Idaho Organization of Resource Councils

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Idaho Organization of Resource Councils

The Idaho Organization of Resource Councils (IORC) is a grantee of the USCCB’s Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), having received a total of $325,000 since 2015. Their most recent grant for the year 2020-2021 was for $75,000, according to the list published by the CCHD.

IORC states that its mission is to “empower people to improve the well-being of their communities, sustain family farms and ranches, transform local food systems, promote clean energy, and advocate for responsible stewardship of Idaho’s natural resources.”  However, the organization is promoting transgender ideologies, is a member of coalitions which promote abortion and LGBT ideologies, and is headed by individuals who promote the same.

On March 4, 2022, IORC issued a tweet asking readers to “Please take a minute to support our transgender friends and family members.”  The object of the tweet was a retweet of what the ACLU of Idaho stated, which was, “Every child in Idaho should have the right to access the healthcare they need to survive and thrive.”  And in the ACLU tweet was a link to a call by the ACLU for opposition to House Bill 675, which prohibits medical professionals from performing transition therapies or surgeries on children.  In short, IORC formally endorsed opposition to a ban on the sexual mutilation of children.
On March 8, IORC retweeted another call to action in order to convince the Idaho state legislature to oppose a ban on the sexual mutilation of children.
The link in IORC’s retweet takes one to a petition page telling Idaho senators to “Vote No on HB675.”  The personal message to senators, automatically sent by the petition says:

“I urge you to vote no on HB675, the bill that would criminalize medical professionals for providing gender affirming care to transgender youth. All youth deserve access to the healthcare they need and deserve. This bill only serves to insert government into a young person’s medical decision, a decision which should only be made by the patient, their family, and their doctors.”

That same day, IORC expressed concern as it retweeted a count of the votes for the passage of “anti-trans youth treatment bill.”

On March 10, IORC tweeted a lament of the passage of HB 675.

IORC Leadership

The fact that IORC publicly called for opposition to a Bill that would prevent doctors from perform life-altering sexual mutilation of children isn’t all that surprising, considering the personal activities of members of its staff and board of directors.

For instance, the Membership and Communications Coordinator, Megan Carter, is identified on the IORC website as an “LGBTQ activist.”
In Feb. 2020, Carter cheered on a “non-discrimination” ordinance that forces employers to employ homosexuals and “gender non-conforming” people (read, men wearing dresses), forces renters to rent their houses and apartments to transgender and homosexual couples, and forces all places which accept any sort of public funds (libraries, public buildings, schools, day cares, public bathrooms, etc) to admit transgender and homosexual couples.  According to an article by KTVB News channel 7:

In March of 2020, Carter slammed two bills, one which would prevent biological males from playing in female sports and another which would block people from changing their gender on their birth certificates.  An article from Vice.com with the headline, “Idaho Governor Signs 2 Bills into Law Denying Trans People Basic Rights,” says the following:

On Monday, Republican Gov. Brad Little approved two bills that had been met with widespread opposition. House Bill 500 bans transgender girls from playing on school sports teams in alignment with their gender identity, while House Bill 509 blocks trans people from correcting their birth certificates to match the person they know themselves to be.
…

Megan Carter, vice chair of the local LGBTQ group Add the Words, said the passage of these bills is especially dangerous because trans people already don’t have statewide protections in areas like health care or any other form of public accommodation.

“For instance, if a trans person were to get sick with COVID-19 and go to a health care provider, they could be turned away and denied service,” Carter told VICE. “There is a lot of fear already in our community and then you add this extra layer of this pandemic. It really just shows trans folks in Idaho that we’re not welcome here. We are not seen as human.”

On facebook, going by the name “Megan Greco,” (on linkedin, she is identified as “Megan ‘Greco’ Carter) Carter is even more explicit in the promotion of homosexual and transgender ideologies.

On February 15, 2020, Carter issued the same call to “protect trans youth” that IORC would do in 2022.

On June 29, 2020, Carter advertised an “LGBTQIA+ Connection Session.”

On June 22, 2020, Carter fought against what she called “anti-trans” bills in the legislature.

On June 1, 2020, Carter posted in favor of homosexual and transgender “pride.”

In March of 2020, Carter called for a veto of HB 500 (which would prohibit males from playing on female sports teams, and vice versa) in order to “protect trans youth.”

In February of 2020, Carter publicly opposed the defunding of Planned Parenthood.

In addition to Megan Carter, the current treasurer and former chair of IORC’s board of directors, Linda Leeuwrik, is also supportive of abortion and LGBTQ ideologies.

In July of 2015,  Leeuwrik placed the “I Stand With Planned Parenthood” overlay on her profile picture.

In June of 2015, she placed the rainbow flag overlay on her profile picture in celebration of the SCOTUS decision to legalize homosexual “marriage.”

