EXCLUSIVE — An LGBT advocacy group is attempting to walk back its move to fundraise off a graphic that compares President Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation, a major conservative think tank, to Adolf Hitler.
Transgender and Diverse Veterans of America Action Group, which aims "to provide comprehensive care and support for transgender and gender minority veterans, their families, and allies," sent emails Friday soliciting donations with a graphic of Roberts next to a drawing of Hitler, with the caption, "Sieg Heil! You're doing better than I ever could." However, TDVA's executive director, Cassandra Williamson, now says the "call to action" was "not meant to offend," with the leader noting, "I know that one could be offended by the parallels drawn."
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"First, my sincere apologies for any offense created by the referenced piece," Williamson, a biological male who identifies as a woman, told the Washington Examiner. "We ARE NOT claiming that Dr. Roberts is a fascist or Nazi. From my friends who know him well, he is a really genuinely good person. I have no doubt that is true though I would love to talk with him."
Williamson, who claims to be "a former Republican" who has "great respect" for the Heritage Foundation, slammed the think tank's 2025 Presidential Transition Project, which is looking to provide policy and staffer guidance to a hypothetical Republican administration. In a written foreword about the project, Roberts took aim at the Democratic Party's efforts to prioritize transgender issues and called to "reverse policies that allow transgender individuals to serve in the military."
Roberts, former CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank in Austin, has come under the spotlight ever since being named Heritage's new president in 2021 due to his focus on cultural issues that Republicans have long not prioritized. For decades, Heritage has been viewed as more aligned with the establishment wing of the GOP, though Roberts has embraced populism, which he's called "the voice of common sense, reflecting the resounding call from everyday Americans to put an end to self-appointed elites’ power grabs masked as something virtuous, all while trying to deceive us."
Heritage has partnered with over 70 conservative groups in connection to Project 2025, including Young America's Foundation, the American Conservative, America First Legal, Claremont Institute, Conservative Partnership Institute, and Media Research Center. The project's director is Paul Dans, ex-chief of staff in former President Donald Trump's Office of Personnel Management and a longtime attorney.
In the fundraising email, TDVA said, "Join with us to STOP The Heritage Foundation and its cronies from carrying through on their horrifying, deeply inhumane, and unAmerican [sic] Fascist-like agenda." TDVA included quotes from Roberts's foreword in the call to action, including him saying that the "purpose" of "centralizing political power" is "to replace people’s natural loves and loyalties with unnatural ones."
TDVA also highlighted how Roberts wrote in the foreword that a "healthy society" consists of "Marriage. Family. Work. Church. School. [and] Volunteering."
"The foundation has lost its way from its once lofty perch," Williamson also told the Washington Examiner. "When its leaders started letting the extreme right control and dictate the Republican message destroying the distinctions between conservatism and republicanism, they fell into an abyss."
"By the way, those are in fact ideologies whereas being transgender IS NOT an ideology," Williamson said. "It simply is who I am, a person, an American, a veteran, parent and grandparent."
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Project 2025 aims to identify as many as 20,000 potential officials through a database that a GOP president could bring on. Heritage and other entities advising the initiative have already briefed presidential candidates, including Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Trump, as well as staff for ex-United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, and ex-Vice President Mike Pence, the New York Times reported.
The Heritage Foundation declined to comment.