WASHINGTON ¨C Before there was the tea party, there was Big Mama Rag, Inc.
It was a radical feminist collective in the 1970s, and it devoted itself to lectures, seminars, a free library and a newspaper, the Big Mama Rag. The group applied for nonprofit status from the IRS and was initially refused for, among other reasons, ¡°the articles, lectures, editorials, etc. promoting lesbianism.¡±
That wasn¡¯t the end of the IRS taking a discriminatory tone toward nonprofit groups that dealt with homosexuality. In 1996, the Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Support System, a group devoted to helping young people deal with harassment and prejudice due to their sexuality, applied for tax-exempt status. In response, an IRS official wrote that the group could be viewed as ¡°tending to encourage or facilitate homosexual practice and propensities by the young and impressionable¡± and asked the group to ¡°describe in detail the procedures and safeguards in place to assure that counselors and participants do not encourage or facilitate homosexual practices or encourage the development of homosexual attitudes.¡±
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