Anti-LGBT Hate Group World Congress of Families Gears Up for Its Tenth International Congress
World Congress of Families holds its tenth congress in Tbilisi, Georgia
Last October, the anti-LGBT hate group World Congress of Families (WCF) held its ninth international congress in Salt Lake City, a gathering that attracts thousands of from around the globe.
The gathering traditionally functions as a key site of right-wing strategy development to curtail or roll back LGBT equality gains and restrict or deny women access to abortion and related healthcare, attracting religious and political leaders. Six months later, WCF will hold its in Tbilisi, Georgia, beginning Sunday, a date close to the anniversary of a violent 2013 mob attack on an anti-homophobia rally in the city, which occurred on May 17 which is often commemorated as the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia. Thousands of anti-LGBT protestors led by Orthodox priests and pursued gay rights supporters, injuring at least twenty-eight people.
This year鈥檚 theme for the congress is 鈥淐ivilization at聽the聽Crossroads: The Natural Family as The Bulwark of聽Freedom and聽Human Values.鈥 聽The conference, the website claims, 鈥渨ill help the international pro-family movement to establish a beachhead in the region,鈥 because one reason 鈥渟exual radicals鈥 have targeted these countries, the site continues, 鈥渋s to demonstrate their ability to overcome traditional cultures and compel people who cling to normative values to bend to their will.鈥澛
The 鈥渘atural鈥 family is defined as one man in a lifelong marriage with one woman and their children and, according to WCF, it is 鈥渢he fundamental unit of society,鈥 and 鈥渢he basis of all healthy and progressive civilizations.鈥 WCF鈥檚 for the conference notes that this construction of the 鈥渘atural鈥 family 鈥減recludes incompatible constructs of the family as well as incompatible behaviors among its members.鈥 There is no room in society for family structures other than that, according to this view.
The Tbilisi setting may also tie into a focus on and the Orthodox Church, held up as defenders of so-called 鈥淐hristian civilization鈥 against a secular and corrupt West. Having the congress in Tbilisi will have a 鈥減rofound impact on family policy throughout Eastern Europe, the Caucuses, the Balkans, and the former Soviet Union,鈥 the event鈥檚 website claims.
The host of WCF-Tbilisi is Levan Vasadze, an Emory University graduate who went into business and is now chair of his own private equity house, Prometheus Capital Partners, which focuses on investments in the countries of the former Soviet Union. According to a Georgian-based journalist, Vasadze is alleged to have on the 2013 march, the results of which further marginalized Georgia鈥檚 nascent LGBT rights movement.
WCF has the blessing of Patriarch Ilia II, head of the Georgian Orthodox Church, who is also slated to give the keynote address. The Patriarch as an 鈥渁nomaly and disease.鈥
The conference has already garnered a bit of press because WCF the 鈥淔amily and Democracy鈥 Award to former president George W. Bush. In a WCF news release issued on Friday, Bush commended WCF and will send an official welcome message which states, in part, 鈥淎s one of the pillars of civilization and the bulwark of liberty, families must remain strong and we must defend them,鈥 the greeting states. 鈥淚 commend your efforts to recognize the importance of families in building nations.鈥 This isn鈥檛 the first time Bush has provided a greeting for the WCF. The was in 2004, when the congress convened in Mexico City.
Though Bush will not be present, the congress still has plenty of other speakers 鈥撯 a showcase of right-wing 鈥渃ulture warriors鈥 from around the world, many of whom spoke at the Salt Lake City gathering.
Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, which is a co-convener of the conference. Brown, who has battled same-sex marriage in the U.S. and France, also supports anti-LGBT legislation in Russia. He addressed a committee of the Russian Duma in 2013 about the dangers of same-sex couples adopting children, and spent time in France working with Manif Pour Tous in a fight over legalizing same-sex marriage.
