For those who may not be aware of Moms for Liberty (M4L), or who they are, here is a synopsis of their history nationally. In the next post I will focus on our local M4L history. 

Moms for Liberty was founded in January 2021 by former school board members Tiffany Justice, Tina Descovich, and Bridget Ziegeler, current school board member.  (you may have heard of them in the news recently). Ziegler had left the organization towards the end of 2021.  

Although M4L claims to be a non-partisan organization, they have always had ties to the Republican party, specifically far right groups. Bridget Ziegeler’s husband, Christian Ziegler who is the Florida Republican Party Chairperson, stated in 2021 that he felt an alliance with Moms for Liberty would be crucial to Gov. DeSantis’ re-election campaign, saying, “I have been trying for a dozen years to get 20- and 30-year-old females involved with the Republican Party, and it was a heavy lift to get that demographic. But now Moms for Liberty has done it for me.” 

M4L has a long history of harassment and intimidation. Tiffany Justice, founding member, has been described as an “antagonizing and disruptive force” who has frequently made “inappropriate outbursts.” This behavior has spread as M4L chapters have spread, with continued harassment of community members and school staff all across the United States. The instances are so numerous, that I will list them at the bottom of this post to not exhaust the reader.

M4L began pushing their agenda during the pandemic.  At the time, the whole world was in crisis, and many people/parents were scared of what was going on, and the unknown of what would happen in the future. Parents were struggling with online schooling, and were isolated. M4L used this to their advantage and capitalized on the fear and frustration people were feeling. 

M4L claimed they wished to “organize, educate and empower parents to defend their parental rights.” The group began campaigning against covid-19 protocols, including masks and vaccine mandates. This is the same time the school board meetings started being reported on the news due to outbursts and yelling. Many of the M4L complaints were things that were not decided at school board levels (state wide restrictions) but they continued to attend board meetings, to air their frustrations.

Around 2022, when many of these pandemic restrictions ended, M4L had to pivot their focus, and began fighting against any school curriculum that mentions slavery, race, racism, critical race theory (by the way,  CRT is not taught in K-12, despite what M4L may tell you). Many members have also campaigned to ban books in school libraries that discuss gender or sexuality.  

They continued to push this idea that schools and teachers were not to be trusted. This fear mongering encouraged people to vote along with M4L, possibly unknowingly voting with the goal of dismantling public education as we know it.

M4L likes to refer to themselves as a “grassroots organization” of moms but M4L founders and founding chapters have strong ties to high-ranking elected officials and financial support from national anti LGBTQ groups such as the Heritage foundation. 

Since M4L is organized as a tax exempt 501(c)(4) organization, they are not legally required to disclose their donors.  Read more about their funding below. M4L is directly linked with, and funded by, people who started a  war on teachers. They want to privatize education to make a profit, and the way to do that is to destroy public education. 

M4L declares themselves a non-partisan organization, yet their agenda is extreme. They began the movement to remove books from school libraries. They have turned school board meetings into screaming matches, often yelling out, and calling people they disagree with groomers, or pedophiles. Yet they have the audacity to refer to themselves as “joyful warriors”.

The issues they bring up repeatedly are manufactured. They are not REAL issues. When they present their many talking points, they do not often explain the context of each issue, which I will do so here.

Groomers – The “grooming” accusation repeated incessantly by M4L members has a long history of being used inappropriately. True grooming is defined as “manipulative behaviors” used by sexual abusers “to gain access to a potential victim, coerce them to agree to the abuse, and reduce the risk of being caught.”

M4L like minded folks call anyone who disagrees with them “groomers.” Often implying that LGBTQ+ people or allies are pedophiles who are preying on children by simply promoting inclusion and speaking about topics such as sexual orientation and gender identity.  M4L seems to believe that teaching about these topics will “indoctrinate” students and encourage them to question their gender identity and sexual orientation.

These types of accusations are not new.  For decades, LGBTQ people have been falsely accused of molesting children and being sympathetic to child predators. 

That idea propelled anti-gay activist and singer Anita Bryant’s Save Our Children campaign in the 1970s, which was a campaign to repeal a gay-rights ordinance in Florida. This movement led to the repeal of the ordinance, and the passage of laws in other states banning gay men and women from teaching in public schools.

