Monday, May 13, 2013

The Family Foundation's "Legislative Scorecard" Confirms It's An Religious Extremist Organization

This blog mentions The Family Foundation ("TFF") - a far right extremist organization that is the virtual ruler of the Republican Party of Virginia - with some regularity because it is among the most tenacious and underhanded opponents to LGBT equality and religious freedom for all Virginians.  If one follows the activities of TFF, it quickly becomes evident that it wants nothing less than a Christofascist theocracy and that it's claim to be an organization focused on "strengthening families"  is a lie.  That's right, a lie - just like virtually everything else that comes out of TFF.   Blue Virginia sums up TFF true agenda well:
Note that almost none of this has anything to do with actually strengthening families, for instance helping parents and their kids get jobs, healthcare, a high-quality education, etc. Instead, it's mostly highly divisive stuff that's pretty much straight out of Pat Robertson's and Ken Cuccinelli's "social conservative" (e.g., anti-gay, anti-women's-right-to-choose) agenda. 
So how does a legislator earn a 100% score from The Family Foundation?  Here is a sampling of the "proper" votes one must cast in the General Assembly per the TFF Legislative Scorecard:
*YES on tax credits for "school choice" - i.e., state funding of religious schools.
*NO on the nomination of Judge Tracy Thorne-Begland, purportedly because he opposed Virginia's anti-gay-marriage amendment, but in reality because he's gay.
*NO on adding sexual orientation to Virginia's non-discrimination hiring policy
*YES to allow homeschool children to participate in public school sports programs.
*YES on demolishing the wall between church and state by allowing for sectarian prayers at any public government meeting.
*NO on any state funding for Planned Parenthood.
*NO on ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment. 
*YES to forcing women to undergo invasive ultrasounds before considering an abortion.
*YES to allowing adoption private agencies funded by the Commonwealth to discriminate against gays and on the basis of religious affiliation.
*YES to allow student groups receiving taxpayer funds to discriminate against gays and non-Christians .
Not a word about anything that would really "strengthening families" but a great deal about granting special rights to Christofascists and trampling on the rights of Virginians who do not subscribe to TFF's hate, ignorance and fear based religious dogma.  


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