World Congress of Families

World Congress of Families (WCF), formed in 1997, is a U.S.-based organization that maintains an international coalition to promote extremist tenets of the Christian far right. It was created by and is coordinated by the Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society. WCF opposes marriage equality, abortion, and pornography and promotes the so-called "natural family doctrine" that has been used to curtail reproductive and LGBTQIA+ rights across the world. WCF has been designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.


Summary Extremism Key Players Influence Legal & Financial Related Orgs

Summary

World Congress of Families is an umbrella organization for a massive network of interconnected organizations.  It is a project of the Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society, now called the International Organization for the Family. Currently located in Rockford, Illinois, and formed in 1997 in Russia during a meeting between Allan Carlson, a Reagan appointee and former Howard Center President, and Russian Intellectuals Anatoly Antonov and Viktor Medkov, WCF is most known for promoting the “natural family doctrine.” 

Central to Carlson’s school of thought, the “natural family doctrine” promotes the theory that sexual and feminist liberation had brought on demographic decline.  Central to WCF’s mission is to reverse this so-called decline that was prompted by what they see as a collapse of the family.  The effects of the natural family doctrine have been legislation and cultural rhetoric aimed at eroding reproductive rights.  As of September 2016, the World Congress of Families has 35 organizational partners, which are based in various countries around the world.

Every WCF conference consistently contains anti-LGBTQIA+ and reproductive rights rhetoric and includes opposition speakers. Anti-LGBTQIA+ academic Mark Regnerus, who has been widely debunked, has addressed WCF congresses. Regnerus issued a highly flawed 2011 study attempting to prove that children raised by LGBTQIA+ parents were worse off than children raised by heterosexual parents. This study was the influence of Russia’s June 2013 anti-“gay propaganda” law, which banned “propaganda” of “non-traditional” sexual relations. Other WCF speakers include: Roman Giertych, chairman of the League of Polish Families (a far-right nationalist party), Don Feder, who sits on the national board of advisors for FAIR (an anti-immigrant hate group), and Angela Lanfranchi, who falsely links abortion and breast cancer. 

The WCF has been organizing parliamentary forums to help various parliamentary members pass what they describe as pro-family legislation throughout the world. WCF has ties to the highest levels of government in Russia, including President Vladimir Putin and Member of Parliament Yelena Mizulina who is the Chairman of the Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children and Affairs.  However, WCF has been gaining more of a regular presence in African countries and holds regional conferences every year in African cities.  

WCF also has a regionally-based network of allies to spread its agenda: Theresa Okafor, director of the Foundation for African Cultural Heritage; in Mexico, Latino leaders such as Enrique Gomez Serrano, former board president of Red Familia (Spanish for “Family Network”); and in Russia, Russian leaders such as Alexey Komov, director of external affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church. These allies tailor WCF’s messages to resonate with local communities, packaging the “natural family” agenda in whatever way will most effectively hook their audience.

The WCF, despite extremist positions, has support from mainstream conservative organizations in the United States.  The WCF held a conference in 2004 in Mexico City where U.S. Representative to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women Ellen Sauerbrey brought an official message from President Bush, which read: “As one of the pillars of civilization, families must remain strong and we must defend them during a time of great change…My administration has taken important steps to promote strong families, preserve the sanctity of marriage and protect the well-being of children.” In 2022, WCF returned its conference to Mexico City for the first time since 2004.

Extremism

WCF Leaders Have Consistently Used Anti-LGBTQIA+ Rhetoric Including At WCF Coalition Events

WCF Founder Alan Carlson Writes Extremist Views Condemning “Deviation” From What He Sees As “Natural” Sexual Behavior.  

  • “The complementary natures of men and women, both physically and psychologically, are evident throughout the course of human history and in every society. Deviations from natural sexual behavior cannot truly satisfy the human spirit.”
  • —WCF founder Allan Carlson and former WCF executive vice president Paul Mero, The Natural Family: A Manifesto, 2007

Josiah Trenholm, A Pastor, Speaking At The WCF Calls Abortion And LGBTQIA+ Rights Advocates Names Like “Homofascists.”

  • “Tell the LGBT tolerance tyrants, this lavender mafia, these homofascists, these rainbow radicals, that they are not welcome to promote their anti-religious and anti-civilizational propaganda in your nations.”
  • —Fr. Josiah Trenholm speaking at the World Congress of Families gathering in Tbilisi, Georgia, May 2016

Brian Brown Retweets Tweet Suggesting That Gay Couples Having Children Is “Treating Women Like Ovens.”

