Brian Hagedorn Still Mum on What He Said in Speeches to Hate Group

MADISON, Wis. — Brian Hagedorn remains mum on what he said in speeches he delivered to a hate group while a sitting judge, now one month after it was first reported by the media. Information uncovered by One Wisconsin Now revealed Hagedorn was compensated thousands of dollars for delivering speeches to the anti-LGBTQ hate group the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.

“Brian Hagedorn is asking to sit on Wisconsin’s highest court, yet he won’t be honest with the people of this state and tell us what he said in speeches he gave to a hate group while he’s been a judge,” said One Wisconsin Now Research Director Joanna Beilman-Dulin. “These are the actions of someone with something to hide.”

Between 2015 and 2018 State Supreme Court Candidate Brian Hagedorn took over $3,000 in payments and gifts from the ADF, deemed a hate group based on their advocacy for an extreme, anti-LGBTQ agenda.

The ADF supports criminalizing homosexuality, has defended sterilization of transgender people, claimed a link between homosexuality and pedophilia and works for legislation and case law to allow LGBTQ people to be denied professional and other services.

Hagedorn has refused numerous calls to make public remarks he gave to attendees of ADF conferences held in locations like an exclusive resort in Cancun, Mexico while he was a sitting judge. In response to an open records request from One Wisconsin Now he did not deny the existence of records of his remarks but claimed the materials were not maintained in his public office and therefore could be kept hidden from the public.

The Wisconsin Code of Judicial Conduct broadly advises judges to be wary in their personal and professional lives of creating the appearance of impropriety or bias by associating with groups that discriminate.