FIC Blog

This is one of the most important posts you will ever read on FIC Blog. This summer marks the beginning of an exciting new direction for both FIC and the national pro-family movement. And we want you to be a part of it.

As of August 1st, I will be moving from my position as FIC’s executive director to head up a new national organization, the National Organization for Marriage.

But before I tell you more about this transition, I want to sincerely thank you for all that you have done to help FIC over the last six years. There were those who said it could not be done. But, with your help, we created one of the nation’s most effective pro-family organizations-in the heart of the “deep blue” state of Connecticut!

When I look back on these six years I am truly awed by your generosity-and God’s providence. FIC is no longer the “start up” organization that it was in 2001. Today it is Connecticut’s leading voice for faith, family and freedom.

When I was hired in 2001, very few people had heard of FIC. A friendly column in the Hartford Courant was headlined “Family Institute Deserves To Be Heard” but said that Connecticut residents are unconcerned about pro-family matters, viewing them as the “icky issues.”

Today, we are the leading pro-family voice in Connecticut’s media, churches, legislature and other key venues. We appear regularly on television, radio and newspapers-and FIC Blog, our daily web log, has been named one of Connecticut’s most influential blogs. Major media outlets like the Courant regularly solicit articles from us.

All of this did not just happen. It came about because of hard work, prayer and the support of good people like you.

I took this job in 2001 in part because I believed that the naysayers were wrong about Connecticut. I believed that if there was an active and professional organization defending faith and family in Connecticut, pro-family residents would rise up to support it. And that is exactly what you did.

It was because of the support of people like you that FIC was able to open an office in Hartford and speak for the common sense values that are not so common in our state’s capitol.

It was because of the support of people like you that FIC led the largest petition drive in Connecticut history.

It was because of your support that FIC could rally literally thousands of people in front of the state capitol-sometimes in sub-zero temperatures-for the defense of marriage and the protection of the family.

And it was because of the support of people like you that FIC has defeated every attempt to pass a same-sex “marriage” law in Connecticut-and that we have become one of the leading voices for religious liberty in the “Constitution State.”

Our successes in Connecticut have been noticed by the nation’s most important pro-family leaders. And that is why I can tell you about the exciting things happening this summer.

Effective August 1st I will become the executive director of a new group: the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). I am joining Maggie Gallagher, one of the leading pro-family voices in the country, to fill a gap in our national efforts to protect marriage and defend the family. NOM’s focus will be in fighting same-sex marriage in the most difficult states, to help candidates that support marriage, and to defeat those candidates that are working to undermine and redefine it.

Those who wish to redefine marriage are a minority-even in the liberal Northeast.  Yet they have a stranglehold on our legislatures because of the effectiveness of their political organizations, their strategic targeting of key districts, and, perhaps most importantly, their massive financial contributions to anti-family candidates.

Liberal multimillionaires such as Tim Gill are pushing millions of dollars into states around the country to effectively buy state legislatures for same-sex marriage.  I am convinced, now more than ever, that we need a national strategy to stop the attack on marriage in our state legislatures. 

We need only look at recent events in Massachusetts to appreciate the need for NOM.

Pro-family citizens in our neighboring state-despite gathering 170,000 pro-family signatures-failed to get enough votes in their legislature to allow a referendum on an amendment overturning the court decision imposing same-sex “marriage” on their state.

The will of the people was thwarted in Massachusetts because national pro same-sex “marriage” activists poured nearly a million dollars into the state. This has become a pattern in states-like Connecticut-that have been targeted by national anti-family activists.

As the new head of NOM it will be my job to help coordinate national efforts to support pro-family efforts in states-like Connecticut-that are on the front line in the fight to protect marriage.

This organization will help state organizations like the Family Institute of Connecticut by leveraging national resources to fight same-sex marriage in the most difficult states.  In this way my new position will help further the work that we have begun at FIC.                                                 

Most importantly, we have an extremely capable leader to take over the reins.  I am very pleased to tell you that FIC’s next executive director is someone who has been here with me all along-and is just as committed to FIC as I am: Peter Wolfgang.

Peter has been involved with FIC almost as long as I have. He has demonstrated the greatest commitment and competence in pursuit of the pro-family cause in Connecticut. And I am very happy to tell you that the board of directors has unanimously chosen him to be my successor.

Without Peter, the 2002 Defense of Marriage petition drive would not have been the great success it was. He called literally hundreds of churches and volunteers and personally coordinated the largest gathering of signatures in state history.

Peter’s skills as an organizer and as an advocate for our cause led me to hire him as FIC’s director of public policy in 2004. It is because of his work that the Manchester Journal Inquirer describes FIC as “a conservative group with a strong lobbying presence at the state Capitol.” He has proved to be a tremendous asset to the pro-family cause in Connecticut.

Peter has quickly become “FIC’s frequent public face.” He has appeared frequently on Fox 61’s “Beyond the Headlines” program to debate the heads of anti-family groups like NOW, NARAL, the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women and Love Makes a Family. He has debated pro same-sex “marriage” Rep. Michael Lawlor on National Public Radio and has testified at the state capitol on various bills.

Peter has appeared on Brad Davis, Dan Lovallo, Jim Vicevich, Ed Flynn and other talk radio programs. His articles have appeared in the Hartford Courant, the Waterbury Republican-American and elsewhere. He is quoted frequently in newspaper and television broadcasts. He also appears regularly on public access TV and other media venues.

Many of you have had the chance to speak with Peter in person. He has traveled around the state representing FIC at Knights of Columbus councils; Pentecostal prayer meetings; churches in North Haven, Torrington and Southbury; JesusFest; Waterbury’s CityFest; East Hampton’s Rotary Club and elsewhere.

Many of our most recent events at the state capitol were organized by Peter. His familiarity with legislators, volunteers and media helped bring about the defeat of the same-sex “marriage” bill and other victories for the family.

Under Peter’s direction there are great things ahead for Connecticut’s leading pro-family voice…things he will be telling you about in the coming weeks. My thanks again to all of you for your wonderful support.