On November 6th, 2018, Wisconsin will hold its Attorney General election for the next four-year term. The two candidates on the ballot are Democrat challenger Josh Kaul and the incumbent Wisconsin Attorney General running for his second term, Republican Brad Schimel [1].

During his first term, Schimel worked on an agenda of ending elderly abuse, sex trafficking, and drug abuse under a banner of keeping Wisconsin families safe [2]. However, how Schimel qualifies “family” under his jurisdiction may be up for debate considering his increasingly anti-LGBTQ+ agenda.

According to the Wisconsin Gazette, Schimel attended a conference last year hosted by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a group classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for their extremist Anti-LGBT ideology [3][4].

From the same Wisconsin Gazette article, Schimel intended to keep his attendance to the conference from the public, citing in an email to one of his aides “…I do not plan to have any portion of it become public information,” therefore violating the state’s open records law. Schimel was reportedly paid over $4,000 for attending and speaking at the conference.

Schimel led Wisconsin to join a lawsuit against the Obama administration after the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education issued a joint letter ordering schools to allow transgender students to choose the bathroom consistent with their gender identities. The 11-state lawsuit sought to limit this right for transgender individuals in schools [5].

Schimel recieved a lot of backlash from the left in response to his Anti-LGBT views and how he has been presenting himself in allegiance with hate groups. With the population of people identifying as LGBTQ+ steadily increasing in the United States [6], it’s time for Wisconsin to align itself with a progressive message and reevaluate who we have speaking for our state.

[1] https://ballotpedia.org/Wisconsin_Attorney_General_election,_2018

[2] https://www.wisconsinvote.org/candidates/brad-schimel

[3] https://www.wisconsingazette.com/news/political/brad-schimel-illegally-followed-hate-group-s-instructions-to-keep/article_674e13b8-69a8-11e8-a484-3f9557eb2e5e.html

[4] https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/alliance-defending-freedom

[5] https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2016/05/25/wisconsin-joins-suit-over-obama-transgender-bathroom-rules/85033006/

[6] https://news.gallup.com/poll/201731/lgbt-identification-rises.aspx