Several Christian groups based in the United States donated millions of dollars to fund campaigns against queer rights in Europe. An investigation by the media platform OpenDemocracy into the financial accounts of conservative organisations revealed that they have funnelled $51 million dollars towards the activities of anti-queer and anti-abortion causes in European countries.
Some of the groups have direct links to Donald Trump’s administration. The Alliance Defending Freedom and Focus on the Family have both received donations from Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and her family, as ProPublica reported. Earlier this week, DeVos refused to say that she opposes discrimination against queer students.
Alliance Defending Freedom told OpenDemocracy they champion causes related to freedom of speech and do not disclose “any recipients of funding in order to protect their personal safety and livelihoods.” They did not explain how oppressing queer people is a matter of freedom of speech.
The investigation found the ADF tripled its annual spending in Europe between 2012 and 2016, to more than $2.6 million a year. The ADF has offices in several European cities, including Brussels and Strasburg, which host the European Parliament. Alliance Defending Freedom is listed as a hate group by the monitoring organisation Southern Poverty Law Center due to their anti-LGBT ideology.
One of the places the group has been active in is Romania, which in October 2018 held a referendum to ban same-sex marriage by changing the definition of marriage in the constitution—which ultimately failed due to low turnout. More than a year ahead of the vote, in April 2017, Alliance Defending Freedom co-hosted a “referendum for the family” conference at the Romanian Parliament in Bucharest along with the local group Coalition for Family.
At least five of the groups analysed by OpenDemocracy also partner with the World Congress of Families, another organisation the Southern Poverty Law Center designated as an anti-queer hate group.