Wisconsin’s Leading Homophobic Group Gets Behind Rebecca Bradley, Wisconsin’s Most Homophobic State Supreme Court Justice

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin’s leading right-wing homophobic organization, Wisconsin Family Action, has joined the fray in trying to put fellow homophobe Rebecca Bradley on the state high court, producing at least one mailing to benefit Bradley’s campaign by attacking her April election opponent. Family Action joins elected Wisconsin homophobes David Clarke and Rebecca Kleefisch in coming to the defense of Bradley, who has been under fire since One Wisconsin Now exposed her on the record in newspaper writings calling LGBTQ individuals “degenerates” and “queers” who engage in “abnormal and immoral” behavior.

“Rebecca Bradley has publicly been trying to distance herself from her own words and the hateful homophobia she expressed,” commented One Wisconsin Now Research Director Jenni Dye. “Yet she continues to enlist the support of hateful groups and people who, to this day, promote the very regressive, hateful views she increasingly incredulously claims she no longer holds.”

According to social media postings, Wisconsin Family Action is identified as the party paying for at least one direct mail piece attacking Rebecca Bradley’s April election opponent. The content of the mail piece echoes attacks being broadcast on television by the right-wing Wisconsin Alliance for Reform, run by former Republican Party political operatives.

Wisconsin Family Action has led efforts in Wisconsin to deny equal treatment to people because of their sexual orientation. They were lead plaintiffs in legal action to undo the state domestic partner registry extending numerous legal protections to same sex couples. Most recently the group was intimately involved with a right wing legislator in concocting legislation to single out transgender students.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley is using Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch to raise money in her bid to keep her seat on the court. In 2010, Kleefisch was publicly criticized for an interview in which she compared same sex marriage to marrying a “dog” and a “table.”

She is also receiving assistance from Milwaukee County Tea Party Sheriff David Clarke in digital ads, in her radio ads and as a fundraiser for her campaign. The well-known homophobe Clarke ranted that tea partiers should “rage, then revolt” in response to the legalization of same sex marriage in June 2015, among other slurs.

Dye concluded, “Either Rebecca Bradley is lying when she claims she’s changed her views or she’s reaching for new heights of duplicity in enlisting the support of people who appeal to the ugliest sentiments in politics. It seems only one thing is for sure with Rebecca Bradley, she is not to be trusted.”