Did U.S. Senator Kirk Purposefully Sabotage Pro-Family Event?

Officials with pro-family organizations are protesting after apparently being purposefully slighted when a sponsoring U.S. Senator abruptly pulled the plug on a Capitol Hill symposium the night before it was scheduled to occur.

The pro-family symposium, sponsored by the Illinois-based Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society, was set to meet in a Senate room after arrangements were made weeks before with the office of Illinois Senator Mark Kirk. On the eve of the event, staff with Sen. Kirk’s Washington office notified the Howard Center that their previously agreed to sponsorship, and access to the Senate room, was withdrawn.

Howard Center organizers and symposium panelists, which count among them IRD’s own board chair, Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, note that the last-minute cancellation prevented the recruitment of another Senate sponsor in time to proceed with the event as originally planned. Alongside Dr. Crouse, invited panelists also included Austin Ruse, President of Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, and Steven Mosher, President of the Population Research Institute.

A decision to wait until 5 p.m. the night before the event in order to cancel made it too late for the pro-family groups to contact the Senate Rules Committee and substitute another sponsor – something organizers suggest was no coincidence.

When a BuzzFeed reporter questioned the Senator’s decision, his office responded, “Sen. Kirk doesn’t affiliate with groups that discriminate.”  As it happened, the event was cancelled after an official complaint was issued by a gay activist group. The Human Rights Campaigned denounced the meeting in an official press release stating:

These shameful individuals represent the worst of America, and it’s an outrage that they will now bring their vitriol to the United States Capitol. After spending years exporting their hate to other regions of the world and contributing to a culture of anti-LGBT violence in Russia, these zealots should be condemned by all Americans and especially by our elected leaders.

The Howard Center supports a traditional definition of marriage, among other socially conservative policy positions.

Pro-family groups are refusing to be silenced in the aftermath of the cancellation. On Tuesday, the Family Research Council, Concerned Women for America, and Illinois Family Action called on their supporters and anyone who believes marriage is a covenant between a man and woman to call Sen. Kirk and express their disappointment in his last-minute cancellation, arguing that it reflects an intolerance for the religious liberty of many of his constituents.

Sen. Kirk’s office could have easily declined to participate in the symposium when the room request was initially made. By waiting until the last minute to cancel, Sen. Kirk’s office comes across as having either a massive breakdown of internal communication, or worse, purposefully sabotaging an event that had already been agreed to.

Submitting to pressure from a homosexual advocacy group, rather than honoring an agreement with many of Sen. Kirk’s strongest supporters in Illinois, makes the Senator appear to be guided by shifting winds rather than firm conviction.

Jeff Walton, IRD’s Communications Manager contributed to this report.