GLAAD statement on the Betsy DeVos U.S. Senate confirmation vote
After weeks of negative press surrounding her anti-LGBTQ record and nomination to be the next Secretary for Education, Betsy DeVos was confirmed.
“Alarmingly high numbers of LGBTQ youth already report feeling unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation and gender identity,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, GLAAD President & CEO. “Confirming a nominee for Secretary of Education with a troubling record on LGBTQ rights will do nothing to protect our nation’s most vulnerable students and sends a message that our elected officials choose partisan politics over our children’s safety and well-being.”
BACKGROUND: Betsy DeVos, Headliner to Donald Trump’s Anti-LGBTQ Administration
Anti-LGBTQ Family History
DeVos sat on the board of the anti-LGBTQ Acton Institute from 1995–2005. [Huffington Post, 11.24.16]
DeVos Family Has Donated to Numerous Anti-LGBTQ Organizations which Support “Conversation Therapy” and Anti-LGBTQ Adoption Agencies. The DeVos family has funded anti-LGBTQ organizations ranging from Focus on the Family, which openly advocates for so-called “conversion therapy,” to Bethany Christian Services, an adoption agency that excludes LGBTQ parents and advocates for laws that allow them to do so, and the Heritage Foundation, which strategizes against LGBTQ policy. [Political Research Associates, 12.22.15]
DeVos’s Father Founded the Family Research Council, a hate group designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center. [Newsweek, 10.13.07]
DeVos on Marriage Equality
In 2004, DeVos Advocated and Funded Efforts to Ban Same-Sex Marriage in Michigan. “In 2004 Betsy and Dick DeVos led the effort to put the anti-marriage amendment on the ballot and contributed over $200,000 to the campaign to enshine discrimination into the Michigan constitution.” [Pride Source, 1.10.13]
DeVos Said Marriage Equality was Driven by “Coastal Elites.” “There is one party that takes millions of dollars from celebrities and elites and in turn enthusiastically embraces their values, that chuckles at or cheers the destruction of our traditions and the coarsening of our culture, and that believes it is no big deal to redefine the most fundamental institution of mankind. But fortunately, there is another party in America that recognizes marriage between one man and one woman as an institution that was created not by man, but by God. That party will not be intimidated by the coastal elites in Hollywood or Boston. That party is not ashamed to stand up for marriage.” [Michigan GOP State Convention, 2.6.05]
www.glaad.org/blog/glaad-statement-betsy-devos-us-senate-confirmation-vote
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