IRS Under Trump Allowed a Decades-Old Influential Anti-LGBTQ Hate Group to Change Its Tax Status and Become a Church
In 2020, under President Donald Trump’s Internal Revenue Service, an anti-LGBTQ hate group whose leader had “open door” access to the Oval Office was quietly and quickly allowed to change its tax status to become a church.
That designation, as ProPublica reports Monday, “comes with the ability for an organization to shield itself from financial scrutiny.” For many years the Family Research Council has been known for appearing on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of anti-LGBTQ hate groups.
Founded in 1981 by James Dobson, who also founded Focus on the Family, FRC has been headed by former Louisiana Republican state lawmaker Tony Perkins (photo, with Trump) for nearly two decades.
Many Americans know that FRC has targeted the LGBTQ community in the U.S., and around the world. Under Perkins’ leadership, the organization spent tens of thousands of dollars lobbying Congress to support Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” legislation.