Paul Diamond, counsel, Christian Legal Centre (UK). Diamond has that the harmful pseudoscientific practice of聽 鈥渆x-gay鈥 (or reparative) therapy 鈥渉as a high success rate, and there鈥檚 no evidence of any harm.鈥 In he gave to virulently anti-LGBT hate group Mass Resistance, Diamond warned listeners about the 鈥渉omosexual agenda,鈥 and its 鈥渉armful truths.鈥 In another instance, he claimed that hate crimes laws are being used to persecute those who speak out regarding homosexuality, an 鈥渁berrant lifestyle.鈥澛
Don Feder, WCF coalitions director, also sits on the of the anti-immigrant hate group Federation for American Immigration Reform, which was founded by white nationalist John Tanton. Feder, who has against LGBT rights, has also been a strong promoter of the idea of a 鈥渄emographic winter,鈥 a claim riddled with conspiracy theories in which the human species is doomed because birthrates are falling, particularly in European countries. Abortion, birth control, homosexuality, feminism and other perceived 鈥渦nnatural鈥 deviations from the 鈥渘atural family鈥 have led to this crisis, proponents like Feder argue. More recently, he opposed the addition of Harriet Tubman to the $20 bill because 鈥淎merican history was made by white males, who were overwhelmingly Christian.鈥 Feder has also that would include the FBI staking out every mosque in the country and imposing a religious test on potential refugees in which Christians would be allowed into the country while Muslims would not.聽
Larry Jacobs, manager of WCF. Jacobs Russia鈥檚 anti-LGBT laws, calling the ban on 鈥渉omosexual propaganda鈥 and gay pride demonstrates a 鈥済reat idea. He hailed Russian officials for 鈥減reventing [gays] from corrupting children" and called Russians the 鈥淐hristian saviors to the world.鈥
Marion Mar茅chal-Le Pen, member, French parliament. is the youngest MP in French history, elected in 2012 as a representative of the French far right party Front National at the age of 22. She is the niece of Marine Le Pen and the granddaughter of the Front National鈥檚 founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen. She is more a hardline social conservative than her aunt and was a key figure in France鈥檚 raucous and sometimes violent protests against same-sex marriage in 2013, leading one Paris procession at which Nick Griffin, then head of the neo-fascist British National Party, was present. She is also working to end state subsidies for family planning and has expressed anti-Muslim views, in November 2015 that Muslims could be French 鈥渋f they follow customs and a lifestyle that has been shaped by Greek and roman influence and sixteen centuries of Christianity.鈥
Alexey Komov, WCF representative in Russia. Komov also heads up the Russian group FamilyPolicy.ru, which WCF helped found. He is a of Russia鈥檚 draconian anti-LGBT laws and hosted a June 2013 meeting on anti-LGBT laws in Russia that was attended by American and French activists. Komov鈥檚 Russian group has become a prominent voice in Russia鈥檚 anti-LGBT politics and has spearheaded pushes for more legislation that further marginalize LGBT people.
Douglas Napier, senior vice president of anti-LGBT group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). Napier has that, 鈥渆very society that has embraced homosexuality, that society has not flourished and usually ends.鈥 He has as 鈥渢reacherous behavior鈥 and said that聽the anti-LGBT conspiracy theory the 鈥済ay agenda鈥 and 鈥減robably one of the greatest threats to religious liberty.鈥 ADF is one of the co-conveners of the Tbilisi congress and, over the years, the group has advocated for the and worked to in schools.
Theresa Okafor, Foundation for African Cultural Heritage. Okafor is WCF鈥檚 regional director in Africa and a leading anti-choice advocate in her native Nigeria. She was honored at the Salt Lake聽City gathering with a 鈥淲oman of the Year鈥 award. Okafor supports the continued criminalization of homosexuality and abortion in Africa and has gay rights advocates to militant Islamist group Boko Haram. In 2012, that many of the recent anti-abortion and anti-LGBT gains made in Nigeria were made possible because of networking coordinated by WCF.聽
Everett Piper, president of Oklahoma Wesleyen University. Piper has been making the rounds on the anti-LGBT circuit over the past couple of years, and delivered the final keynote address at the Salt Lake City WCF gathering, in which gay rights activists and other liberals for 鈥渋deological fascism鈥 and claimed there is a 鈥渨ar against Christians鈥 in the culture. He has also suggested that secularists and radical Islamists are working together, aided by President Obama, and that he is proud he sought a waiver from the government for his university that would allow the school to be exempt from Title IX, which bars sex discrimination, thus allowing the school to discriminate against trans people. Piper stated that, 鈥淲e refuse to comply with the misogyny endemic to the transgender agenda.鈥
Tbilisi isn鈥檛 the only place WCF is active this year. Some of the speakers on that roster also participated in its , which met last April in Barbados. Brian Brown spoke on the importance of keeping marriage between one man and one woman while Don Feder led a workshop on media strategies and Theresa Okafor spoke on parental rights. Veronica Evelyn, a Barbadian sociologist who directs Proteqt Inc. in Barbados and who coordinated the event, supports the continued criminalization of homosexual sex and is trying to mobilize a national Christian response to 鈥渟exual rights issues.鈥澛
Other speakers included Focus on the Family鈥檚 Glenn Stanton and Texas-born pastor Scott Stirm, now based in Belize, who has been battling the decriminalization of homosexual sex in that country in a long-running lawsuit. Stirm heads the group Belize Action and is known for railing against the 鈥済ay lifestyle,鈥 which is 鈥渦nacceptable,鈥 and claimed that gay tourists come to Belize to corrupt local youths. Of the lawsuit brought to repeal the law, Stirm said it was an 鈥渙rchestrated plan of demonic darkness to dethrone God from our constitution and open massive gateways to demonic influences and destruction that will affect generation after generation to come.鈥 Stirm spoke on 鈥渓essons learnt鈥 in Belize, though the case is ongoing.
Though many of the session and workshop titles seemed relatively benign, some of the materials within had a different message. For example, one of the sessions featured a slide presentation in which one slide in particular tried to explain what keeping the anti-sodomy (buggery) law in effect is really about. Claiming that the state IS the bedroom, the slide claimed that the law is a barrier to the institutionalization of 鈥渦nnatural practices鈥 and 鈥済uards freedom of speech and 鈥減rovides a warning to the young.鈥
The closing presentation summed up one of the primary talking points for WCF as an organization, tailored to the Caribbean: "Under God, the Caribbean can be an example and inspiration to the rest of the world in steadfastly restoring and protecting marriage and the natural family, based on immutable biblical truths."
WCF鈥檚 next regional conference is slated for June in Salta, Argentina.
