AFamily Policy Council (FPC) is one of severalUSstate-level organizations affiliated withFocus on the Family (FotF), a nationwideconservative Christian organization. Family Policy Councils work for policies that FotF describes as "pro-family".[1] These include opposition tosame-sex marriage,LGBT adoption, andLGBT workplace protections, and support forabstinence-only sex education,increased legal restrictions on abortion andtraditional Christian gender roles. FPCs also work to shape public opinion, organize political demonstrations, and cultivate future politicians.
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FPCs form a network or "alliance" through which FotF exerts influence on local and state-level policy. They are joined via the organizationFamily Policy Alliance, which writes conservative policy that the family policy councils lobby for at the state and local level. This network of 41 member organizations, as of 2024, employs more than 350 people and brings in more than $50 million in annual revenue.
This alliance began to be assembled in secret in the late 1980s, and became openly known in the 1990s. Some of the alliance member organizations are older than the alliance itself; the oldest dates to 1897. The existence of Focus on the Family's affiliated FPCs has spurred the development of other, sometimes opposing policy organizations. An example isOutNebraska, a "statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization" that works against policy goals ofNebraska Family Alliance, an FPC.[2] Before the alliance operated by Focus on the Family was publicly known, a few other organizations also used the name "Family Policy Council" in a generic sense. They were not affiliated with FotF and are now defunct.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has described FotF as a fringe and anti-LGBT organization that relies onmisrepresenting scientific studies.[3]
Family Policy Councils are loosely based on the FotF-affiliated lobbying groupFamily Research Council,[4] which states: "Family Policy Councils (FPCs) accomplish at the state level what Family Research Council does at the national level - shape public debate and formulate public policy."[5]
Focus on the Family (FotF) states that the first Family Policy Council opened in 1988.[6] However, some FPCs are older than this because they were pre-existing organizations that later joined the alliance.
The early history of FPCs was kept "behind the scenes" by FotF.[1] Michael Jameson, a FotF representative, spoke about FotF's nascent effort to create "pro-family" organizations in US states to "affect legislation and to affect our culture" at 1989Denver meeting of conservative policy groups.The United Methodist Reporter wrote that while FotF "is helping pro-family groups create coalitions, at the same time it is urging them to keep secret their participation in the coalition and even that a coalition exists." Jameson explained that "the coalitions can be more effective with a low profile and by leaving their public identity to the groups comprising the coalitions."[7]
Among the first of these organizations to openly name itself "Family Policy Council" is North Carolina Family Policy Council, founded in 1992.[8]
Religion journalistFrederick Clarkson has stated that FotF "often has selected and reshaped an existing state-level organization rather than create a Family Policy Council from scratch."[4] Below are examples of organizations that were taken under the FotF umbrella:
The term "Family Policy Council" has also historically referred to government entities on a couple of occasions; these are not related to FotF. AWashington state coalition of state agencies[10] named Family Policy Council operated from 1992 to 2012.[11] A proposedDelaware government entity was also named Family Policy Council in 1993.[12]
An organization named "Family Policy Council" was active inRichmond, Virginia 1989. It was formed to oppose sex education.[13] Its affiliation with FotF is unclear.
Family Policy Councils sometimes divide their operations into legal entities with differing tax status. For example,Colorado Family Action is a501(c)(4) organization, which can legally do more government lobbying than its sibling Colorado Family Action Foundation, a501(c)(3) organization dedicated to shaping culture.[14]
As of 2024 there are 41 family policy councils. In total, this network of state organizations employs more than 350 people and receives more than $50 million in annual revenue as of 2024.[15]
FPCs' work issocially conservative.[16] FPCs sometimes coordinate their work with, and exchange staff with, a network offiscal conservative organizations calledState Policy Network (SPN). A few organizations are both FPC and SPN members, for example,Alabama Policy Institute.[4]
Family Policy Councils advocated forstate bans on same-sex marriage in the 1990s and 2000s, many of which passed into law. AUniversity of Arizona statistical study of the bans concluded that the "measure of Family Policy Council strength in a state increases the probability of adopting a same-sex marriage ban."[17]
An example isOhio's gay marriage ban, spearheaded by theOhio FPC in 2004.[18] A lawsuit against the Ohio ban lead toObergefell v. Hodges, theUS Supreme Court decision that legalized gay marriage nationwide in 2015.[19]
The following organizations have an official connection to Focus on the Family and its state government lobbying arm, Family Policy Alliance. This is not a complete list.[20]
The following organizations also lobby for policy and encourage cultural change in connection with families. They are not affiliated with Focus on the Family, and may have differing and in some cases opposed policy goals.