Heritage Foundation: How a Far-Right Think Tank Gained So Much Influence Over U.S. Politics
“With their urgent 21st-century mandate to stop gay marriage, Heritage tried a more “direct-to-consumer” form of propaganda in 2006 with their site FamilyFacts.org. Ostensibly a repository of “social science findings,” the factoids on FamilyFacts all supported Heritage’s position that gay marriage would destroy the country; the site’s “Top 10 Findings” sidebar contained “facts” claiming that heterosexual marriage made people more likely to be affluent, less depressed, and more sexually satisfied. Of course, most of the content was bogus. A Political Research Associates analysis [politicalresearch.org] the year after it was launched found that FamilyFacts was a poor source of scholarship, often cherry-picking evidence and presenting non-representative data out of context to make its sweeping anti-LGBTQ+ claims.”