Last week, Ron DeSantis touted the endorsement of the Family Research Council, an ultra-conservative organization so aggressive that it’s listed as a “hate group.” The Family Research Council has a long, shameful history of attacking women’s health, and making disparaging and false statements about LGBT people in an effort to exclude sexual orientation and gender identity from civil rights protections. Along with DeSantis, The Family Research Council has also supported Todd Akin and defended his widely-condemned “legitimate rape” comment.
“In his desperation to tout his conservative credentials, Ron DeSantis has embraced a known hate group,” said Lauren Passalacqua, DSCC National Press Secretary. “As the Florida GOP primary turns into a race to the right, it’ll come at the expense of women and families who are too often the target of the dangerous and divisive policies DeSantis and his supporters pursue.”
BACKGROUND
The Family Research Council Has Been Designated A Hate Group By The Southern Poverty Law Center. “Based on the foregoing and other evidence, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) last year began listing the FRC and the AFA as hate groups. The listings, as was said at the time, were based on the groups’ use of known falsehoods to attack and demonize members of the LGBT community — not, as some have gratuitously claimed, because the groups are Christian, or because they oppose same-sex marriage, or because they believe the Bible describes homosexuality as a sin.” [Southern Poverty Law Center, 10/11]
- SPLC: Family Research Council “Bills Itself As ‘The Leading Voice For The Family In Our Nation’s Halls Of Power’ But Its Real Specialty Is Defaming Gays And Lesbians.” “The Family Research Council (FRC) bills itself as ‘the leading voice for the family in our nation’s halls of power,’ but its real specialty is defaming gays and lesbians. The FRC often makes false claims about the LGBT community based on discredited research and junk science. The intention is to denigrate LGBT people in its battles against same-sex marriage, hate crimes laws, anti-bullying programs and the repeal of the military’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy. To make the case that the LGBT community is a threat to American society, the FRC employs a number of ‘policy experts’ whose ‘research’ has allowed the FRC to be extremely active politically in shaping public debate. Its research fellows and leaders often testify before Congress and appear in the mainstream media. It also works at the grassroots level, conducting outreach to pastors in an effort to ‘transform the culture.’” [Southern Poverty Law Center, Accessed 3/19/14]
- Family Research Council President Tony Perkins Labeled ENDA “The Crossdresser Protection Act.” In a statement on August 10, 2010, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins said, “Speaker Nancy Pelosi may also force a lame-duck vote on the ‘Employment Non-Discrimination Act’ (ENDA), also known as the Crossdresser Protection Act. The legislation would take the bedroom into the workplace and unfairly compel employers to learn about their employees’ sexual lives.” [FRCAction, 8/10/10]
Family Research Council Opposed Supreme Court’s Decision On Same-Sex Marriage. “Family Research Council (FRC) President Tony Perkins responded today to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision forcing the people in all 50 states to embrace same-sex ‘marriage,’ regardless of their votes to define marriage in their states as a man-woman institution. Of the decision FRC President Tony Perkins said: ‘Five justices on the Supreme Court have overturned the votes of 50 million Americans and demanded that the American people walk away from millennia of history and the reality of human nature. ‘In reaching a decision so lacking in foundation in the text of the Constitution, in our history, and in our traditions, the Court has done serious damage to its own legitimacy. ‘No court can overturn natural law. Nature and Nature’s God, hailed by the signers of our Declaration of Independence as the very source of law, cannot be usurped by the edict of a court, even the United States Supreme Court. Marriage is rooted not only in human history, but also in the biological and social reality that children are created by, and do best when raised by, a mother and a father. No court ruling can alter this truth. ‘It is folly for the Court to think that it has resolved a controversial issue of public policy. By disenfranchising 50 million Americans, the Court has instead supercharged this issue.” [Family Research Council, Press Release, 6/26/15]
- Family Research Council Said Sexual Orientation And Gender Identity Shouldn’t Be Covered Under Civil Rights Law “Because They Are Not Inborn, Involuntary, Immutable, Innocuous,” Or In The Constitution. Peter Sprigg wrote: “Family Research Council does not believe that ‘sexual orientation’ or ‘gender identity’ are characteristics comparable to those which are usually protected categories under civil rights law, because they are not inborn, involuntary, immutable, innocuous, and/or in the Constitution in the way that race and sex are, for example. Therefore, there is no justification in principle for interfering in the private choices of private economic actors with respect to these issues.” [Family Release Council, FRC Blog, Peter Sprigg, 3/12/15]
Family Research Council Supported The Blunt Amendment And Criticized The Senate For Voting To Block It. “Family Research Council Action (FRC Action), the legislative advocacy arm of the Family Research Council, criticized the U.S. Senate vote today against Senator Roy Blunt’s “Respect for the Rights of Conscience Act of 2011 ” amendment. The amendment would have restored the status quo on conscience rights prior to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and protect against the recent mandate on abortifacients, sterilization and contraceptives by the Obama administration’s Department of Health and Human Services.” [FRC Action, Press Release,3/1/12]
- Blunt Amendment Would Allow Employers To Block Access To Women’s Contraception Or Important Preventive Care That They Objected To. “The Senate Thursday rejected an effort to vastly expand conscience exemptions to the Obama administration’s new birth control coverage rule, even as Republican presidential contenders continued to tussle over the issue. The measure, an amendment proposed by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) to a highway funding bill, would have allowed not only religious groups but any employer with moral objections to opt out of the coverage requirement. And it would have allowed such employers to do so in the case of not only contraception but any health service required by the 2010 health-care law.” [Washington Post, 3/1/12]
Family Research Council Stood By Todd Akin Following His “Legitimate Rape” Comments. “Republican leadership has a not so-subtle-hint for Todd Akin: They would like the Missouri Senate candidate, who remarked that ‘legitimate rape’ rarely results in pregnancy, out of the race — and sooner rather than later. […] Pro-life groups, however, have taken a decidedly different take. Both the Susan B. Anthony List and Family Research Council have stood by Akin. They don’t see him as a politician who has made a career ending gaffe. In their view, he’s a strong abortion right opponent who articulated a tenet of the pro-life movement: Abortion should be illegal in all situations, rape included. ‘Todd Akin … has a record of voting to protect human life,’ said Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser, reaffirming her support in a statement. He ‘has been an excellent partner in the fight for the unborn.’” [Washington Post, Wonkblog, 8/21/12]
- Headline: “Family Research Council Head Defends Akin” [Washington Post, Burns & Haberman Blog, 8/20/12]
