Ohio-based political lobbying group Center for Christian Virtue (CCV) – a primary driver behind anti-LGBTQ+ legislation at the Ohio Statehouse – has been reclassified as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
The non-profit first appeared on the national civil rights watchdog’s list of anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups in 2015 and 2017, while the group still operated under the name Citizens for Community Values.
Since then, CCV’s annual revenue has ballooned from $480,000 to more than $4.37 million – primarily the result of millions of dollars in large donor contributions.
The group has partnered strategically with elected officials and other anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups to help pass Ohio House Bill (HB) 68, the state’s current ban on gender-affirming health care for transgender youth.
In 2023 – following a six-year absence from the list – CCV was reclassified as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group following SPLC’s publication of project CAPTAIN, an in-depth report on “growing anti-LGBTQ+ pseudoscience and its primary manufacturers.”
Now, the civil rights group says CCV continues to “traffic in anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric,” solidifying its influence at the Ohio Statehouse and capitalizing on a political moment decades in the making.
Growing political influence
Between 2016 and 2020 alone, CCV’s total revenue jumped by more than 150%.
In 2021, the group purchased a 15,000 square-foot building located directly across from the Ohio Statehouse for $1.25 million, with an additional $3.75 million in planned renovations.
“This building, for us, signifies the importance of having a strong Christian voice in not just Ohio politics but in American politics,” CCV President Aaron Baer told The Columbus Dispatch that fall. “This is us saying we’re going to be competing for ideas at the highest levels and have a real commitment to excellence in all that we do.”
By spring, CCV had emerged as the primary driver behind Ohio House Bill 454, the first iteration of State Rep. Gary Click’s “Save Adolescents from Experimentation” (SAFE) Act – which bans gender-affirming health care for transgender minors and prohibits transgender girls and women from competing in women’s sports from kindergarten through college.
The organization lobbied extensively in favor of the bill – which defies global medical consensus – and helped facilitate public testimony in support of the bill, often recruiting anti-transgender witnesses from out of state to help build public opposition around gender-affirming health care.
One year after the bill died in committee during the 2020-2021 legislative session, Click’s second draft of the bill passed – when Republican legislators voted to override Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s decision to veto the bill.
National trends
Sarah Moore – an anti-LGBTQ+ extremism analyst for GLAAD, the nation’s most prominent media monitoring organization – currently runs GLAAD’s Anti-LGBTQ+ Extremism Reporting Tracker (ALERT) Desk, where she tracks, verifies and categorizes hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ incidents across the country.
The group also tracks CCV through the GLAAD Accountability Project. The project “catalogs anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and discriminatory actions of politicians, commentators, organization heads, religious leaders and legal figures who have used their platforms, influence and power to spread misinformation and harm LGBTQ people.”
Moore said CCV’s rise in political power and influence is part of a growing national political trend.
“We’ve seen this over and over. There are so many of these pseudo-legal-religious organizations that operate in a similar way,” Moore said. “There are always these smaller, state-level groups that big players will partner with.”
Since 2004, anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Focus on the Family (FOTF) has operated a separate lobbying and political action organization called the Family Policy Alliance (FPA). Today, the group includes more than 40 state organizations called “state policy councils” that help the group develop and facilitate anti-LGBTQ+ legislation at the state level.
In Ohio, CCV is listed on the FPA’s website under a list of groups with “alliance with state organizations.”
“We see these local groups leading on [anti-LGBTQ+ legislation] but being backed by a lot of big power players that will help bring in speakers that will testify in front of the state legislature,” Moore added. “They’ll do that same testimony all across the U.S., and there are very confusing and shady dealings on how they’re paying for this kind of travel and who’s bringing them in. In a lot of cases, they are not representative of the local community.”
For CCV, relationships with other anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) have proven fruitful.
The group – also classified as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group via SPLC’s Hate Map – has a powerful network of attorneys that help craft and deliver anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-transgender model legislation and public testimony to lawmakers across the country.
ADF attorney Matt Sharp provided public testimony in favor of both versions of Ohio’s gender-affirming health care ban.
Prominent out-of-state political speaker Chloe Cole also testified in favor of both versions, along with representatives from or witnesses with connections to several other SPLC-designated anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups or anti-trans activism groups, including:
- The American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds)
- Do No Harm
- Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine (SEGM)
- Partners for Ethical Care
- Focus on the Family (FOTF)
Yet in total, more than 870 groups and individuals submitted public testimony in resounding opposition to both bills, including: the Ohio Psychological Association (OPA), the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), the Ohio State Medical Association (OSM) and the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association (OCHA).
Of the 82 pieces of public testimony submitted in support of the bill, The Buckeye Flame counted at least 24 that were authored by groups or individuals with direct ties to SPLC-designated anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups.
‘Liberal political hacks’
In response to being classified as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group, Baer called the SPLC “corrupt,” – citing a handful of incidents in which the civil rights group has either issued public apologies or rescinded the status of groups or individuals that appeared on the list.
Most notably, the group issued a partial apology and clarification after publishing and extremism profile spotlighting conservative Republican and former U.S. presidential candidate Ben Carson in 2014.
In 2019, the group fired its founder, citing allegations of “racism and sexism” in the workplace.
“At some point I hope the press catches up with the SPLC’s political game and recognize them as the liberal political hacks they are,” he said in a post via the social media site X, formerly Twitter.
Baer has also called SPLC’s Hate Map “heinous” via posts made to X.
CCV did not respond to The Buckeye Flame’s request for comment regarding its current status as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group. 🔥
ignite action
- To access SPLC’s 2024 Hate Map, click here.
- To access The Center for Christian Virtue (CCV)’s GLAAD accountability profile, click here.
- To find contact information for your Ohio state representative, click here.
- To find contact information for your Ohio senator, click here.
- If you are a young LGBTQ+ person in crisis, please contact the Trevor Project: 866-4-U-Trevor.
- If you are an transgender adult in need of immediate help, contact the National Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860
Know an LGBTQ+ Ohio story we should cover? TELL US!
Submit a story!
