Three Americans speaking at anti-LGBTQ Russian conference in April

[Mrs. Overall]

https://thinkprogress.org/here-are-the-americans-speaking-at-a-hate-group-friendly-with-sanctioned-russian-oligarchs-bb7564932db2/

The World Congress of Families (WCF), a notorious anti-LGBTQ group that’s reportedly received funding from sanctioned Russian oligarchs, is hosting its annual conference in Verona, Italy next month. And a number of Americans have decided to join them.

Among the Americans slated to speak at the WCF conference are John Eastman, former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and now a professor at Chapman University, and megachurch pastor Jim Garlow. According to the WCF’s roster, they will also be joined by Mike Donnelly, a higher-up at the right-wing Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), and Sean O’Hare, the chairman of one of the most prominent anti-abortion groups aimed at American youth.

Donnelly confirmed to ThinkProgress that he would be speaking at the WCF conference next month. O’Hare, Garlow, Eastman, and Chapman University did not respond to ThinkProgress’ request for comment.

The WCF — which the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified as a hate group — is a joint Russian-American project dating to the mid-1990s. It has reportedly received funding from sanctioned Russian oligarchs like Konstantin Malofeev and Vladimir Yakunin, the latter of whom is a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Multiple media outlets, and even WCF’s own promotional material, have all linked Yakunin to the group, but a representative for Yakunin denied to ThinkProgress that Yakunin has funded the group.)