When you’re a Christian with a biblical worldview and you live in one of the 17 “blue” states  like Illinois, the task of defeating anti-family, Marxist efforts can seem daunting. However, pro-family lobbyists are defeating Leftists’ efforts! The work that state organizations like Illinois Family Institute does often impacts the entire country: as they do in California, Leftist lobbyists introduce bills in Illinois, and if they succeed, they introduce those bills to the rest of country.

On a recent episode of Family Research Council’s Outstanding podcast titled “How to Advance Pro-Family and Pro-Life Issues in a Blue State,” Joseph Backholm explained that there has been a substantial increase in political polarization over the last 30 years: in 1992, 19 total states had partisan trifectas (where one party controls both houses of the legislature and the governorship): 16 were controlled by Democrats and 3 by Republicans. Today, there are 39 partisan trifectas: 22 Republican and 17 Democrat.

Peter Wolfgang, executive director of the Family Institute of Connecticut (FIC), described what his organization has been doing in their blue state. Their goal is often like being a contestant on the television show, Survivor: they make alliances wherever they can. Victories are almost entirely accomplished when they’re on defense. For example, they have been able to stop the legalization of assisted suicide every year for a decade. They have done this by allying with disability rights activists, many of whom are left-leaning.

Wolfgang explained that they also pit factions within the Democratic party against each other. For example, early this year Democrats introduced what he called an “Abortion Tourism Bill” (what the Left called a “Safe Harbor Fund”). Pro-abortion Democrats wanted to spend $2 million of Connecticut taxpayers’ money to transport women from pro-life states to Connecticut in order to abort their babies. To stop this, the FIC pitted factions of the Left against each other. They shed light on what exactly this bill would do, testified against it, and urged Connecticut residents to email and call their state legislators. As a result, even many pro-abortion legislators realized that the bill was too radical and would take up too much time and money. Even Democratic Governor Ned LaMont ended up speaking out against it, and thankfully the bill died in committee.

The biggest victory that the Family Institute of Connecticut has had in 2023 was defeating HB 6617 –what Wolfgang called the “Everybody Gets a Baby” bill. It would have required Connecticut residents, through their insurance, to pay for anyone who wants a baby (a woman past childbearing years, a homosexual couple, etc.) to have a baby. This bill would have paid for individuals to hire surrogates to have their babies, with no limits to the number of babies. It was pushed by the LGBTQ, Big Gender, and equity group lobbies which were more powerful than the abortion lobby and assisted suicide lobby. This bill was LGBTQ lobby’s highest priority in 2023. To defeat it, the FIC once again shed light on the bill and turned up the heat at the hearing. As a result of this exposure and heat, factions within the Democratic party split, and the bill died because the Democrats were afraid to let it go to the House floor.

Another key to defeating Leftist’s goals is decoding their language and putting the titles of their bills in simple language (e.g. “Abortion Tourism Bill” and “Everybody Gets a Baby Bill”). One very dangerous bill that the FIC did this with was HB 6396 which they renamed the “Groomer Protection Act.” Its purpose was to “ensure that Connecticut public school educators are able to provide instruction in a work environment that is free from harassment, intimidation or physical violence stemming from ideological differences of opinion about certain subjects or topics, including, but not limited to, gender, sexuality, race, racism and climate change.” Essentially the bill put teachers’ worldview and rights above parents’ worldview and rights. The FIC worked with its conservative allies, shined the light on this horrific bill, decoding its language, and asked, “Who decided schools should be in the business of having secrets with children against their parents?” As a result, this bill never even got a public hearing.

The strategy of building alliances, decoding the Left’s language, and exposing their agenda to the public is very effective and the results are encouraging. The work that is done at the state and local level is crucial. Like the Family Institute of Connecticut, Illinois Family Institute is working very hard to defend families against the Left –including the powerful LGBTQ lobby, abortion activists, and teachers’ unions. So “let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).