[Brian Brown Twitter, 9/4/21]

Brian Brown Tweets Insinuating That LBGTQIA+ Pride Is An “Alien Value” That Is Being Authoritatively Imposed On This Country.

[Brian Brown Twitter, 8/17/2012]

NBC News Reports On WCF Influence In Opposition Legislation In Africa And Brown’s Ties To The Legislation.

“World Congress for Families-affiliated pastor Scott Lively was accused in a 2012 federal lawsuit of helping draft Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” bill, which called for the death penalty for homosexuals who were “repeat offenders.”

Ghana’s Family Values Bill is “a combination of bills from Russia, Uganda, Nigeria and other places where the WCF have been,” Rightify Ghana tweeted. “It’s the worst anti-LGBTQ bill ever.”

When asked by NBC News if the World Congress for Families was involved with drafting the legislation, Brian Brown, the president of the International Organization for the Family, refused to answer, commenting instead about a “neo-colonial movement to turn Africa into a carbon-copy of San Francisco.” [NBC News, 7/29/21]

Foreign Policy Reports On Stephen Baskerville, A Former Professor Who Has Spoken At The WCF.

“According to Stephen Baskerville, a former international relations professor at Patrick Henry College I interviewed, the college’s approach seeks to both teach the concepts of international affairs and bring religious themes into the curriculum. For example, Baskerville’s classes would include discussion of church-state relations by comparing religion’s role in various European countries. An ideal Patrick Henry College graduate is described in the catalog as having “knowledge and appreciation of our roots and the value of Western civilization and the philosophical foundation of this civilization in the Christian tradition.”

“Baskerville also attended the conference of the anti-LGBTQ World Congress of Families as well speaking in front of the white nationalist H.L. Mencken Club in 2013 alongside the neo-Nazi activist Richard Spencer.” [Foreign Policy, 2/10/21]

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Key Players

President of IOF/Howard Center, Former President of WCF

Brian Brown

Known for his “measured” public rhetoric but also his staunch opposition to marriage equality, Brown has a long history in anti-LGBTQIA+ activism. He became director of the Family Institute of Connecticut (FIC) in 2001, where he fought against marriage equality, civil unions, and domestic partnerships in the state.

Over the past few years, he has gradually refocused his opposition to marriage equality to international work, especially after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality. Working through the United Nations and international channels, WCF has pushed the doctrine of the “natural family” – one man married to one woman and their biological children.

During his tenure at FIC, the group posted some materials on its website that offered false and damaging claims about LGBT people, including calling them promiscuous and linking same-sex parents to pedophilia and a shortened lifespan.

Brown is also the Co-Founder of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM).  NOM’s primary focus then was to push a ballot measure in California to ban same-sex marriage. Proposition 8, as it was called, passed but was later found unconstitutional. 

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International Organization for the Family (IOF)

IOF is the new name for The Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society, which is the former parent organization of WCF. 

IOF Lists 4 Main Projects On Its Website, Including WCF. 

  • The World Congress of Families (WCF) “convenes major international public events to unite and equip leaders, organizations, and families to affirm, celebrate, and defend the natural family as the only fundamental and sustainable unit of society.” [IOF Website, accessed 10/27/21]
  • The Natural Family: “An International Journal of Research and Policy (TNF) is a quarterly academic publication that informs and inspires leaders to promote the natural family as the fundamental group unit of society and to protect the sanctity and dignity of all human life”. [IOF Website, accessed 10/27/21]
  • The Article 16 Initiative (A16) “empowers leaders in worldwide institutions to protect freedom, faith, and family as the natural and fundamental group unit of society consistent with Article 16 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” [IOF Website, accessed 10/27/21]
  • The Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) “equips and empowers young professionals, scholars, and activists to promote marriage, and the natural family as the fundamental group unit of society”. [IOF Website, accessed 10/27/21]

IOF Has Been Referred To As A Rebranding Of The World Congress Of Families. “The group is effectively a reboot of the World Congress of Families, a 21-year-old federation of socially conservative organizations from around the globe. Although the group’s international summits drew attendees from dozens of countries, it was a loosely organized network of anti-abortion and anti-LGBT activists rather than a focused advocacy organization…Rebranding as the International Organization for the Family appears to be part of positioning the group as a more muscular advocacy group targeting marriage equality.” [Buzzfeed News, 12/13/16]

