Kay Coles James

—Tweeted “The #EqualityAct is anything but equality. This bill would shut down businesses and charities, politicize medicine, endanger parental rights, and open every female bathroom and sports team to biological males.”

—Signed a letter supporting Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s Commission on Unalienable Rights, which bypassed the State Department’s existing human rights infrastructure, instead applying “natural law,” a conservative religious term for homophobic and transphobic views.

—In regard to a Heritage Foundation anti-transgender and anti-science event called “The Medical Harms of Hormonal and Surgical Interventions for Gender Dysphoric Children,“ The Southern Poverty Law Center wrote in a press release: “The Heritage Foundation’s policies are as extreme as those of the Family Research Council, a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group. Heritage dedicates significant energy to extremist policy recommendations that hinder access to abortion and birth control and discriminate against LGBTQ+ individuals.” Mary Alice Carter, executive director of Equity Forward, also said: “The Heritage Foundation attempts to masquerade as mainstream think tank, but in reality, it spouts hateful, homophobic, misogynistic views and policies that pose detrimental impacts to the health and well-being of Americans.

—The Heritage Foundation hired former Vice President Mike Pence, one of the most anti-LGBTQ elected officials in history. Heritage’s connections with the Trump White House included speaking invitations for at least 12 Cabinet or senior-level Trump officials in the administration’s first two years. Heritage touted it had around 50 former staff members taking positions in the Trump administration. Axios branded Heritage as the “White House pipeline.”