What to Know
- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says that 2024 will be the year that parents “finally fight back” as he kicks off an annual gathering of Moms for Liberty that is drawing top GOP candidates.
- The group has fiercely opposed instruction related to race and gender identity in classrooms and has become a force in conservative politics by advocating for “parental rights” in education. But Moms for Liberty has been labeled as “extremist” by an anti-hate watchdog group for allegedly harassing community members, advancing anti-LGBTQ+ misinformation and fighting to scrub diverse and inclusive material from lesson plans.
- The summit starts Friday and will feature strategy sessions on such topics as “protecting kids from gender ideology.” LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations are protesting.
Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the main rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, are speaking Friday at the annual gathering of Moms for Liberty, a group that has fiercely opposed instruction related to race and gender identity in the nation's classroom.
As "Moms for Liberty" begins for its four-day summit at the Marriott in Center City Philadelphia, protesters called out the group for its ideologies they claim discriminates against certain groups.
What is Moms for Liberty's draw for conservative politicians?
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The two-year-old group, which has quickly become a force in conservative politics, advocates “parental rights” in education, but an anti-hate watchdog has labeled it “extremist” for allegedly harassing community members, advancing anti-LGBTQ+ misinformation and fighting to scrub diverse and inclusive material from lesson plans.
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and DeSantis' wife, Casey DeSantis, also were slated to address the group Friday at the downtown Philadelphia hotel hosting the conference. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy are set to give remarks on Saturday.
Haley took the stage around midday Friday.
"When they mentioned that this was a terrorist organization...then I said well, count me as a mom for liberty," Haley said making light of Moms for Libert being labeled an anti-government extremist group.
Haley also gave credit to the now conservative leaning Supreme Court that has released high profile decisions in recent days, saying that they are making a lot of wrongs right.
Their attendance underscores the influence of the group, which has made connections with powerful GOP organizations, politicians and donors to become a major player in 2024.
The group has transformed from three Florida moms opposing COVID-19 mandates in 2021 to claiming 285 chapters across 45 states. Along the way, it has found a close ally in DeSantis, who was presented with a “liberty sword” at the group's first annual meeting last year and has signed multiple bills that Moms for Liberty supported.
DeSantis took the stage Friday morning.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday that 2024 will be the year that parents “finally fight back” as he kicked off the annual gathering of Moms for Liberty.
DeSantis, in his remarks, praised the group for “coming under attack by the left," saying it was “a sign that we are winning this fight.” He ran through his efforts in Florida to ban discussions of race and sexual identity in classrooms as well as certain books from school libraries. And he pledged to “fight the woke" as president.
“I think what we’ve seen across this country in recent years has awakened the most powerful political force in the country: Mama bears. And they’re ready to roll," he said, predicting moms would be “the key political force for this 2024 cycle.”
“2024 is going to be the year when the parents across the county finally fight back," the Republican said.
Donald Trump, the race's frontrunner, is set to speak later Friday afternoon.
Beyond remarks from the candidates and other speakers, the summit will feature strategy sessions on such topics as “protecting kids from gender ideology” and “comprehensive sex education: sex ed or sexualization.”
Groups protest Moms for Liberty
Parent activists and LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations gathered Friday to protest outside the conference, citing the Southern Poverty Law Center’s designation of the group as an “anti-government extremist” organization.
Others mentioned recent incidents, including an Indiana Moms for Liberty chapter publishing an Adolf Hitler quote in its newsletter before apologizing and removing it, and a Tennessee chapter complaining about lessons on Black civil rights figures Martin Luther King Jr. and Ruby Bridges.
“We are going to be loud and we are going to be loving and we are going to be full of positive energy,” People for the American Way national field director Alana Byrd said outside the hotel, ahead of DeSantis' morning address. “All we want is the freedom to learn and the freedom to read for children and grandchildren in this country.”
In the days before the conference, several historical associations, state senators, activists and employees at Philadelphia's Museum of the American Revolution had pleaded unsuccessfully with the museum to cancel a welcome event for the conference planned for Thursday night.
“The very history that we’re presenting within the walls of the museum is a more diverse and therefore more accurate telling of history," said Trish Norman, an assistant curator at the museum who protested the event. "And Moms for Liberty is notorious for erasing LGBTQ voices and Black voices from history.”
