A new Anchorage-based Moms for Liberty chapter held its first organizational meeting last Tuesday, voting in a board and approving group bylaws.
Moms for Liberty, which describes itself as a parental rights group, is known nationwide for stoking culture wars around issues of systemic racism and gender identity. They do this by campaigning for book bans, dictating class curriculums particularly around the teaching of history, removing equity and diversity programs from schools, pushing for mandatory reporting of pronouns and banning trans students from sports and restrooms that align with their gender, as well as other policies targeting LGBTQ youth. They also work to endorse and elect candidates for school boards who will introduce these policies into school districts across the U.S.
Although the group is only now officially organizing in Anchorage, several of its members worked with Jim Minnery of the Alaska Family Council, the Alaska chapter of the Oregon-based group Parent’s Rights in Education, and the Florida-based parent Moms For Liberty group in September to push for a mandatory pronoun and nickname reporting policy proposed by Anchorage School Board member David “Dave” Donley. Donley was in attendance at Tuesday night’s meeting.
In 2022 The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights watchdog group, listed Moms for Liberty as an extremist group, documenting ties to the proud boys as well as instances of intimidation and harassment of school boards by members of Moms for Liberty groups.
Many of the policies pushed by Moms for Liberty have proven unpopular and their endorsed candidates suffered a slew of election losses in November 2023 as communities pushed back on their agenda of book bans and bullying LGBTQ kids.
Alaska was one bright spot for Moms for Liberty with two endorsed candidates retaining their seats on the Mat-Su Borough School board despite being mired in controversy since the Mat-Su chapter was founded in March of 2023.
The Mat-Su school board, which has a conservative majority endorsed by Moms for Liberty, spent the past year advancing a culture war agenda that includes book bans, pronoun policing, investigations of students involved in protest and banning any school activity or instruction that could be construed as activism. The Mat-Su school board is also the subject of multiple student walkouts, two lawsuits and a vote of no confidence by the local teachers union.
In August 2023, the Mat-Su school board approved and handpicked a new citizens advisory board to review at least 56 books targeted for removal from school libraries, with titles ranging from books on sex education to classics like The Kite Runner, Handmaid’s Tale and The Freedom Writers Diary.
When the elected student representative, Ben Kolendo, spoke in opposition, the school board approved policy changes that effectively silenced him, leading to student walkouts. Kolendo and another student also filed a lawsuit alleging freedom of speech violations. That lawsuit followed an earlier one filed by parents and students alleging that the removal of 56 books from school libraries violates constitutional rights to free speech, press and political expression. The Mat-Su school board responded to the walkouts and student testimony with investigations into the students involved and their teachers.
The initial organizing meeting of the new Anchorage chapter, which brought out about 20 people, did not immediately focus on culture war issues of the type that have plagued Mat-Su schools over the past year.
They seated a board, whose members are: Gabby Ide as chair; former library advisory board member Doug Weimann as vice chair, Veronica Lambertson as secretary, Maureen Crumly as treasurer and former library deputy director Judy Eledge as parliamentarian.
Members spent some time discussing the budget and program cuts being proposed as part of this year’s Anchorage School District budget, which is a prominent issue this year. They fell short of tying these issues to increasing funding to schools, which have been flat funded since 2017 amid 15% inflation and a substantial reduction of purchasing power.
They also indicated disappointment that Governor Mike Dunleavy’s unpopular parental rights bill that he attempted to advance last year did not succeed, and discussed supporting such bills in the future.
“He is very pleased that this chapter is starting,” Moms for Liberty member Judy Eledge told the group during the meeting.
Members voted to accept the group bylaws, which state that the group’s purpose is to “fight for the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.”
