Anti-LGBT group lies about tax-exempt status in seeking donations against transgender protection law

A high school student and his mother filed a complaint with the California Attorney General's Office accusing the anti-LGBT group known as the Capitol Resource Institute (CRI) of operating illegally for over three years.

According to the complaint filed by Ashton and Catherine Lee, CRI has been soliciting donations to challenge the School Success and Opportunity Act, which Gov. Jerry Brown recently signed into law.

The Act, which provides transgender students access to facilities and sex-segregated activities according to their stated gender identity, has caused consternation in social conservative circles, and CRI has been seeking contributions from the aggrieved.

They're doing so, the complaint claims, under the aegis of a tax-exempt organization, even though its status as such was revoked in February after failing to provide the IRS with the required financial information for the past three calendar years.

"It troubles us that this group, which is sending out emails asking for money to overturn a law, the School Success and Opportunity Act, that just makes sure students like me can participate in school, is doing so illegally,” Ashton told the Gay-Straight Alliance Network. “Our lives are directly harmed on a daily basis by the work they are doing to attack our rights and opportunities."

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