Philadelphia said it's prepared for the protests. Police officers set up metal barriers in expectation of protesters at the museum Thursday. As attendees entered the event, protesters chanted "shame."
The museum told The Associated Press that “because fostering understanding within a democratic society is so central to our mission, rejecting visitors on the basis of ideology would in fact be antithetical to our purpose.”
NBC10 also reached out to the Marriott for comment and they did not respond.
At the beginning of the June, Galaei, a queer and trans, Black, indigenous, and people of color (QTBIPOC) radical social justice organization, called for the Marriott to cancel the event and shared a script on its Instagram account with the hashtag “StopHostingHate," for people to send to the Marriott and media outlets:
The script they shared read as follows:
“Hello, my name is [......] I am a [resident/frequent visitor] of Philadelphia and am concerned by Marriott’s support of the hate group Moms for Liberty, which is using the Philadelphia Marriott as a meeting place for their yearly summit from June 29th-July 2nd, 2023. Marriott will no longer have my business if it does not cancel the Moms for Liberty summit reservations and do its part to keep our schoolchildren safe.”
People for the American Way was among several groups planning to rally against the gathering. Its "Grandparents for Truth” campaign was mobilizing grandparents and other supporters “who are fighting for the next generation’s freedom to learn.”
One such grandparent, Maureen Carreño, said she wasn’t taught a diverse history as a child and wants something different for her five grandkids.
“I would hope that we teach the totality of history," she said. “And, yes, it might make you feel a little bad or sad or something, but that’s part of history.”
Jazmyn Henderson is with Act Up and is among those pushing back against the Moms for Liberty group's plan.
"They claim they want to protect children. But whose children?” Henderson said.
Others say the group is behind a movement that's responsible for removing books from school libraries that target certain groups.
Deemed an extremist group
Moms for Liberty has been deemed an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, who has a page dedicated to highlighting the ways that Moms for Liberty advances an anti-student inclusion agenda.
As of June 6, the nonprofit was added to a list with about a dozen other groups that SLPC has deemed as anti-government extremist groups.
"There's a lot of things on there that we completely reject. Any of the terminology where they say we're extremist for wanting to say mother instead of birthing person, we reject those things," Descovich, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, said."
Descovich said the group's mission is to unify, educate and empower parents. She said the summit will include information about running for school board and that despite hosting presidential candidates they're not planning to endorse in that race.
Mayor Jim Kenney office released a statement on the group's summit this weekend:
"With the Moms for Liberty summit beginning in Philadelphia this week, I want to be very clear that as a welcoming and inclusive City, we find this group’s beliefs and values problematic. We oppose this group’s policy goals, which include attempts to disregard history, ban books, and silence conversations about race, gender, and sexuality...However, in spite of our disagreement with the views of Moms for Liberty, we also take freedom of speech very seriously. The City’s response to any demonstration or public protest will prioritize the safety of participants and members of the public."
Descovich also said that the group doesn't want children in preschool through third grade being taught that they can be a boy or a girl, neither, or both, and that they can change their gender identity in school. That's something they believe should be taught by parents at home when they think their child is ready.
Another Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice said the protesters “obviously don’t know very much about our organization,” and if they wanted to, “they could have come to the summit instead of standing on the street.”
Moms for Liberty's status as a 501(c) nonprofit
Though Moms for Liberty says it is nonpartisan, it has largely drawn conservative support. The group also has fought to elect conservative candidates to school boards around the country.
While the group’s status as a 501(c)4 nonprofit means it doesn’t have to disclose its funders, its public donors include conservative powerhouses such as the Heritage Foundation and the Leadership Institute, a national political training organization.
Patriot Mobile, a far-right Christian cellphone company paying to sponsor Trump’s remarks at the conference, has a political action committee that has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in an effort to take charge of Texas school boards.
Mom for Liberty’s Florida-based PAC also has received a $50,000 donation from Julie Fancelli, a Republican donor whose family owns Publix grocery stores and who helped fund Trump’s Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally, according to House Jan. 6 committee findings. Fancelli didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running in the Democratic presidential primary, had been scheduled to speak at the group’s summit, but his “campaign told us his schedule changed,” Justice said.
Kennedy's press team said he dropped out “for family reasons.” Hours later, Kennedy said during a town hall with NewsNation that he “made a mistake by accepting that invitation” and that once he learned of Moms for Liberty's positions on LGBTQ+ issues, he “declined to go.”
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