The same claims that were made back then, are now being made against trans people. (They are grooming kids, indoctrinating kids, recruiting in schools, kids will grow out of it, it’s not natural, they are too young to know, etc)

Research has repeatedly shown that LGBTQ+ people do not molest children at higher rates than non-LGBTQ+ people. This continued hateful rhetoric, and false allegations that LGBTQ+ people are “grooming” children have led to increased hate and violence against the LGBTQ+ community. 

M4L chapters often have a close relationship with local Gays Against Groomers groups, who as their name suggests, like using the term groomer, excessively and inappropriately. Read more about Gays Against Groomers here.   

So, for clarification, if you buy into this “groomer hysteria” you are very likely someone who would have fallen for the satanic panic of the 1980’s. You would also be the bad guy in Footloose.  

Indoctrination– M4L claim that books they disagree with “indoctrinate children.”  This is absurd because indoctrination does not happen by having free access to information. Indoctrination happens by RESTRICTING access to information. Having books that represent different viewpoints is a critical thinking tool, which COMBATS indoctrination. If you want your child to have critical thinking skills, they need to be able to evaluate information they disagree with.  Children learning or reading something you disagree with is not indoctrination. Children ONLY being able to learn or read what you agree with is the very definition of indoctrination.

Grooming and indoctrination are real, and M4L continually claiming they exist in these false scenarios, could lead to a desensitization of being able to discern these issues when they TRULY happen.

CRT –  M4L repeatedly claim that CRT (Critical Race Theory) is being taught in K-12. This is simply factually incorrect.  CRT is an academic concept that is by no means new. It is over 40 years old. The basics of CRT is that racism is not simply something experienced by individual bias, but it is also embedded in systems throughout our country. It is a framework for legal analysis that is taught in graduate schools.  Yet M4L frames any education about the history of racism in this country as being “CRT.”  

Leadership institute has said “Rather than learning how to write a sentence correctly, many of America’s children are exposed to relativist gender ideology. Rather than learning how the A works, many of America’s children are taught that the color of their skin makes them guilty of being racist.” Teaching accurate history is not the same as teaching white children that they are racist, yet this is continually repeated by M4L. 

These talking points can be compared to historical rightwing mothers’ activism prior to M4L. Scholars such as Elizabeth Gillespie McRae have detailed how white mothers’ organizations were some of the most committed players in the mid-century project of “massive resistance” fought to preserve the Jim Crow order. This segregationist battle was particularly concerned with legal mandates for school desegregation. And one of its battlegrounds remains central to the mission of Moms for Liberty: textbooks and school curriculum. In the south and beyond, mothers’ organizations fought to eliminate books and teachings that highlighted white violence or white supremacy. Furthermore, they routinely attempted to remove books from the curriculum that highlighted Black contributions to the nation, its history, or its culture. 

Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, Southern states funded school vouchers to allow white students to avoid legal orders to integrate and attend private academies (also known as segregation academies at the time).

Pay attention to who starts pushing voucher systems…..

SEL – M4L is against Social Emotional Learning (SEL) being taught in schools. The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning defines SEL as “the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.”  Check this out for info about SEL in Roxbury. 

M4L claims that  SEL teaches students through an “equity lens’ ‘ and claims that it teaches them that America is systemically racist & oppressive, when in fact SEL simply teaches students to consider the feelings of others and practice empathy. 

They have also claimed to be against any mental health or “healthcare” in school.  M4L recently responded to tweets from President Biden, in which Biden said ”Mental health is healthcare.”  M4L responded that mental health is healthcare and healthcare has no place in public schools. These are the same people who were screaming about mental health during the pandemic when schools were shut down.  

What does cutting healthcare in schools mean? It would mean no disability services, special ed services, no assistance for children who may have allergies, asthma, a skinned knee. Mental health services in your average public school are very limited. 

THE BOOKS – M4L love to claim that there is “porn” in public school libraries. The problem is that their definition of porn, is simply any book they don’t like. Often books with LGBTQ characters. Now M4L will repeat that they have no problem with any LGBTQ person, they just don’t think the books are “appropriate.” What they mean is that they don’t want their children exposed to anything LGBTQ. If you pay attention the same people often are then associated with very outwardly homophobic groups or organizations. M4L also likes to claim books are “obscene,” which is simply their opinion. There is a legal definition of obscenity, and no library book meets it.

