World Congress of Families
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The World Congress of Families (WCF) is an international group of Christian organizations opposed to LGBT rights, founded in 1997 and based in Rockford, Illinois.[1] It is active internationally, and it is particularly active in Eastern Europe. The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated it a "hate group", while pro-LGBT group Human Rights Campaign called it "one of the most influential American organizations involved in the export of hate".[2][3]
It campaigns for a very narrow, traditionalist view of the family, with a cis male leader, a cis female wife who stays at home, and biological children. It has supported anti-LGBT and traditional-style "pro-family" legislation in several countries from Russia to west Africa.[2][4][5] It has also promoted pseudoscientific ideas about the dangers of homosexuality, gender, and reproductive health. This includes lies that exaggerate the health risks of abortion.[6]
Its main focus is international congresses held annually in different cities, and smaller regional gatherings.[2]
History[edit]
It was founded in 1997 as a project of the International Organization for the Family (formerly the Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society). Its foundation was the result of a meeting in Russia between American academic Allan Carlson and Russians Anatoly Antonov and Viktor Medkov. All three were concerned about alleged demographic decline in Russia and among white Americans, with fewer children being born, and blamed things like LGBT rights and feminism for this decline.[2] Hence it links to The Great Replacement and similar white nationalist ideas.
Allan Carlson had been active since the 1970s around the Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society and Rockford College Institute. The Rockford College Institute was started in 1976 by John Howard who was concerned about social decline since the liberation movements of the 1960s, often taking a racist direction as well as opposing the freedom of women and LGBT people. Howard and Carlson founded the Howard Center in 1997, which in turn begat the World Congress of Families.[2]
Although its founders had white nationalist and racist connections, the WCF was intended to be more inclusive, open to Jews and Muslims, and people from around the world.[2]
Its first congress was held in Prague in 1997, with 700 attendees. It condemned homosexual marriage and civil unions, as well as everything else it saw as a threat to traditional marriage, including adultery, divorce, abortion, and single-parent families.[2]
In 2016, Brian Brown replaced Carlson as President of the WCF.[2] Brown also had a leading role in the National Organization for Marriage.[7]
Affiliations[edit]
Various anti-LGBTQ+ trolls have been linked to the group, including Scott Lively, anti-feminist and Concerned Women for America member Janice Shaw Crouse,
Robert H. Knight, Jennifer Roback Morse (of the Ruth Institute), and Brian Brown (of the National Organization for Marriage, etc).[3][8]
It is also keen on promoting false theories about women's health, including untrue claims that abortion causes breast cancer, and attacks on the safety of the contraceptive pill.[8]
Worryingly, it has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).[2] It has attempted to lobby other UN agencies and the Organization of American States.[1]
Actions[edit]
Its main function is to bring people together at annual conferences and other smaller events, held around the world. It also issues declarations and petitions, and works with many right-wing organisations around the world.[2]
USA[edit]
It led a 2015 campaign against anti-discrimination ordinances in Houston, Texas, which would have prevented discrimination on the basis of categories including age, race, military service, marital status, and sexual orientation.[1][9] Gotta be able to discriminate against veterans!
It also has links to US politicians. Ted Cruz's father Pastor Rafael Cruz spoke at its 2015 congress.[1]
Russia[edit]
Brown and Russian WSF representative Alexey Komov have links to nationalist Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeev's Saint Basil the Great Charitable Foundation, which combines heartwarming charitable work with campaigning against abortion.[7][10]
The WCF expressed support for Putin's 2013 anti-LGBT laws.[4][1] Putin's 2013 law claimed to be "aimed at protecting children from information promoting the denial of traditional family values", but banned large amounts of media considered to promote homosexuality: it interfered with or closed down services for LGBT people and particularly teenagers, and prevented teachers from properly educating their pupils and supporting LGBT children.[11] Brian Brown in particular has aligned himself with Vladimir Putin in the latter's oppressive actions in Russia.[2]
Eastern Europe[edit]
Brown has expressed support for Hungarian authoritarian leader Viktor Orban. The 2017 conference was held in Budapest, Hungary, and Orban spoke, calling for measures to improve Hungary's birth rate, as well as attacking "relativising liberal ideology" and the European Union.[12]
Africa[edit]
It has also held regional meetings in Africa. Its 2009 conference in Nigeria is credited with influencing the country's 2012 anti-gay law.[2] Nigerian anti-LGBT activist Theresa Okafor has also spoken at other events.[13] Ugandan politician Lucy Akello who helped pass a law imposing a maximum penalty of life imprisonment for being gay is another attendee.[13]
WCF held another event in Accra, Ghana in 2019, and soon after the country announced cruel laws that would punish gay people by up to ten years' imprisonment; homophobia is also rife in Ghana with videos of gay men being assaulted often posted online and shared.[5]
Conferences[edit]
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This lists some of the organization's annual congresses:
- 2014 - Melbourne, Australia, where it was hosted by right-wing evangelical church Catch the Fire. Catch the Fire's head at the time was pastor Daniel Nalliah, who blamed Australian bush fires on laws legalizing abortion (not climate change).[14] Speakers blamed most of society's problems on single-parent families, while speakers included Angela Lanfranchi who has pushed false theories wrongly linking abortion to breast cancer, Theresa Martin of Australian anti-abortion group Cherish Life Queensland, and anti-gay campaigner Fred Nile. Liberal Party of Australia politician Kevin Andrews was also scheduled to speak but eventually backed out.[6][8]
- 2015 - Salt Lake City, Utah, USA[1]
- 2017 - Budapest, Hungary, where Viktor Orban spoke.[12]
- 2019 - Verona, Italy[13], where it was attended by far-right Italian politicians Matteo Salvini and Giorgia Meloni.[15]
External links[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Pernicious work of World Congress of Families fuels anti-LGBTQ sentiment, The Guardian, Nov 19, 2015
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 World Congress of Families, SPLC, accessed Oct 11, 2022
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Exposed: The World Congress of Families, Human Rights Campaign, June 2015
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Six US Conservative Groups Sign Statement Supporting Russian ‘Gay Propaganda’ Ban, Right Wing Watch, September 3, 2013
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 How a US group with links to the far-right may have influenced a crackdown on Ghana’s LGBTQ community, CNN, October 8, 2021
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 I went to the World Congress of Families and all I got was this lousy foetus stress toy, Dom Amerena, The Guardian, Sep 1, 2014
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 The World Congress of Families’ Russian Network, Mother Jones, Feb 21, 2014
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Kevin Andrews, natural family man of the year: a funny but deadly serious concept, The Guardian, Aug 27, 2014
- ↑ Houston rejects hotly contested anti-discrimination ordinance, The Guardian, Nov 4, 2015
- ↑ Russian Oligarch Malofeyev Banned From Bulgaria For 10 Years Over Spy Scandal, Radio Free Europe, September 11, 2019
- ↑ No Support: Russia's "Gay Propaganda" Law Imperils LGBT Youth, Human Rights Watch, Dec 12, 2018
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Hungary's prime minister welcomes US 'anti-LGBT hate group', The Guardian, May 26, 2017
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 City of love? Christian right congress in Verona divides Italy, The Guardian, Mar 29, 2019
- ↑ Protesters block entry as World Congress of Families starts in chaos, The Guardian, Aug 30, 2014
- ↑ God, family, fatherland - how Giorgia Meloni has taken Italy’s far right to the brink of power, The Guardian, Sep 17, 2022