As wildfire smoke blankets the city, Philadelphia is set to be ground zero for a national culture war.
This weekend, the City of Brotherly Love is hosting Republican presidential hopefuls including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump, conservative lightning rods from all over the country and daily protests by LGBTQ and anti-censorship groups.
At the center of it all is a relatively small, new national political group with close ties to GOP leadership and the unassuming name of Moms for Liberty.
Since its founding in 2021 under the banner of parental rights, the group has campaigned to remove books from school libraries, backed right-wing candidates in school board races, and courted plenty of controversy. The group was branded this year as an “extremist” anti-government group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
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From Friday to Sunday, Moms for Liberty will hold its national “Joyful Warriors” summit in Philadelphia at the downtown Marriott. The group also rented out space Thursday night for an opening gala in Old City’s Museum for the American Revolution. Both locations have already been the site of protests.
Here’s what we know.
Who are Moms for Liberty?
Moms for Liberty is a well-connected right-wing political group that has fielded conservative candidates in school board races all over the country, and advocated against including information about racism or LGBTQ topics in public schools.
The group was founded in Florida in 2021 by Bridget Ziegler, wife of current Florida GOP chair Christian Ziegler, as well as former school board members Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice. Ziegler has since left leadership of the group.
The group now boasts local chapters in 45 states. The stated purpose of the group is “fighting for the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.”
Why is Moms for Liberty meeting in Philadelphia if they’re from Florida?
Moms for Liberty leaders have said they favor Philadelphia as a backdrop because of its history as a birthplace of American values.
Pennsylvania is also one of the group’s most prominent strongholds, especially in the collar counties surrounding Philadelphia.
The group has played a major role backing conservative school board candidates in Central Bucks County in particular — a district that recently conducted a $1 million investigation into whether LGBTQ students faced a hostile environment.
Moms for Liberty has a much less prominent role in surrounding states. The Facebook group for a New Castle County, Delaware, chapter boasts just 92 members. Philadelphia’s online group has even fewer.
What political causes has Moms for Liberty supported?
Initially focused on opposition to COVID masking policies in schools, Moms for Liberty has more recently been associated with a number of book-banning campaigns in school libraries across the country.
Some of the books Moms for Liberty chapters have challenged have included books by Toni Morrison and Native American author Sherman Alexie, books with LGBTQ characters and a number of books on social or racial justice.
Moms for Liberty’s website says its main focus is removing sexually explicit materials.
The group’s chapters across the country have backed right-wing school board candidates across the country, and campaigned against curriculum that offers information about racial or ethnic discrimination, and LGBTQ rights.
In Florida, the group advocated for a law — colloquially known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill — that barred talking about gender identity and sexual orientation in schools.
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Why did the SPLC call Moms for Liberty an extremist group?
Civil rights watchdog The Southern Poverty Law Center has recently listed Moms for Liberty as an anti-government extremist organization, saying the group and its local chapters “use their multiple social media platforms to target teachers and school officials, advocate for the abolition of the Department of Education, advance a conspiracy propaganda, and spread hateful imagery and rhetoric against the LGBTQ community.”
The SPLC quoted a New Hampshire chapter that offered a $500 “bounty” on teachers caught discussing “divisive concepts” such as racial injustice, and an open letter referring to the National Education Association as “domestic terrorists.”
Among other controversies, a Moms for Liberty chapter in Indiana apologized after including a quote from Adolf Hitler on one of its newsletters.
Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler called the SPLC’s report a “laughable” and unfounded “political hit job” with “no credibility.”
Are there protests against Moms for Liberty in Philadelphia?
Oh gosh, yes.
LGBTQ-rights group ACT UP Philadelphia and some staffers from Museum of the American Revolution have already staged protests in front of the museum and Marriott.
This will intensify during the summit, with protests and counteractivities from a large number of groups that will include ACT UP, women’s advocacy group Red, Wine & Blue; nonpartisan anti-censorship group Defense of Democracy, and a host of other progressive and LGBTQ groups.Ariel Franchak, a founder of the Pennsylvania chapter of a group called STOP Moms for Liberty, said Thursday she planned to be in Philadelphia that afternoon to protest the group’s “anti-LGTBQ, anti-trans” stance and “whitewashing of history.“
Rallies and protests would kick off near Rittenhouse Square in early afternoon Thursday, she said, and continue throughout the weekend near the Marriott and at other Center City locations.
Other activities by various groups include a “banned book giveaway” Thursday afternoon, a rally at LOVE Park, and a dance party hosted by ACT UP and the Young Communist League outside the Museum of the American Revolution.
Franchak said Defense of Democracy has sent buses to other municipalities in Pennsylvania, New York and North Carolina. She expects protesters to outnumber the 650 members of Moms of Liberty anticipated to attend the summit.
Moms for Liberty has said it will increase security during the summit.
How significant are political efforts by Moms for Liberty?
The book has yet to be written.
So far, the track record of school board candidates backed by Moms for Liberty and other conservative action groups has been mixed.
But a national focus on school board races is historically significant all by itself, said University of Pennsylvania professor Jonathan Zimmerman, author of a book on culture wars in schools.
“The idea of parents banding together to try to change their school’s curriculum is not new,” he said. “The national breadth of Moms for Liberty, and this larger censorship campaign, I think is new.”
Though chapters criss-cross the county, the group’s numbers remain relatively small. The group says it has a bit more than 100,000 members, compared to more than 4 million members each for the National Rifle Association and the American Civil Liberties Union.
If they’re a small group, how has Moms for Liberty drawn in presidential candidates like DeSantis and Trump?
Florida governor DeSantis has long been a political ally of the group.Republican strategists including GOP chair Christian Ziegler in Florida, have said they view the fast-growing Moms for Liberty as a viable draw for younger female voters — a demographic that’s a traditional trouble spot for the GOP.
Other scheduled speakers include former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, and self described “nonwhite nationalist” entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Democratic presidential candidate and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pulled out of a planned appearance, citing scheduling concerns.
Matthew Korfhage is a Philadelphia-based reporter for USA Today Network.