House LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus & Philadelphia House Delegation condemn Moms for Liberty event in Phila.
Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta June 29, 2023 | 12:04 PM
HARRISBURG, June 29 – The Pennsylvania LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus and Philadelphia House Delegation are condemning the upcoming Moms for Liberty summit that’s scheduled to take place in center city Philadelphia today through July 2.
Moms for Liberty is a right-wing hate group that advocates against school curriculum that mentions LGBTQ+ rights, race and ethnicity, critical race theory and discrimination.
LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus Co-Chairs Jessica Benham, D-Allegheny, and Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Phila., who also serves as Philadelphia House Delegation treasurer, each issued comments condemning this summit.
“I’m extremely disappointed to see this summit take place in our city. Our city shouldn’t be a backdrop for hate,” Kenyatta said. “We can’t allow the type of rhetoric and ideology that far-right groups, like Moms for Liberty, promote prevent us from becoming a more fair and equal society.”
“Hate has no home in Pennsylvania,” Benham said. “I believe most of our state’s residents find it embarrassing that Pennsylvania’s largest city will host one of the nation’s most hostile anti-LGBTQ+ groups during the month of Pride. Alongside my colleagues in the LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, I am eager to continue fighting back against the hateful rhetoric and policies pushed by groups like Moms for Liberty.”
Philadelphia House Delegation Chair Morgan Cephas, D-Phila., offered the following comments.
“Our city has served as the backdrop for some of the most important discussions and ideas in the history of this nation,” Cephas said. “While we welcome honest and reasonable discourse in our society, we cannot condemn rhetoric that espouses hate, fear and exclusion to be presented in a public forum in this city or any other municipality across our great nation.”
This summit comes at the end of Pride Month and a time where LGBTQ+ rights are under attack.
In May, Central Bucks School District in the suburbs of Philadelphia, pulled two books on LGBTQ+ topics from their library. A member of Moms for Liberty serves on the Central Bucks school board that helped make this decision.
The LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus issued a statement on what they called a “wrong-headed policy.”