Controversial Moms for Liberty group plans event in Avon
Saturday rally planned to oppose what some label as ‘hate group’
AVON — A symposium hosted by the controversial conservative group Moms for Liberty is not only expected to draw a crowd Saturday at the Avon Senior Center, but a rally outside the facility to protest the Florida-based group’s ideas and goals.
The event will feature author James Lindsay, who is described in a flyer as an “author, a leading expert on Critical Race Theory, and mathematician who is anti-communist and pro-America.”
The opposing rally — the group’s presentation at the Senior Center is from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m .—is expected to feature local leaders who dismiss accusations by the Moms for Liberty that Avon’s schools hide what happens in the classroom from parents and try to secretly indoctrinate students.
“Based on the people I have talked to, there will be a cohesive message. That is they feel that this is a hate group and hate has no home here,” said Rep. Eleni Kavros DeGraw, DAvon. “We don’t have a problem here and we don’t want a problem here.”
The Avon Democratic Town Committee, which said it is not organizing Saturday’s rally, took the group’s visit a few steps further, calling them radical extremists, whose rhetoric is full of “homophobic, transphobic, racist, and xenophobic vitriol.”
“The Avon Democrats strongly denounce any organization that serves to demonize, dehumanize, and erase entire groups of people. We denounce efforts to remove books from libraries, topics from curricula, events and individuals from history lessons, and diverse voices from conversations,” the town committee said in a statement. “And we denounce
the intimidation our educators, librarians, and school administrators are experiencing across Connecticut and the nation because a tiny crosssection of the population is resurrecting ‘purity’ agendas as a tactic to push vulnerable groups into the margins of society.”
According to the group’s website, it was founded by two mom son a mission “to stoke the fires of liberty.”
“As former school board members, they witnessed how short-sighted and destructive policies directly hurt children and families. Now they are using their firsthand knowledge and experience to unite parents who are ready to fight those that stand in the way of liberty,” the group’s website says.
According to the Moms for Liberty, the group’s mission is “dedicated to fighting for the survival of America by unifying, educating, and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.”
According to the Brookings Institution, Moms for Liberty — which has been labeled a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center — has about 103,000 members in 278
chapters across the country, with Florida boasting the most chapters with 28. The states with the most members are New York, Florida, and Pennsylvania, according to the Brookings report.
A spokesperson for the Farmington Valley chapter of Moms for Liberty said Monday in an email that the group is made up of “everyday parents and grandparents who just want their children to excel at academics and in sports.” The spokesperson said they also expect protests, “which is fine since people have a right to protest in the Constitution, as long as there isn’t violence or threats made.”
The spokesperson, who declined to be identified, also said that the chapter runs independently from the national organization and does not get involved with local elections or seek to ban books.
“We do want books to be age-appropriate. No book ban or book burning. Authors can write whatever they want just as publishers can publish any content they see fit, as this is the basic definition of liberty. Anyone can choose to buy the book or not, as that is their right,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson also
said that the chapter is not transphobic or homophobic.
“LGBTQ+ is well represented in our chapter ... an adult can make choices with consequences they are fully aware of,” the spokesperson said. “Children are not emotionally and physically developed to understand the consequences of drugs and surgeries that are irreversible. Just because you are attracted to the same sex or opposite sex, don’t all these kids want to be just kids? Don’t they want to dress up like Darth Vader or a Disney princess for Halloween? So a young boy likes dolls and the color pink ... who cares? He’s a kid and he should be allowed to have his childhood being a kid. Why put adult pressures, labels, and stress on children and speed up childhood?”
The spokesperson said that the group supports girls’ sports and Title IX. “A girl who spends so much time, effort, energy in training (including their parents’ time and money) to have her dreams of winning a competition or scholarship taken away by a biological male is soul crushing. Feminists fought so hard for that.”