF trains top Christian law students from around the world on natural law, constitutional jurisprudence and interpretation, and effective legal advocacy. Blackstone prepares these students for careers marked with integrity, excellence, and leadership and to approach their careers as a way to promote the common good.
The program consists of courses taught by prominent lecturers, internships around the world with influential legal organisations, and professional career services. To date, over 2,400 students are alumni of the Blackstone Legal Fellowship, representing 227 law schools worldwide. ADF offers similar programs for university students and young professionals who seek to live out their faith in the fields of law, government, public policy, and journalism. To date, more than 1,000 participants have graduated from these programs, many of whom go on to attend the Blackstone Legal Fellowship during law school.
Public education:
ADF provides information to the public about the importance of proper laws concerning freedom of religion, freedom of speech, the sanctity of every human life, and the values of marriage and family in the United States and throughout the world. This is done through various means, including opeds at prominent publications, comprehensive webinars, press releases, and our new Freedom Matters video series on Youtube, which has garnered over 15 million views since launching in the spring of 2020. ADF engages in this public education to inform and raise awareness of the following: The vision of the Founders concerning the U.S. Constitution to reflect natural law; entities that seek to distort or repurpose the Constitution’s original meaning; domestic and international challenges to religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and family values; and how and where civil liberties have been jeopardised or thwarted and the efforts of ADF and its allies to reclaim those freedoms. ADF public education efforts also serve to recruit potential allies and to highlight the advocacy work of the alliance in order to position ourselves to serve as the first line of defense for individuals and organisations whose religious freedom is at risk. ADF also requests that the recipients of these educational communications remember our activities in prayer.
ADF provides information to the public about the importance of proper laws concerning freedom of religion, freedom of speech, the sanctity of every human life, and the values of marriage and family in the United States and throughout the world. This is done through various means, including opeds at prominent publications, comprehensive webinars, press releases, and our new Freedom Matters video series on Youtube, which has garnered over 15 million views since launching in the spring of 2020. ADF engages in this public education to inform and raise awareness of the following: The vision of the Founders concerning the U.S. Constitution to reflect natural law; entities that seek to distort or repurpose the Constitution’s original meaning; domestic and international challenges to religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and family values; and how and where civil liberties have been jeopardised or thwarted and the efforts of ADF and its allies to reclaim those freedoms. ADF public education efforts also serve to recruit potential allies and to highlight the advocacy work of the alliance in order to position ourselves to serve as the first line of defence for individuals and organisations whose religious freedom is at risk. ADF also requests that the recipients of these educational communications remember our activities in prayer.
In the UK, we know that the ADF organised briefing notes or had an interest in several Gender Critical legal cases, including both the Keira Bell and Maya Forstater actions.
Their IRS statement does not hide their advocacy with Europe and that they are “pro-life” – in short, heavily restricting bodily autonomy that is a womens right to choose.
Abortion.
If you believe abortion rights in the UK are 100% safe – think again. The ADF want them gone!
Their IRS submission tells us more such as their income exceeded 65 million U.S dollars, circa £58 million U.K pounds.
The founder of the ADF is Alan Sears, who received compensation from the organisation $803,981, some £720,000.
In the section “Supplemental Information” we learn this about Mr Sears:
Alan Sears is the founding President, CEO, and General Counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom. In September 1993 Mr. Sears became ADF’s first employee and opened the first ADF office with $4,700 in the bank. Mr. Sears dedicated himself to building ADF from a startup organisation, and after successfully leading ADF to achieve tremendous growth and worldwide impact, Mr. Sears formally announced to the ADF Board of Directors in 2016 his desire to step down. Mr. Sears entered into a separation agreement with the Board that guaranteed Mr. Sears would remain at ADF in the role of Founder to ensure the orderly and successful transition to the new ADF President and CEO, and to honor Mr. Sears for his 23 years of sacrificial and extraordinary service to ADF. Michael Farris succeeded Mr. Sears at the beginning of 2017 and Mr. Sears remained at ADF until July 31, 2019. Reported in this Form 990, is Mr. Sears’ partial compensation for 2019, and the first of two installments (in the amount of $485,633) in accordance with the terms of the separation agreement.
But the IRS document tells us even more.
In the section heading “General Information on Activities Outside the United States” we learn that the ADF sent over five million dollars to other countries, over four million of which was sent to Europe.
In the UK, the ADF has offices just yards from Downing Street and is starting to make itself more visible in UK affairs – welcome to the world of 2022.
The world of far-right politics.
The world of the allies to Posie Parker.
The world of the Gender Critical.
3rd of October 2022