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Founder of WCF

Allan Carlson

The intellectual birth of the WCF can be traced back to former history professor Allan Carlson, who is the former Howard Center president, a historian, and also a former Reagan administration official. Carlson was a professor of history at conservative Christian Hillsdale College, whose curriculum is based on teaching Western heritage as a product of Greco-Roman culture and Judeo-Christian traditions. [Southern Poverty Law Center, accessed 10/27/21]

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African Regional Director of WCF

Theresa Okafor

Okafor has supported anti-LGBT laws in Nigeria that criminalize gay sex and ban group meetings of LGBT people. She has also suggested that Boko Haram might be conspiring with gay rights advocates to target Christians. As part of her work with the Foundation for African Cultural Heritage, Okafor has succeeded in keeping sex education out of Nigerian schools.

She has also claimed that reproductive rights are part of “the sinister agenda to downsize and control Africa,” while calling LGBT rights in Africa “another ploy to depopulate Africa.” [Southern Poverty Law Center, accessed 10/27/21]

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International Coordinator for Red Familia, Mexico

Katharina Rothweiler

  • “Katharina Rothweiler, the International Coordinator of the Mexican pro-life and pro-family organization Red Familia, criticized the presence of “pro-choice and pro-contraceptive lobby groups” at the conference. In response to the perceived emphasis that the officially-sponsored program places on condom distribution programs, Red Familia organized shadow events emphasizing “zero risk” abstinence and fidelity as a key to halting AIDS.” [Rochester Area Right to Life, accessed 10/27/21]
  • Rothweiler also has ties to Alliance Defending Freedom – a more lobbying/policy oriented entity [SPLC, Accessed 2/3/2021]
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General Coordinator of Red Familia, Mexico

Enrique Gomez Serrano

  • Serrano is listed as a speaker at the 2007 WCF in Warsaw, Poland, and the 2004 WCF in Mexico City. 
  • Serrano recently died and was a member of the Pontifical Council for the Family since 2004. 
  • “He was strongly involved in the organization and realization of the VI World Meeting of Families, which brought together tens of thousands of people from 98 countries on five continents from January 14 to 18 in Mexico City.” [Vatican Website, Accessed 10/27/2021]
  • “He was president of ALAFA (Latin American Alliance for the Family), Mexico chapter; and Director of the Council of “Red Familia”, an institution that brings together more than one hundred pro-family and pro-life organizations in Mexico. One of the main organizers of the III International Congress of the Family, a civil initiative, which was held in Mexico City in 2004.” [Vatican Website, Accessed 10/27/2021]
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Alliance Defending Freedom

  • The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF, formerly Alliance Defense Fund) is a $40 million per year organization based in Scottsdale, AZ. They have been a partner of WCF for many years – with many executives being a part of WCF planning committees etc. – [Political Research Associates, Accessed 11/24/21]
  • Founded in 1994 by a cohort of some 30 leaders in the Christian Right to defend religious freedom, including such luminaries as the late D. James Kennedy (of the former Coral Ridge Ministries; now D. James Kennedy Ministries), Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, and American Family Association founder Don Wildmon. – [Political Research Associates, Accessed 11/24/21]
  • It has a staff of at least 40 in-house lawyers and a network of over 2,400 allied lawyers. Its board of directors is stacked with partners from powerful law firms and captains of industry. –  [Political Research Associates, Accessed 11/24/21]
  • ADF has recently become active at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the judicial agency responsible for monitoring human rights accountability in Latin America, and the Organization of American States. –  [Political Research Associates, Accessed 11/24/21]
    • In 2013, ADF successfully lobbied Latin American delegates at the OAS to kill a treaty that included provisions that could have stemmed the growing violence against LGBTQ people in those countries.- [Political Research Associates, Accessed 11/24/21]
  • Alan Sears – current CEO and President (former positions in the Bush Administration) [Political Research Associates, accessed 10/27/21]
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Red Familia

