Opposition to LGBTQ equality has long been both a fundamental value and useful political tool for many U.S. conservative organizations, especially those associated with the Christian Right. Even as visibility and mainstream acceptance of LGBTQ people grows, the Christian Right continues their ongoing “pro-family” campaign, which enforces heterosexuality, champions gender essentialism or “complementarity,” and prioritizes procreation.

While substantial progress has been made in terms of legal rights, political representation, and cultural approval, these advances have not uniformly served all members of the LGBTQ community. Though hailed as a great victory by some, federal marriage equality in the U.S. has done little to alter the day to day lived realities of LGBTQ people affected by economic exploitation, geopolitical turmoil, and other effects of Western imperialism. Additionally, anti-trans rhetoric and campaigning is on the rise, fueled by right-wing fear mongering and pseudoscience and backed by an extensive Christian Right legal and political infrastructure. 

Political Research Associates condemns the criminalization of sexual minorities and calls on American and international religious and political leaders to denounce the reintroduction of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda, which reportedly passed…

Gay Marriage in the 2012 Election

The political world was abuzz this spring when the National Organization for Marriage’s confidential battle plan to block LGBTQ marriage rights became public in a Maine lawsuit and the Human Rights Campaign posted it for the world to see.

How the U.S. Christian Right Is Transforming Sexual Politics in Africa

While U.S. Christian Right leaders made headlines when international pressure forced them to retract support for Uganda’s notorious Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009, a new report by Political Research Associates shows that U.S. Christian Right groups…

On the heels of President Barack Obama’s public statement favoring marriage equality, a new Political Research Associates (PRA) report indicates that homophobia remains one of the most successful right-wing tools for mobilizing electoral …

How the Tea Party Sustains the Anti-LGBT Right

2011 was a frustrating year for the anti-LGBT Right. Despite millions of voters and many millions of dollars generated by a loose coalition of conservative forces to oppose LGBT rights, the LGBT rights movement has made tremendous progress. While…

Right-Wing Responses to LGBT Gains

The hard truth: homophobia remains one of the right-wing’s most successful tools for mobilizing political support. Even as LGBT advocates celebrate recent victories—four ballot measure victories in 2012, President Obama’s public support for marriage…

For two days in early March 2009, Ugandans flocked to the Kampala Triangle Hotel for the Family Life Network’s “Seminar on Exposing the Homosexuals’ Agenda.” The seminar’s very title revealed its claim: LGBT people and activists are engaged in a…

U.S. Conservatives, African Churches, and Homophobia

A groundbreaking investigation by Political Research Associates discovered that sexual minorities in Africa have become collateral damage to our domestic conflicts and culture wars. U.S. conservative evangelicals are promoting an agenda in Africa…

How the Right Succeeded in Passing Proposition 8

On June 26, 2008, 1,000 ministers, mostly from evangelical congregations, met by conference call to discuss tactics for passing Proposition 8, a ballot initiative to ban same sex marriage in California by amending the state constitution.

Sex Education as Ideology

Abstinence only sex education is widely spread across the United States, pushed by friends in high places, and the Christian Right.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Political Research Associates, American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action call on Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney to condemn bigoted statements made by…

Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Education in U.S. Schools

The welfare reform law of 1996, premised on the unproven claim that poor women’s failure to marry is the cause of high rates of family poverty in the United States, promoted an abstinence-only-until-marriage policy that teaches that sex outside the…

The Erosion of U.S. Democracy

Introduction Right-wing leaders often appropriate progressive themes by calling for rule by “the people,” equal opportunity, and “equality” feminism. Their rhetoric has convinced many voters that the Right offers a more fair and direct form of…

Colorado's Right-Wing Attacks On Homosexuals

An eerie unease hangs in the air in Colorado. For lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals, nagging questions pervade everyday life: did the kindly person who just gave me her parking place vote for Amendment 2? Did my landlord vote for the amendment,…

Pride Becomes a Movement

Readers who want to defend and advance the gay and lesbian rights movement will find these three recent books particularly helpful. They document the conditions under which lesbians and gay men struggle for liberation. To read about those condi…