The Vancouver-based M.J. Murdock Trust contributes to groups associated with homophobia and hate. In 2016 the trust gave the Alliance Defending Freedom a $375,000 award. That same year, the Southern Poverty Law Center named the Alliance Defending Freedom a hate group, saying it “has supported the idea that being LGBTQ+ should be a crime in the U.S. and abroad and believes that is it OK to put LGBTQ+ people in prison for engaging in consensual sex.”
As recently as 2021, the trust contributed $463,500 to Focus on the Family. In 2016, the M.J. Murdock Trust gave the organization $350,000. That is a total of $813,500 in grants to an organization well known for its homophobia. Since its founding in 1977, Focus on the Family has amassed a lengthy list of anti-LGBTQ claims and comments, including opposition to same-sex marriage, same-sex parents and adoption, and employment protections for LGBTQ people.
The trust contributes to Christian organizations and that is clearly its prerogative. However, supporting Christian organizations and values is easily accomplished without aiding those who discriminate against or promulgate falsehoods about gay or transgender people. I urge the trust to stop supporting such organizations.
