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Anti-gay group calls for federal probe of HRC, IRS

NOM says HRC received ‘stolen’ list of confidential donors

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Brian Brown, National Organization for Marriage, gay news, gay politics dc

NOM President Brian Brown responded to the document leak this week, claiming the anti-gay group works with black and Hispanic leaders to combat marriage equality. (Blade file photo by Michael Key)

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the anti-gay group leading efforts to oppose same-sex marriage laws, is calling for a federal investigation of the Human Rights Campaign and the IRS.

In a statement released on Thursday, NOM expressed outrage that HRC on March 30 released a confidential 2008 IRS tax return from the Washington, D.C.-based group showing a list of 50 contributors to the group’s campaign supporting Proposition 8. Proposition 8 is the ballot measure through which voters overturned California’s same-sex marriage law.

“It appears that someone with either the IRS or the HRC may have committed a federal crime by illegally obtaining and then releasing a confidential tax return of the National Organization for Marriage,” said Brian Brown, the group’s president. “It’s clear that the tax return was stolen, either from NOM or from the government.”

HRC has said it obtained the NOM IRS filing through a whistleblower but has not provided further details on the whistleblower’s identity.

Anti-gay marriage organization questions gay rights group, government tax service

NOM’s call for an investigation into the release of the IRS form comes less than two weeks after HRC legally acquired and publicized internal NOM documents obtained through an ongoing investigation by the State of Maine into alleged improper campaign finance practices by NOM.

Those documents include a strategic plan by NOM to “drive a wedge between gays and blacks” in an effort to defeat same-sex marriage laws throughout the country. LGBT and black civil rights leaders have condemned the NOM strategy as a calculated attempt to divide Americans for political gain.

The documents were made public on March 26 by the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices.

The Maine investigation began after gay Republican activist Fred Karger of California filed a formal complaint charging NOM with illegal “money laundering” in its campaign to pass Amendment 1, a 2009 ballot measure that overturned Maine’s same-sex marriage law.

“It’s the height of hypocrisy for NOM to claim others are violating the law – since NOM has flagrantly violated campaign finance and tax laws and is currently under investigation,” said Fred Sainz, an HRC spokesperson. “NOM is clearly trying to change the conversation away from their unethical practices as well as the secret memos that we brought to light last week showing their ugly race-baiting tactics and their nondisclosure of a contribution from Governor Romney that was clearly meant for Prop 8,” Sainz said.

He was referring to a $10,000 contribution shown in the leaked IRS tax return identified as coming from a political action committee formed by Mitt Romney, the current GOP presidential candidate, called Free and Strong America. The 2008 contribution was made to NOM, and HRC and other LGBT advocates say it was intended to support efforts to pass Proposition 8.

“We’re talking about a criminal who has stolen confidential tax return information,” Brown of NOM said in the group’s April 5 statement. “We demand to know who this criminal is, whether they work for the HRC or the IRS, and how they obtained confidential tax information filed only with the U.S. government,” Brown said.

“I would like to know what the HRC knew and when did they know it,” added Brown. “It certainly appears that either the HRC was involved in illegally obtaining this tax return themselves, or they worked with a criminal who stole it from NOM or the IRS. Either way, it appears that a federal crime may have been committed.”

Brown said in his statement that he would submit a “written demand” that the IRS and the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia open an investigation into the matter.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office declined to comment. “We typically do not confirm or deny investigations and have no comment,” the spokesperson said in an email to the Blade.

A spokesperson for the IRS didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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National

Trump refers to Anderson Cooper as ‘Allison’

Crude insults continue in effort to attract male voters

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Donald Trump is referring to CNN’s Anderson Cooper as ‘Allison.’

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump referred repeatedly over the weekend to CNN’s Anderson Cooper as “Allison Cooper.”

Cooper, one of the nation’s most prominent openly gay television anchors, moderated a town hall last week with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump last Friday called Anderson “Allison” in a social media post, then used the moniker again at a Michigan rally.

“If you watched her being interviewed by Allison Cooper the other night, he’s a nice person. You know Allison Cooper? CNN fake news,” Trump said, before adding, “Oh, she said no, his name is Anderson. Oh, no.”

Trump repeated the name during another Michigan rally on Saturday, according to the Associated Pres, then followed it up during a reference in Pennsylvania. “They had a town hall,” Trump said in Michigan. “Even Allison Cooper was embarrassed by it. He was embarrassed by it.”