  • “Red Familia, a network of similarly conservative Mexican organizations that began in 1999, co-sponsored the WCF Between April and November in 2005, Red Familia reportedly grew from a network of 150 member groups to 360, with representation from every state in Mexico. The organization has received support from the PAN government for its events, including the World Congress, as well as U.S. government funds through Concerned Women for America (CWA) Though the partnership between CWA and Red Familia is a supposed effort to combat sex trafficking, Red Familia does not have significant experience in this area.[Georgetown Journal on Gender and the Law, 2010, accessed 10/27/2021
  • Ties to Citizen Go and Hazte Oir [Today in 24, accessed 2/3/2021]
  • Around 100 listed organizations as being under the “Red Familia” Umbrella [Red Familia Website, Accessed 2/3/2021]
  • Held a protest outside of the Mexican Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation after the decision to decriminalize abortion, announced that they will support the right of doctors to refuse an abortion  [MVS Noticias, Accessed 2/3/2021]
  • José Manuel Campero Pardo, President of Red Familia, was a speaker at WCF’s 2022 Mexico City conference
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National Christian Foundation

The National Christian Foundation Has Funded Many Of The WCF Conferences’ Speakers. “Out of the 101-odd American speakers featured at major World Congress of Families congresses from WCF I, held in Prague in 1997, to WCF VI, held in Madrid in 2012, 48 of those speakers, almost half, were attached to organizations that have been funded by the National Christian Foundation.” [TwoCare Website, Accessed 10/27/2021]

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VIFAC

  • VIFAC is an influential anti-abortion organization that has operated both anti-abortion centers and maternity homes in Mexico for almost four decades. It deters pregnant people from abortion and then houses them through birth—and then steers these often low-income, new parents toward giving up their babies for adoption. VIFAC recently expanded its operations to the United States, opening a center in Texas.
  • Marilú Mariscal, Founding President of VIFAC, was a speaker at WCF’s 2022 Mexico City conference.
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Influence

WCF’s Most Notable Vehicle For Influence Is Its Conferences—Including Two It Has Held In Mexico City, WCF III (2004), and WCF XIV (2022)

  • WCF’s international conferences, or “Congresses,” function as key sites of right-wing strategy development and dissemination. These events typically attract thousands of participants and build WCF’s international influence by bringing together sympathetic elected officials, religious leaders, scientists, scholars, and civil society from around the world. The headlining speakers are typically high-profile leaders of the U.S. Christian Right, representing larger, better-resourced organizations that sign on as WCF partners.- [Political Research Associates, Accessed 11/24/21]
  • The first World Congress was held in Prague in March 1997 (700 attendees) – WCF has held most of its conferences in former Soviet states. [Political Research Associates, Accessed 11/24/21]

In 2004, WCF—And IOF Members Including Red Familia—Hosted A Conference in Mexico City, WCF III

  • The 2004 WCF III In Mexico City Emphasized Opposition To Marriage Equality. “In 2004, World Congress III was hosted by Red Familia, and Family and Society in Mexico City. It was here that United Families International board member, Craig A. Cardon spoke and UN Ambassador to Commission of the Status of Women Ellen Saurbrey attended in support of families and marriage. Action items were created and emphasis was put on fighting for marriage between a man and a woman.” [United Families International, accessed 11/23/21] 
  • The Mexican Government, Under The Conservative Regime Of Vincente Fox, Has “Reportedly Financed” WCF III.  [SIECUS, Accessed 11/3/2021]
    • Red Familia Was Able To Get Financial Support For This WCF From Mexico’s Large Businesses Banamex And Bimbo. “The Mexican government, under the conservative regime of Vincente Fox, has also reportedly financed events held by Red Familia (including the World Congress of Families) and therefore assisted in the meteoric rise of the organization and its network. Red Familia was also successful in getting large support for the World Congress from two of Mexico’s largest businesses, the financial institution Banamex and the nation’s largest producer of bakery goods, Bimbo.” [SIECUS, Accessed 11/3/2021]
  • Attendees Of WCF III Included:
  • The 2004 Mexico City Declaration Was A Document Emanating From WCF III. 

In 2022, WCF Held Its First Conference In Mexico City Since 2004

  • Red Familia And The Global Center for Human Rights Were Sponsors Of The Conference. 

