Tom Brown
Tom Brown Ministries demanded $10,000 from the city of El Paso to settle a lawsuit it initiated over city domestic partner benefits. The city council rejected the demands from the organization labeled an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
In 2011, Brown began a recall petition against Mayor John Cook and two city council members who voted to reinstate domestic partner benefits. The benefits were approved in 2009 and repealed in an election in 2010 before being reinstated in 2011. The recall election cost five times what the benefits cost the city.
A lower court threw out the recall and the Texas Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
Complaints against Brown’s ministry were filed with the IRS in 2011 for illegally using his church’s nonprofit status for political purposes.
