Comptroller Wants to Ensure All Groups Receiving Donations Through State Employee Program Meet Nondiscrimination Requirements
The American Family Association is attacking the State of Connecticut’s comptroller after he launched an investigation to ensure the anti-gay group is eligible to receive donations from a state employee payroll deduction program. In response to the letter the comptroller, Kevin Lembo, sent the American Family Association, the AFA has responded publicly, by lying.
“State official demands AFA discard its Christians beliefs,” reads the lie, a call to action posted to AFA’s website. That post includes links to Lembo’s Facebook and Twitter pages, and a letter supporters of the anti-gay hate group can use, along with Lembo’s email address and two telephone numbers to contact him.
“This is a state government official coming directly after your AFA,” the post continues, “and the letter is nothing more than an attack on AFA for standing strong for Biblical principles. Moreover, it is an unconstitutional attack on the First Amendment rights of all religious organizations,” which of course is false.
Lembo late last month, after an employee brought the American Family Association’s participation in the program to his attention,  sent a letter stating that based on their actions and statements they’ve made on their website it appeared the AFA did not meet the state program’s nondiscrimination requirements. He requested they provide proof that they did, including signed documents attesting to their nondiscrimination practices.
The American Family Association appears on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of active anti-gay hate groups. And while they call themselves a “ministry,” they and their employees, as NCRM has chronicled over the past eight years, are a purveyor of lies and anti-LGBT hate.
“We have a responsibility to donors to ensure that participating organizations abide by the rules and regulations,” of the Connecticut State Employee Campaign for Charitable Giving program, Lembo’s letter reads, “particularly those that ensure inclusiveness and protection against discrimination.”
The voluntary program “allows Connecticut State Employees to contribute to non-profit charities at the workplace through the convenience of payroll deduction,” its website states.
Because Connecticut’s generous state employees have donated to date this year almost $1.4 million to several hundred charities, the AFA is angered they might be cut off from the Connecticut cash spigot. There is no reason state employees could not donate directly to the AFA but organized programs like the CSEC are very lucrative for many non-profits.
Lembo tells a local Connecticut NBC affiliate (video above) that he’s received over 10,000 emails from AFA supporters who oppose his actions. He says about ten percent of them are “over the top.”
The Family Research Council, another organization that appears on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s anti-gay hate groups list, is  now joining the attack against Lembo:
On Twitter, anti-gay supporters of the AFA have done their best to be as vile, offensive, or just plain ignorant as possible. A sampling (caution):
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