[WCFMexico.org, accessed 1/30/23]

  • Notable Speakers Included The Leaders of Red Familia, Family Watch International, and VIFAC. 
    • José Manuel Campero Pardo, President of the Council of Red Familia: José Manuel Campero Pardo (Manuel Camparo) gave a fear-mongering speech at the World Congress of Families’ 2022 Mexico City Conference. He claimed a crisis within families—pointing to young people no longer wanting to get married, he stated that “we cannot leave education in the hands of a school.” He also proposed we live by “Presence in Marriage and Paternity; Patience to live together from love; and Forgiveness.” 
    • Sharon Slater, President of Family Watch International: Sharon Slater is the founder and current President of FWI. After founding FWI as Global HAWC in 1999, Slater grew the organization to maintain a presence at the UN, where she regularly pushes homophobic, transphobic, anti-abortion, and anti-CSE efforts. As Chair of the UN Family Rights Council, Slater engages at the UN so regularly that she has even been wrongly identified as a “spokesperson for the United Nations.” Slater has referred to LGBT individuals as diseased and “more likely to engage in pedophilia,” and was for many years connected to Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa, who enthusiastically supported the country’s “Kill the Gays” legislation.
    • Marilú Mariscal, Founding President of VIFAC: María Guadalupe “Marilú” Mariscal de Vilchis (Her maiden name was María Guadalupe Mariscal Toroella) is the founding president of VIFAC. She is trained as a nurse; her publicly used biography also says she has received training as a family counselor, however, the programs mentioned as a part of this training were at a business school (IPADE in Mexico City) and an honorary doctorate degree. Under her leadership, VIFAC has expanded across 26 Mexican states and Brownsville, Texas. She spoke at the World Congress of Family’s Congreso Mundial de las Familias in Mexico in September and October of 2022. Unable to have biological children herself, Mariscal adopted her children. Throughout her career, she has advocated for adoption laws in Mexico, the rehabilitation of “moral” education, and alternatives to abortion. 
  • Notable Attendees Included Anti-Abortion Advocates And Former Trump Administration Officials. 
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WCF Also Influences Policy At The UN

  • WCF seeks to promote its global war on women and LGBTQ people by influencing policy at the United Nations and through smaller, regional events. In 2009, WCF hosted its first African conference in Abuja, Nigeria, and with the help of partner organizations, WCF is eagerly expanding its influence throughout the Global South. – [Political Research Associates, Accessed 11/24/21]
  • Their stated aim is to build an international movement of “religiously grounded family morality systems” that can influence and shape policy at the United Nations. [AWID, Accessed 11/4/2021]

The IOF’s Article 16 Initiative Seeks To Apply The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights To Its Extremist “Pro-Family” Aims. 

  • The Article 16 Initiative of the IOF “seeks to preserve, protect, and promote the family as society’s “natural and fundamental” unit, as recognized in Article 16(3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in over 100 national constitutions” – [IOF website, Accessed 11/24/21]
  • Article 16(3) reads: “The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.”  – [IOF website, Accessed 11/24/21]
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WCF’s Main Tools Are Rhetoric And Messaging

  • WCF’s American Speakers Have Pushed Forward Its Conferences With Their “Talking Points And Polemics.” “The impact of the WCF has been driven by the talent of the World Congress of Families’ American speakers, and their talking points and polemics – which have been honed over decades during the U.S. religious right’s ceaseless kulturkampf against secularism and pluralism since the rise of the movement in the 1970s and 1980s.” [TwoCare Website, Accessed 10/27/2021
  • “WCF Enables Politicians To Connect The Dots Between Narratives Of Demographic And Civilizational Decline, Creating A More Palatable Narrative For Anti-LGBT And Anti-Immigrant Policies And Views, One That Is Particularly Popular In Eastern Europe’s Far-Right Climate.” [SPLC, Accessed 11/2/2021]
  • WCF Engages In “Knowledge Production And Dissemination Through A Devoted Academic Journal, The Family In America, Which Will Soon Be Called The Natural Family: An International Journal Of Research And Policy, And A Related News Service.” [AWID, Accessed 11/4/2021]
  • WCF Coauthored An Anti-Abortion “UN Negotiating Guide.” “Together with United Families International, the WCF recently co-authored the third edition of the massive UN Negotiating Guide116, a comprehensive text that advises anti-rights—including ‘pro-life’—actors on negotiating tactics, key talking points, and ‘consensus language’ to further their advocacy at the United Nations.”  [AWID, Accessed 11/4/2021]
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