The same people complaining about books, often don’t have children in the school they are referring to, often have never read the actual book, and often have not used the proper chain of command to make a formal complaint about the book. They just go to BOE meetings to grandstand. (My next post will be about more specific Roxbury M4L history, where you will read how people took the time to laminate POSTERS of the pages of books they dislike but didn’t bother to complete the paperwork to formally challenge the book.)

A simple way to explain – School librarians are highly educated, trained and certified to evaluate and select books for students. They select books based on board approved collection development policy, then submit the list to administration for approval. The books are then purchased through state approved distributors or mainstream published works. Mainstream publishers, through these distributers, do not publish pornography. Obscenity is a legal term. There are three criteria that must be met for a work to be “obscene.” None of the books in school libraries meet the criteria set forth in Miller V California to be defined as obscene.

School library books explain complicated topics to help kids understand human development in safe way. Library books are also not to be confused with curriculum. They are not mandatory and are simply available in the library.

School “choice” – M4L likes to say they are for school choice.   This was discussed at their national summit. The idea of vouchers which would  transfer public funds to private institutions, came up often. This redirection of tax dollars was loudly applauded.  It appears that M4L cares more about increasing subsidies to their own choice of school than actually helping improve public schools. They also agreed with Betsy Devos who reported wanting to end the Department of Education. 

Taxpayer-funded vouchers provide public funding to pay part or all of an individual student’s tuition at a private or religious school. These private schools are not held to the same academic standards as public schools. They are also able to deny acceptance to whomever they want, which leads to refusal of special needs children, or any other group the school does not want to serve. So the children that cannot access those private schools will remain in public school where their funding has been slashed to pay for the accepted students vouchers. By enlarge the students that attend voucher schools, previously attended private school. So vouchers simply subsidize the cost of private school at the expense of public school. 

Voucher programs have very little accountability and have a history of fraud.  Voucher programs do not have to make their budgets public, do not have to adhere to open public meeting laws, and are not required to have Boards elected by tax-payers. Teachers do not need to have the same requirements.  In many areas, these voucher programs have caused many “voucher mills” to be formed, which are low quality private schools created to take advantage of the public funding from vouchers. 

So why would ANYONE be a fan of vouchers? Because dismantling public education in favor of private schools is profitable to them. 

The bottom line is that it is absolutely possible to focus on quality public education while also creating a supportive environment for all students and families.  These two issues are not mutually exclusive, M4L claiming otherwise simply pushes a divide based on a false narrative. They yell “parental rights” as an attempt to trick parents into thinking we cannot have both in our public schools. 

The rights and demands of one group, does not override the rights of other parents. The majority of parents do not want others to control what is taught in schools. The majority are in support of mental health support in schools as well as social emotional learning. 

The majority of parents do not support book bans, they do not support restrictions to curriculum for their children.  Parents do not want this political ideology and culture wars in their school districts. 

M4L is not a grassroots organization of moms. They are a well funded, well supported, group who is working together nationally using a playbook that includes harassing community members at school board meetings, calling their opponents communists, or extremists, groomers, pedophiles, and pornographers. 

They are not for rights for ALL parents. They are for rights for a specific group of parents. They want  to control the rights afforded to everyone based on THEIR beliefs. Do not let these extremists take over your school board.

To all that made it this far! I appreciate you! Stay tuned for more information regarding the history of M4L in Roxbury. 

Below find the continued info regarding M4L harassment, and funding. 

Other concerning events-

Moms for Liberty Miami was one of the organizations of an anti-LGBT “Protect the Children” rally in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; the rally, which was attended by about 20 members of the Proud Boys, was promoted by right-wing outlets, such as Breitbart, OANN, and the avowedly antisemitic Goyim Defense League.

Featured speakers at the “Joyful Warriors Summit” included Katharine Gorka, an anti-Muslim activist, who has advocated “shutting down radical mosques” in the U.S.; North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who believes teaching children about sexual orientation and gender identity is child abuse, homosexuality is “filth” and the transgender rights movement is “demonic” and “full of the Antichrist spirit”; and KrisAnne Hall, who compared the U.S. Capitol police to Nazi SS troops and claims the government of the United States “has no authority outside the PERMISSION of the sheriff” and “is just as much of a federal power as France or Texas within your state.”

