Family Research Council
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| “ | One of the primary goals of the homosexual rights movement is to abolish all age of consent laws and to eventually recognise pedophiles as the "prophets" of a new sexual order. | „ |
| ~ A quote from a 1999 publication by the FRC. |
The Family Research Council is an American lobby group against LGBT rights, among other things.
History edit
The FRC was founded by Gerald P. Regier, Armand Nicholi Jr, George Alan Rekers and others in 1981, to lobby against the legalisation of gay marriage, and the introduction of laws outlawing discrimination against LGBT people. In 1983, it was incorporated into Focus On The Family, another Anti-LGBT lobby group lead by James Dobson, who introduced Gary Bauer as president, replacing Regier. However, in 1992, Bauer pulled them out due to his objections to Focus On The family not having to pay tax. After Bauer resigned in 1999, Kenneth L. Connor took over, but was replaced by current president Tony Perkins.
During Perkins's tenure in 2012, the FRC was classified as a Hate Group by the Southern Poverty Law Centre, and shortly afterwards left-wing extremist Floyd Lee Corkins attempted a mass shooting at the FRC's headquarters in Washington DC. Perkins condemned the SPLC for classifying them as a hate group, as he claimed they had motivated Corkins to attempt his attack.
The FRC has since set up a subdivision named FRC Action, which was led by Josh Duggar for a time. However, Duggar resigned in 2015 after being accused of being a Paedophile, whilst Rekers, who was still a leading member, resigned in 2012 after being outed as gay when he was caught with a male prostitute.
Views edit
Tony Perkins has blamed the constitutional separation of church and state for encouraging the rise of ISIS and similar Islamic extremist groups.
It also opposes efforts to make the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine mandatory for school attendance. HPV is a virus that can be transmitted by sexual contact, that can cause cervical cancer. FRC defends its position on the basis of the rights of parents and because of its support for abstinence prior to marriage.
It supports a federal conscience clause, allowing medical workers to refuse to provide certain treatments to their patients, such as abortion, blood transfusion or birth control. It also advocates for abstinence-only sex education, intelligent design, prayer in public schools and the regulation of pornography and other "obscene, indecent, or profane programming" on broadcast and cable television. It opposed, but failed to prevent, the introduction of a .xxx domain name, and it lobbied for an increase in indecency fines from the Federal Communications Commission.
FRC also holds that hotel pornography may be prosecutable under federal and state obscenity laws. It opposed the expansion of civil rights laws to include sexual orientation and gender identity as illegal bases for discrimination.
Family Research Council is also fiscally conservative and wants to increase the child tax credit. FRC supports the requirement of a one-year waiting period before a married couple with children can legally get a divorce so that they can receive marital counseling, unless the marriage involves domestic violence. FRC also supports permanently eliminating the marriage penalty and estate taxes.
The Council opposes legalized abortion, stem-cell research which involves the destruction of human embryos and funding thereof (instead advocating research using adult stem cells) and legal recognition of same-sex domestic partnerships in the form of marriage or civil unions. It formerly opposed all forms of gambling. The Council has questioned whether humans are mainly or completely responsible for climate change, and has opposed other evangelicals who have affirmed their belief in global warming.