MFI launches new lobbying arm, surveys supporters on schools

Since the end of the marriage battle last summer the Massachusetts Family Institute, which spearheaded the failed campaign to ban same-sex marriage, has kept a relatively low profile, particularly on LGBT issues. MFI's advocacy this year against the transgender rights bill, House Bill 1722, has been the group's lone public foray into anti-LGBT activism since the defeat of the marriage amendment. But MFI is continuing to organize behind the scenes, and its actions suggest that it plans to continue engaging in anti-LGBT activism, particularly around targeting LGBT-related programming in schools.

On April 3 MFI filed articles of organization with the Secretary of State's office to create a lobbying offshoot, Massachusetts Family Institute Action. According to those articles, marriage will be one of the core issues on MFI Action's agenda; the articles explain that MFI Action will engage in lobbying "in support of laws that protect the sanctity of human life, marriage and the family, and which are consistent with principles of good government."

In response to a Bay Windows inquiry about the new entity, MFI spokeswoman Lisa Barstow provided a brief background document on the new organization that said it was patterned off of the lobbying arms of its national parent organization, Focus on the Family, and Focus's Washington, D.C. offshoot, Family Research Council.

"Created to compliment the work of the Massachusetts Family Institute, MFI Action expands our latitude and flexibility in advocating for pro-family polices in the public policy arena in Massachusetts. It is consistent with the creation of Focus on the Family, Action; and Family Research Council, Action; as well as a majority of our sister family policy councils in the other states," reads the background document. Barstow declined to provide further comment.

Matt McTighe, political director of MassEquality, said that MFI may have created MFI Action to allow it to continue to do the lobbying work that it had previously done through its ballot question committee, VoteOnMarriage.org. Under the federal tax code MFI, as a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization, can do only minimal lobbying. With the defeat last June of the marriage amendment, VoteOnMarriage.org ended its work. McTighe said that MFI Action may simply be a legal entity to allow MFI to continue its lobbying work.

This month MFI's grassroots offshoot, Coalition for Marriage and Family, conducted an online survey of their membership that suggests that there are future anti-LGBT campaigns on the horizon aimed at LGBT-related programs in schools. The Coalition sent an e-mail survey to its members with children in public and private schools, and included in the survey are questions asking whether their children's schools have gay/straight alliances (GSAs) and whether the schools participate in the Day of Silence, an annual event organized by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and held at schools across the country to raise awareness about homophobia. The survey also asks if parents would like assistance in finding out about LGBT-related or sex-related content in their child's school, and it asks parents to inform the Coalition "about anything related to alternative sexuality that is currently happening in your child's school."

In the e-mail to supporters the Coalition told parents that they are fighting in a "culture war."

"The Coalition for Marriage and Family is attempting to gather information about our schools in Massachusetts and we need your help. You are on the frontlines of the culture war; many of you have children in our public and private schools," wrote the Coalition, in its e-mail.