—Organization co-founder Bridget Ziegler was allegedly involved in the planning of a sexual encounter with her husband Christian and another women, after which Christian was accused of sexual assault. Bridget, who is not named in the complaint against her husband, has reportedly confirmed previous sexual encounters among the three, including having consensual sex with the woman, a private act in sharp contrast with Bridget’s and Moms for Liberty’s extreme anti-LGBTQ conservative agenda. Bridget sits on the board of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District that Gov. Ron DeSantis put in place to punish Disney for voicing opposition to “Don’t Say Gay/Trans” legislation. Bridget claims to have authored the bill.

Phillip Fisher Jr – a pastor and local Republican ward leader who volunteered at Moms for Liberty’s national summit in Philadelphia this year – pleaded guilty in 2012 to a charge of aggravated sexual abuse involving a 14-year-old boy when he was 25 and living in Chicago.

Sheila Armstrong, the chairwoman of Philadelphia’s Moms for Liberty chapter, confirmed to the Inquirer that Fisher was still planning to volunteer at her autism non-profit’s Christmas party.

The chair of the El Paso County, Colo., chapter raised the hypothetical of a teacher telling a tomboy, “it might be time to transition. Let’s go talk to the school therapist. Let’s go talk to a physician. Let’s do this.” She believes “teachers, unions and the president” are engaged in a coordinated effort to make children trans and gay to “break down the family unit, conservative values,” and “slowly erode constitutional rights.” However, she does not know of anyone who transitioned because of social pressure.

The Williamson County, Tenn., chapter of Moms for Liberty alleged a book about Martin Luther King Jr. and the March on Washington promotes “anti-American, anti-White, anti-Mexican” instruction, singling out a photo of segregated water fountains and an image of firefighters hosing down Black children. The chapter also demanded the removal of “The Story of Ruby Bridges,” about a six-year old who integrated a school in Louisiana in 1960.

Harassment:

Tiffany Justice reportedly acted so inappropriately at her son’s school and the superintendent warned her that she could be banned from the school. Her conduct with school staff was reported to be “so disruptive and disrespectful” Justice also went after a local news outlet that critically covered the school board, writing in leaked texts that she was “starting the takedown” of the news outlet.

Descovich started the organization in the fall of 2020, after losing a seat on the Brevard County school board, to Jennifer Jenkins. Jenkins reported significant harassment in the district beginning with the conception of M4L. Jenkins reported that M4L first targeted the county’s LGBTQ guidelines that protected students by allowing for “the right to dress and use bathrooms according to the gender they identify with.” According to Jenkins, parents reportedly began calling school board members “pedophiles” and threatening them, saying, “We’re coming at you like a freight train! We are going to make you beg for mercy. If you thought January 6 was bad, wait until you see what we have for you!”  Jenkins was also falsely reported for child abuse, prompting an investigation from the Florida Department of Children and Families.

In June 2022, Lonoke County, Arkansas, M4L chapter member threatened gun violence against librarians. tMelissa “Missy” Bosch, the chapter’s head of communications and media, threatened librarians in the district, saying, “I’m telling you, if I was — any mental issues, they would all be plowed down with a freaking gun by now.”

In March 2023, a South Carolina Moms for Liberty member that served on a local school board was asked to resign after allegedly making violent threats towards local teachers.

The chairperson of the Monroe County, Pennsylvania, chapter was arrested on a “summary charge of harassment” after allegedly repeatedly harassing an individual with messages. This M4L chairperson went on to speak at the M4L summit in Philadelphia this summer. ( I bring this up because M4L national often mention that they cannot control and are not responsible for the actions of individuals, and that they do not represent M4L as a whole. Yet, Prussman was praised by the national organization at their National Summit in Philadelphia.

The chapter chair of the Livingston County, Michigan, chapter, Jennifer Smith, allegedly led a harassment campaign against a community advocate, Sarah Cross, and was issued a restraining order. Smith allegedly published Cross’ home address, made allegations that Cross had harassed her children, and made comments with various pseudonyms on the blog Livingston Lantern about how Cross and other community members had child pornography.

In 2021, Smith told Brighton Area School Board members “we’re coming for you. Take it as a threat. Call the FBI. I don’t care!” According to a local Livingston news outlet, Smith adheres to the QAnon conspiracy theory and screenshots of her TikTok page show her using the acronym “WWG1WGA.” 

In Chattanooga, Tennessee, Moms for Liberty members harassed an opposing group and threatened to report them for child abuse and called them “pedophile sympathizers.” 

