US Republican candidates woo controversial Moms for Liberty group

The conservative organisation Moms for Liberty has opened its annual summit in the United States with a powerhouse roster of Republican speakers, signalling the group’s increasing sway over national politics.

The four-day summit, which launched on Thursday, is set to feature at least five Republican presidential candidates, including current frontrunner and former President Donald Trump.

The group bills itself as a collective of “joyful warriors” seeking to restore “parental rights” in education through changes to curriculums and limiting access to books in school libraries.

At least one hate group monitor, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), has labelled Moms for Liberty an “extremist” group that opposes racial inclusivity and spreads “hateful imagery and rhetoric against the LGBTQ community”.

With so-called culture wars set to dominate the 2024 presidential race, such criticism has only fanned the flames for some Republican hopefuls.

“If @Moms4Liberty is a ‘hate group’, add me to the list,” Nikki Haley, a former US ambassador to the UN, tweeted this month.

Haley is scheduled to speak at the summit — held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — along with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, political activist Vivek Ramaswamy and Trump, all candidates in the 2024 election.

The lineup is the latest coup in the meteoric rise of Moms for Liberty, which formed just over two years ago in Florida. The group now claims 245 chapters in 45 states, comprising 120,000 members.

They were initially motivated by student face-mask and quarantine policies during the COVID pandemic but quickly turned their attention to targeting books they said were inappropriate or “anti-American”.

They have also moved to transform curriculums that deal with sexual orientation and gender identity while opposing some diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Through a political action committee, Moms for Liberty also supports candidates in school board elections across the country, endorsing over 500 in 2022. They have adopted the slogan: “We do not co-parent with the government.”

The group portrays itself as a nonpartisan, grassroots effort, although questions have been raised over its funding and apparent connections to established conservative groups.

Moms for Liberty built early momentum with support from DeSantis, who in 2021 signed into law Florida’s “Parents Bill of Rights” which bolstered parents’ ability to direct their kids’ education and health care. The bill has since been emulated in several Republican-controlled state legislatures across the country.

In 2022, DeSantis also signed a law barring instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through the third grade. That measure, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law, was expanded in April to include all grade levels.

SPLC has said Moms for Liberty “commonly propagates conspiracy theories about public schools attempting to indoctrinate and sexualise children with a progressive Marxist curriculum”.

Those messages are part of a wider effort against public education and teachers’ unions, according to the hate-group monitor.

Chapter chairs have also been accused of harassing community members and using the term “groomer” to falsely depict supporters of LGBTQ rights and representation as paedophiles.

The group’s tactics also include “reading excerpts of books aloud without context at school board meetings to raise alarm in other parents”, according to SPLC.

Speaking to The Associated Press in early June, Moms for Liberty co-founder Justice denied that the group was explicitly anti-LGBTQ, noting that it had gay members. Justice also maintained that chapter chairs who break the group’s code of conduct are removed.

Leaders have also said they seek to restrict — but not completely ban — books.

Several groups gathered to protest Moms for Liberty’s national conference, with at least some handing out books targeted by the group.

Staffers at the Museum of the American Revolution have also reportedly pushed for its leadership to cancel a Moms for Liberty welcome reception scheduled there for Thursday night.

The American Historical Association joined in calls for the cancellation, saying in a letter that Moms for Liberty has “vigorously advocated censorship and harassment of history teachers, banning history books from libraries and classrooms”.

It also accused the group of promoting “legislation that renders it impossible for historians to teach with professional integrity without risking job loss and other penalties”.

Moms for Liberty organisers, meanwhile, have said there will be increased security for the event and encouraged members not to engage with protesters.

-al jazeera