Describing Anderson Cooper as female plays into offensive and stereotypical depictions of gay men as effeminate as Trump continues to pursue the so-called “bro vote,” amping up crude and vulgar displays in an effort to appeal to male voters.

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Pennsylvania

Transgender Honduran woman canvasses for Harris in Pa.

Monserrath Aleman is CASA in Action volunteer

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Monserrath Aleman, a transgender woman in Honduras, has canvassed in Pennsylvania for Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democratic candidates. (Photo by Phil Laubner/CASA in Action)

A transgender woman from Honduras has traveled to Pennsylvania several times in recent weeks to campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democratic candidates.

Monserrath Aleman traveled to York on Aug. 31 and Lancaster on Sept. 21 with a group of other volunteers from CASA in Action. 

They door-knocked in areas where large numbers of African Americans, Black, and Latino voters live. Aleman and the other CASA in Action volunteers urged them to support Harris, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), and other down ballot Democratic candidates.

Aleman will be in Harrisburg on Nov. 2, and in York on Election Day.

“We achieved the goal that we had in mind and that we wanted to achieve,” she told the Washington Blade on Oct. 22 during a Zoom interview from Baltimore. “We knocked on doors, passed out flyers.”

Aleman cited Project 2025 — which the Congressional Equality Caucus on Thursday sharply criticized — when she spoke with the Blade.

“We know that there is a Project 2025 plan that would affect us: The entire immigrant Latino community, the LGBTI community, everyone,” said Aleman. “So that’s why I’m more motivated to go knocking on doors, to ask for help, for support from everyone who can vote, who can exercise their vote.”

She told the Blade that she and her fellow volunteers “did not have any bad response.”

Aleman grew up in Yoro, a city that is roughly 130 miles north of the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa.

She left Honduras on Nov. 25, 2021.

Aleman entered Mexico in Palenque, a city in the country’s Chiapas state that is close to the border with Guatemala. The Mexican government granted her a humanitarian visa that allowed her to legally travel through the country.

Aleman told the Blade she walked and took buses to Ciudad Juárez, a Mexican border city that is across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas.

She scheduled her appointment with U.S. Customs and Border Protection while living at a shelter in Ciudad Juárez. Aleman now lives in Baltimore.

“Discrimination against the LGBTI community exists everywhere, but in Honduras it is more critical,” said Aleman.

Aleman added she feels “more free to express herself, to speak with someone” in the U.S. She also said she remains optimistic that Harris will defeat former President Donald Trump on Election Day.

“There is no other option,” said Aleman.

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National

HRC rallies LGBTQ voters in 12 states ahead of Election Day

10 Days of Action campaign targets pro-equality candidate

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Human Rights Campaign headquarters (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The Human Rights Campaign said it filled 1,426 new volunteer shifts and held 174 events across key swing states between Oct. 10-20 as part of its 10 Days of Action campaign. 

The LGBTQ civil rights advocacy group is working to mobilize and turn out voters in support of pro-equality and LGBTQ candidates, including the Harris-Walz ticket, on Election Day.

HRC reported exceeding its recruitment goals, noting the strong response across the 12 states as a “clear and resounding message” that LGBTQ and allied voters are energized to back the Harris-Walz ticket. 

To kick off the 10 Days of Action, Gwen Walz, the spouse of Minnesota governor and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, spoke at a Philadelphia event that HRC and the Out for Harris-Walz coalition hosted on Oct. 10.

Walz highlighted her husband’s long-standing support for LGBTQ issues, such as his role in fighting to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in Congress and banning so-called conversion therapy as governor, according to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star

Other events launched canvassing efforts for Senate candidates, such as U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.), along with House candidates, such as Will Rollins and Mondaire Jones in California and New York respectively. 

A virtual organizing call on Oct. 11 that the Out for Harris-Walz coalition hosted featured prominent figures, including actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Andy Cohen, U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), and Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride, who is running for Congress.

To close out the 10 Days of Action, HRC President Kelley Robinson canvassed with LGBTQ organizers in Phoenix on Oct. 20. 

In a statement, Robinson said the campaign’s work is “far from over.”

“We plan to spend every day until the election making sure everyone we know is registered to vote and has a plan to vote because no one is going to give us the future we deserve — we have to fight for it and show America that when we show up, equality wins,” she said. “Together, we will elect pro-equality leaders like Vice President Harris and Governor Walz who value our communities and are ready to lead us forward with more freedom and opportunity.”

A September HRC poll found that LGBTQ voters favor Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in the presidential race by a nearly 67-point margin.

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