Yet another media mogul has slammed religious freedom group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) as an “anti-LGBTQ hate group” as it defends a Christian baker who refused to sell a cake for a gay couple’s wedding. This time, it was late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert.
On July 14, Colbert started a monologue that was aimed at Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Quoting NBC and CNN, Colbert said: “Earlier this week, Sessions spoke to an anti-LGBTQ hate group in a closed door speech.”
Colbert then looked into the camera: “Come on guys it’s 2017! It’s ok to come out: let your hate flag fly! You’re here, you fear, we’re used to it!”
The Alliance Defending Freedom is providing baker Jack Phillips with representation in an upcoming Supreme Court case, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The group has demanded an apology from the networks who smeared it with the label “hate group.”
The late-night talk show host clearly failed to do any homework on what the ADF actually is, and let the nets speak for him instead. “No cake for gays, no bathrooms for transgender people,” Colbert listed off what he thought the ADF believed in.
Neither of those accusations made any sense. The baker represented by the ADF told the courts that if it were a cake for any other occasion (besides a homosexual wedding), he would have sold it to the gay couple currently suing him. And nowhere does the ADF list that they don’t believe transgender people should use the bathroom. At that point, both Colbert and NBC seem like they are desperately grasping at straws in order to have something to throw at the ADF.
Colbert then went on to “speculate” just what Sessions’ speech was to the ADF. Using a Keebler cookie to represent Sessions, he told the audience, “Pay no attention to the man behind the cookie!”
Time magazine reported in a summary of Colbert’s diatribe that “The ADF was designated as a hate group by the SPLC in 2016.” Salon raved over the monologue, saying “Leave it to Colbert to perfectly parody the likely bigoted speech.” Huffpost titled their article, “Stephen Colbert Shreds Jeff Sessions for Meeting with Anti-LGBTQ group.” Nobody bothered to point out the obvious errors made in the monologue and in NBC’s story.