Police presence was eventually needed at a Wauwatosa School Board meeting when members of Moms for Liberty and Gays Against Groomers “accused attendees of being groomers, not actually being gay and wanting to show explicit pictures to children. The group’s members even brought a 10-year-old student to tears.”  (post  regarding Gays Against Groomers coming soon)

Charleston County School Board member Ed Kelley attended a Moms for Liberty meeting and publicly stated that he would bring a gun to the home of his child’s teacher if the teacher came out as trans.

FUNDING 

In 2021, co-founder Descovich claimed that M4L was funded by individual memberships ($50) and the sale of M4L t-shirts. The same year, M4L reported $370,000 in total revenue, $256,000 from contributions and grants.  Of that 40% came from a single anonymous $100,000 donation. Nearly 60% of its contributions and grants total,came from just five anonymous donations. .

Only 28K less than 8% came from “other revenue, which includes sales of merchandise.

The same year M4L paid founding member Bridget Ziegelrs husband’s company $20,000 for unknown reasons. 

In 2022, M4L claimed that their jump in revenue to over 2 million dollars came from “grass roots” efforts.  Are the donations really coming from your local moms? Clearly not- 1.5 million of that money came from TWO donors. Seems the most individual mom donors contributed was far under $175,000 of the 2.1 million in dollar donations. 

M4L has been linked to the CNP, a club of the 100 most powerful and well funded conservatives in the county, including Betsy Devos, who spoke at both CNP and M4L events discussing her wish to end the Department of Education. 

Other connections between M4L and CNP can be found through the Leadership Institute. LI is an affiliate of CNP, and LI president Morton Blackwell is a member and founder of CNP. According to the LI website, LI “prepares conservatives for success in politics, government, and the news media,” and it “has trained more than 250,000 students.” LI was the largest donor for M4L’s 2022 national summit and was the only known $50,000 sponsor, and attendees of the summit could join LI campaign training. 

IN 2022,  Dylan Craig, digital marketing coordinator for LI, wrote on the institute’s website that “[M4L] got advice from my boss, Morton Blackwell, and used Leadership Institute training and sheer determination to quickly become a national force.” Craig also bragged about LI’s involvement in running the M4L national summit: “I’m proud to say Leadership Institute partnered with Moms for Liberty and supported the Summit as the top sponsor, official photographers/videographers, trainers, and all-around support. LI held training for attendees on Candidate Vetting, Grassroots Lobbying, Communications, Running for Office, Strategic Research, Vote Goals, and four hours of Media Training. Now, 150 more conservatives are trained to advance their principles in their local communities.” Marie Rogerson, who serves on the M4L executive board and is M4L’s director of program development, is a graduate of LI. 

Going back to Bridget Ziegler – a M4L co-founder. Blackwell hired her to run Leadership Institute’s School Board Campaign Trainings, while she was an active school board member. Prior to her involvement with M4L and the Leadership Institute, Ziegler had been a co-founder and president of the right-wing Florida Coalition of School Board Members.  

The Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action for America were also sponsors of M4L’s national summit. The Heritage Foundation was also a “meeting sponsor” of CNP’s 2022 annual conference.  In 2022 the Heritage Foundation awarded its annual Henry Salvatori Prize for American Citizenship to M4L. M4L leaders presented at Heritage forums in both 2021 and 2022.

Turning Point USA (TPUSA) was an M4L National Summit participant, and its president Charlie Kirk is a CNP member.  TPUSA, is a conservative youth and student group funded by right-wing donors that “has faced numerous allegations of racial discrimination.” It has started a Professor Watchlist to expose what it considers to be radically left college and university professors and also runs  a School Board Watchlist to do the same for local school boards.

Council for National Policy, which has advocated for abolishing public schools and voluntarily replacing them with “free-market private schools, church schools, and home schools.” 

Maybe everyone should ask why they think big money PACs want to be involved in your kids’ education? M4L and their deep pockets supporters have said the quiet part out loud repeatedly. They want to defund public education. 

More resources:

Moms for Liberty Has Aggressive, Predatory Tactics—and They’re Working (vice.com)

Mapping the U.S. Right • Moms for Liberty – County Chapter Networks / Moms for Liberty • Kumu

Mapping the U.S. Right • Moms for Liberty • Kumu