Membership in Pro-Abortion, Pro-LGBTQ+ Organization

The CCHD absolutely forbids organizations from membership in organizations acting against Catholic teaching.  In an FAQ on the USCCB website, the CCHD directly answers the question about whether grantees may be members of coalitions that oppose Catholic teachings.  In answer, the CCHD firmly stated, “CCHD will not fund groups that are knowingly members of coalitions that have as part of their organizational purpose or coalition agenda, positions or actions that contradict fundamental Catholic moral and social teaching.”
Given this prohibition, the IORC has violated grant guidelines through its membership in two such coalitions; the Idaho Coalition Against Sexual & Domestic Violence (ICASDV) and the HEAL Food Alliance.

Idaho Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence (ICASDV)

IORC is listed as a member of ICASDV on its members page.

As a member of ICASDV, IORC has to pay annual membership dues of $250, and would have had to sign onto the “Vision and Values” of the coalition.  On the first page of the membership application form, it indicates a payment of $250.
The second page contains the Vision and Values to which member organizations must agree.  This statement includes the following line:

“We talk about gender violence to look closely at how strict gender roles and unfair power lead to violence against women, girls, and all genders which are oppressed. Our society promotes two rigid gender identities, man (masculine) and woman (feminine) and expects all of us to fit the role we are assigned.”

Furthermore, the commitment to members (included in the same vision and values statement) includes this line:

“Centering solutions on the last girl. Idaho has “last girls” in every community. The last girl is not a specific girl, but a concept that represents marginalized communities who have the least access to resources and the least opportunity to thrive and reach their full potential, such as racial or ethnic minorities, LGBTQ self identified people, people with disabilities, people who are undocumented, or people who are refugees.”

In other words, the Vision and Values of the organization is opposed to the strict definition of there only being two gender identities (and proper roles for each), but it also calls for the support of “LGBTQ identified people,” which means that IORC would have to have agreed t0o do the same.  This context makes IORC’s public promotion of transgender ideologies mentioned at the beginning of the report, make sense.

But the vision and values statement isn’t the only issue with ICASDV.

In 2013, ICASDV produced this pro-abortion curriculum filled with promotional referrals to both abortion and abortifacient contraception, falsely claiming that such contraceptives are NOT abortifacients.  The curriculum is titled, “Expanding Options, Creating Choices.”

Beginning on page 19 of the guide is a procedure for presenting and making referrals for abortion.

Pages 16-21 provide all sorts of materials on every form of contraception, including abortifacients.  Most egregiously, on page 18, the guide specifically claims that taking emergency contraception is NOT an abortion.

ICASDV has a newsletter called “Towards Thriving.” In at least three issues of the newsletter from 2022 are multiple instances of the promotion of abortion.

• On July 14, 2022, Towards Thriving published a lead article titled, “Guidance for Supporting Survivors Post-Dobbs: How Abortion Bans Harm Survivors + How to Help Idahoans
• In the September 8, 2022 issue of Towards Thriving, a brief article titled, “A History of Indigenous People & Reproductive Justice,” complains that “decades-old restrictions on federal funding have severely limited the provision of abortion” before providing a link to a podcast with the title, ““Roe Was Never Enough”.
• In the May 2022 issue of Towards Thriving is an article titled “Everyone loves someone who had an abortion,” which makes the audacious claim, that “we know that abortion bans are a threat to Idahoans.”

HEAL Food Alliance

In addition to its membership in ICASDV, IORC is also member of HEAL food Alliance.

The HEAL Food Alliance website identifies IORC as a “Core Member.”
On its membership page, the HEAL Food Alliance indicates that member organizations pay annual dues, though it is unclear how much those dues are.

On July 5, 2022, HEAL Food Alliance publicly condemned the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, claiming that the decision “undermined the sovereignty, power, and bodily autonomy of people with uteri,” and “access to safe medical care, including safe abortion care, is an essential part of a thriving future for all of us.”  It then added a bullet point indicating where people can obtain help in paying for an abortion:

• If you need help paying for an abortion, or have the means to contribute to support others who need financial help, tap in to the National Network of Abortion Funds.

On June 24, the day of the SCOTUS decision, HEAL retweeted a statement from HEAL’s co-founder and executive director, Navina Khanna, claiming that the fight for abortion is linked to their fight for “food, land, farm justice.”
On facebook, HEAL’s statement was even more explicit, declaring that “access to abortion … is a human right that we will not stop fighting for.”  In other words, HEAL announced that its agenda includes fighting for access to abortion.

Conclusion

Idaho Organization of Resource Councils is directly involved in the promotion of LGBTQ ideologies, both in its employees and in its actions.  Its direct call for opposition to legislation that bans the sexual mutilation of children is particularly heinous.  Additionally, it’s membership in both ICASDV and the HEAL Food Alliance not only violate CCHD grant guidelines on coalition memberships, but they signal IORC’s commitment to the promotion of ideologies and actions that offend Catholic moral and social teaching.