SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: WORLD CONGRESS OF FAMILIES, KEY EXPORTER OF HOMOPHOBIA, MEETS NEXT WEEK, Sylvia Lydia Morelos, 10/23/15...3:25 p.m.

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Southern Poverty Law Center

World Congress of Families, key exporter of homophobia, meets next week   Everything you need to know about the anti-LGBTQ World Congress of Families (WCF) The World Congress of Families (WCF) is meeting next week in Salt Lake City, Utah. WCF is one of the key driving forces behind the U.S. Religious Right’s global export of homophobia and sexism. From its headquarters in Rockford, Illinois, WCF pursues an international anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ agenda, seeking to promote conservative ideologies—and codify these in regressive laws and policies—that dictate who has rights as “family,” and who doesn’t. Some terms the World Congress of Families (mis)uses: Natural family: WCF defines the “natural family” as the “fundamental social unit of society,” and describes a family unit as one that is centered on “the voluntary union of a man and a woman in a lifelong covenant of marriage.” According to WCF, one of the primary purposes of this union is to “welcom[e] and ensur[e] the full physical and emotional development of children.” Family rights: The insertion of “family rights” into international policy is part of a long-term effort on the part of WCF and like-minded organizations to deny human rights protections to LGBTQ people, and others, who don’t fit their definition of “natural family.” By asserting and prioritizing the rights of a social institution (the family), conservative factions are effectively neglecting the human rights of individuals—particularly individuals subject to violence, abuse, and neglect within families. Complementarity The concept of complementarity is used to reinforce notions of gender essentialism—that men and women are fundamentally different and that distinctions between masculine and feminine characteristics are ordained by God as part of the created order. Thus, only men and women are intended for intimate partnership. Religious liberty: The Religious Right is increasingly using existing constitutional protections of freedom to (and from) religion to assert that one’s “deeply held religious convictions” are just cause for—among other things—denying services to LGBTQ people and refusing to provide reproductive healthcare that includes contraception and abortion. Demographic winter: The term “demographic winter” is used in reference to the notion that the human species is doomed to disaster because of an imminent and radical population decline. Demographic winter alarmists—led by WCF partners such as the Population Research Institute—suggest that abortion, birth control, homosexuality, feminism and other ”unnatural” deviations have led to this crisis for the ”natural family.” Read the full glossary   Follow on Twitter   Like on Facebook unsubscribe from this list   privacy policy