Tiny Queer Footballs

Americans For Lies About Homosexuality?

I want to know why the group known as Americans for Truth About Homosexuality only calls itself Americans for Truth?  Look at their front page.  The president of the group, Peter LaBarbera, in his welcome message, calls it Americans for Truth.  Their banner, which shows the Statue of Liberty, proclaims “Americans For Truth.”  For donations, he will take Visa or Mastercard, for Americans for Truth.  A search for the word ‘Homosexuality’ only comes up with the word in the various articles and in their subject listing–but not the legal name of their non-profit.  You can also see on their front page “Want to See Every New AFTAH Article?” but them immediately below, it states “If you don’t want to miss anything posted on the Americans For Truth website,” and “This service DOES NOT replace the regular or digest AFTAH emails.“  Notice that Americans for Truth About Homosexuality cannot even give their full name.  Anywhere.  Even under their section for ‘Donate to AFTAH.’ 

What about in other areas of its website?  In LaBarbera’s Welcome, it does have ‘Read about AFTAH’ so I clicked there, and once again, it is only called AFT.  LaBarbera himself only calls it AFT.  Their full name isn’t listed.  In an article written by one of their volunteers, Sonja Dalton, it is called “Americans For Truth (AFTAH),” without explanation what AH actually means.  Why the refusal to use the entire title of their non-profit organization? 

And when you click on their ‘Donate to AFTAH’, it states “Americans For Truth accepts credit card donations of any amount via PayPal™. AFT is a 501(c)3 organization, so your donation is tax-exempt.”  So even here they cannot get themselves to provide the full name of their organization.   And when you click on Make a Donation, you can guess–it is made out to Americans For Truth.  The problem is, when you go to list that you have made a tax-exempt donation on your tax forms, the organization of Americans for Truth does not exist in the IRS database under their 501(c)3 non-profit organizations.  It is only listed under Americans for Truth about Homosexuality–their full and legal name. 

And get this:  if you do a search of their website for “Americans For Truth About Homosexuality”, you will not find it!  Here is the results of the search (the bolding is mine):

Search

AND Search
OR Search

Phrase Search
Show 10 20 50 100 results per page

Did you mean: “Americans for Truth about Homosexuality”?

Following words were ignored (too short or common): for about

The search “Americans for Truth about Homosexuality” did not match any documents

Why is it that this group cannot call itself, anywhere in its website, not even by its founder, by its legal name?  How is one to know what the ‘AH’ means?  A search in GuideStar.org, which is used to find non-profits, has no listing for Americans For Truth.  It does, however, have a listing for Americans for Truth About Homosexuality.   

Why is this? Maybe they think that they can get more donations if they leave out the ‘About Homosexuality’ bit.  Maybe they think that they sound less ridiculous if they leave out the ‘About Homosexuality.’  Who knows.  Americans for Truth?  Unlikely. 

RSS 17. January 2007 (14:17)
Filed under: Uncategorized