The Independent Women’s Forum and The Independent Women’s Voice:
Not Independent, Not Neutral on LGBTQ Issues

The Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) says it’s a “non-partisan research and education
institution.” The Independent Women’s Voice (IWV) claims to represent the views of
independent women voters and to “ensure that mainstream women’s voices are heard.”
But these organizations are most definitely not independent, mainstream, or neutral.
IWF and IWV are deeply imbedded in the right-wing political infrastructure, have long
connections to the Koch Brothers, and promote right-wing, often anti-women, policies, and
politicians.
“Independent” branding is calculated and misleading
Passing themselves as “independent” and “neutral” has allowed IWF and IWV to garner media
opportunities to promote right-wing causes and candidates without scrutiny of their true agenda
or allegiances.
“Being branded as neutral, but actually having people who know know that you’re actually
conservative puts us in a unique position,” Heather Richardson Higgins, IWV President and IWF
Board Chair has admitted.
The IWF and IWV have taken advantage of their “neutral brand” and free pass from the media
to speak out against equal pay, paid family leave, the “Violence Against Women Act,” Title IX,
the Republican “War on Women,” rape on campus, regulated childcare, and provide false
equivalence on other women’s economic and social issues. They are also frequently asked to
weigh-in on a wide variety of public issues from guns to gay marriage, from education to the
environment.
Here is a snapshot of positions taken and quotes from IWF and IWV’s issue “experts” on
LGBTQ issues:
•

On the North Carolina transgender bathroom debate, IWF’s Charlotte Hayes wrote in
May, “I am willing to bet that this part of ordinance came out of a vacuum: it was
intended to create a wedge issue rather than to solve a civil rights wrong. Was there
really any transgender citizen in Charlotte cruelly banned from the desired facility? I
seriously doubt it.”

•

In response to the landmark 2015 Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage, IWF posted an
article written by its Senior Fellow Lisa Schiffren, where she stated, “Friday’s ruling on
gay marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges, expected though it was, spelled the end of a very
long, hard fought public relations war by the gay establishment to change the definition
of the institution that has been the pillar of Western Civilization as we know it” [emphasis
added].

 •

IWF has claimed that Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act “battle is not over
gay rights, which are protected by law in the U.S. This fight is over religious liberty,
which is increasingly under attack.”

•

When IWF reported that Glamour Magazine was expected to name Caitlyn Jenner as
“Woman of the Year” alongside Reese Witherspoon, Charlotte Hayes, the director of
IWF’s cultural program, wrote, “Honestly, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.”