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Because You've Been Asking
It has been a very long week with a lot of late nights at the state Capitol. We are still recovering from it. But we have been inundated with inquiries from you, our members, about how it went, and we don't want to close out the week without a preliminary report.
Here is the bottom line: In Family Institute of Connecticut's 35-year existence, we have never had a year as successful as 2024. Better even than 2023.
There are reasons why the post-pandemic FIC is the strongest FIC we have ever had. We will get into that at some future date.
For now, let's start with why 2024 was even better than 2023. It begins with something we said to you about seven or eight years ago:
We can seize the initiative. We can set the agenda.
Remember that? We never made good on it. Until now.
The 2024 legislative session began with our effort to pass a Let Kids Be Kids law that would force schools to notify parents if they were secretly helping their children transition from one gender to another.
The bill never got a hearing. But the effort--the first step in a multi-year project--was still a win. It completely changed the dynamic at the state Capitol.
This was not just about stopping bad things (our usual victories). This was about changing the conversation in Connecticut. And we did.
For the rest of the session, distraught liberal legislators and newspaper columnists were reacting to our initiative, desperately trying to change the conversation back to terms favorable to their strange ideology. They suffered a powerful defeat when members of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus led a fight against "pregnant persons" language, successfully insisting that laws also reference "expectant mothers."
A Quick Rundown of Wins
It is hard to separate these bills into different categories because a single bill would often advance abortion and transgenderism, and attacks on religious liberty and parental rights, all at once. In brief:
SJ 4, the Amendment to the State Constitution Making Abortion and Gender Transition Super-Rights, was defeated. The Senate never took it up for a vote. Beating this bill was a priority of the Connecticut March for Life and a big win.
SB 214, the Protect Doctors Who Mutilate Minors Bill, died in Committee. It was a "technical fix" to a law snuck through in the waning hours of a previous session, a law which hindered minors who may wish to sue doctors for genital mutilation. We seized on the public hearing to force the legislature to allow public input on gender transitions. This became almost a de facto hearing for Let Kids Be Kids. It also kept the gender issue front and center.
SB 425, the Force Medical Personnel to Provide Abortions and Gender Transitions Bill, died without a vote. This was a big one. We will explain more in the future.
HB 5354, the Human Composting Bill, died without a vote. Is Grandma ready for the tomatoes? Not in Connecticut, she's not.
HB 5378, the Fertility Coverage for Persons Who Don't Engage in Procreative Sex Bill, died without a vote. This was a high priority for Planned Parenthood and the pro-abortion caucus. At their press conference, a legislator even said he wanted the bill to cover people with multiple partners, a favorite topic of the national press. But the throuples lost.
HB 5417, the Empower Librarians to Place Porn in the Children's Section Over the Objections of the Board of Education Bill, died without a vote. This was one of several occasions throughout the year where FIC, and others, put the grossness of gender ideology front and center and forced reluctant legislators to talk about it.
HB 5424, the Force Catholic Hospitals to Refer for Abortion and Gender Transition Bill, died without a vote. This was another big priority for Planned Parenthood. This win is so significant that it is the first of our victories to be noticed by the press.
HB 5454, the Pregnant Persons Bill, also became the Expectant Mothers Bill, thanks to an alliance between members of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus and the Republicans.
One Loss
$3 Million was suddenly allocated to Planned Parenthood in the second-to-last day of the session. This was part of ARPA, federal funds given to Connecticut during the pandemic. Pro-abortion legislators could not answer basic questions, during floor debate, as to how Planned Parenthood will use this money. The process stinks so badly that House Minority Rep. Vinnie Candelora wants a formal opinion from Attorney General Tong about whether it was even legal.
And One Concern
HB 5161, the Destigmatize Pornography Bill, became law. This attempts to destigmatize pornography by separating porn from "child pornography" and by renaming it "sexual abuse material." Language matters. Separating abuse from porn lays the foundation to "good porn" from "bad porn" (i.e., sexual abuse).
We have so much more to tell you about the items above and about things we have not even mentioned yet.
In general, please know how grateful we are to God, and to you, his faithful people. We know to whom we really owe these victories. And we know that we can only do these things with your support.
