Alliance Defending Freedom Attorney Makes Several False Claims on ABC’s ‘This Week’

A top attorney for a Christian legal group claims gays and lesbians have not been denied service, despite being the attorneys for defendants in some of the most notable cases in which gays and lesbians have been denied service.

Kristen Waggoner, senior counsel and senior vice president of legal advocacy forÂ Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), was asked byÂ ABC News’ George StephanopoulosÂ on Sunday’s “This Week” to respond to those who say anti-LGBT laws are “just a license to discriminate.”Â

She insisted gays and lesbians have not been denied service.

“Well, that’s absolutely not true. And we should dispel the notion of service right now,” Waggoner toldÂ Stephanopoulos.

“There is no evidence that those who identify as gay or lesbian have been denied service,” she insisted.

ADF, Waggoner’s employer, defendedÂ Elane Photography in a high-profile case in whichÂ the New Mexico Court of Appeals unanimously ruled a photographer discriminated when she refused to photograph a same-sex couple’s commitmentÂ ceremony. ADF defendedÂ Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop who refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.Â

Waggoner alsoÂ admitted that North Carolina‘s anti-LGBT law HB2 is unnecessary, becauseÂ for “the last 200 years” law enforcement officials have responded to complaints that arise when men use women’s restrooms, or vice versa. The main focus of HB2 is banning transgender people from using public restrooms that correspond to their gender identity.

Stephanopoulos asked, “how is that going to be enforced? Do you have to go back to the you can only use a restroom that is the restroom of — that’s on your birth certificate, how are — how is the state going to enforce that?”

Waggoner, appearing a bit frustrated, burst out, “The same way that they’re enforcing it and have enforced it the last 200 years. You simply respond to complaints that are received.”

She went on to claim, “what we have seen, when these types of laws have been passed in other states, that allow men to access the women’s restroom, those laws are misused and they violate the safety and security of people.”

That’s actually untrue. The media has reported time and time again that there are actually zero examples of men accessing women’s restrooms because of these laws, despite them being passed in over 200 jurisdictions across the nation.

John Corvino,Â chair of the philosophy department at Wayne State University and an LGBT advocate, toldÂ Stephanopoulos that there “are absolutely no cases of transgendered people trying to use these laws in order to commit assault or to threaten people’s safety in bathrooms, whereas there are many cases of transgendered people suffering, uh, bullying and assault and violence, uh, because they can’t have a safe and comfortable bathroom to use.”

Buzzfeed’s Dominic Holden alsoÂ reports, “there are no known instances in 17 states and 225 cities with laws banning LGBT discrimination of the policies being used to promote or defend predatory behavior in bathrooms or locker rooms.”

Waggoner also falsely labeled as “absolutely not true”Â Stephanopoulos’ correct statement that HB2 “strips the ability of people to sue under the state discrimination law.” He rightly noted that “opponents of the law have said if you’re fired because of your race or gender or religion, you no longer have a basic remedy.”

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Image: Screenshot via YouTubeÂ