Family Policy Council

A Family Policy Council (FPC) is one of several US state-level organizations affiliated with Focus on the Family (FotF), a nationwide conservative Christian organization. Family Policy Councils work for policies that FotF describes as "pro-family".^[1] These include opposition to same-sex marriage, LGBT adoption, and LGBT workplace protections, and support for abstinence-only sex education, increased legal restrictions on abortion and traditional Christian gender roles. FPCs also work to shape public opinion, organize political demonstrations, and cultivate future politicians.

FPCs form a network or "alliance" through which FotF exerts influence on local and state-level policy. They are joined via the organization Family Policy Alliance, which writes conservative policy that the family policy councils lobby for at the state and local level. This network of 41 member organizations, as of 2024, employs more than 350 people and brings in more than $50 million in annual revenue.

This alliance began to be assembled in secret in the late 1980s, and became openly known in the 1990s. Some of the alliance member organizations are older than the alliance itself; the oldest dates to 1897. The existence of Focus on the Family's affiliated FPCs has spurred the development of other, sometimes opposing policy organizations. An example is OutNebraska, a "statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization" that works against policy goals of Nebraska Family Alliance, an FPC.^[2] Before the alliance operated by Focus on the Family was publicly known, a few other organizations also used the name "Family Policy Council" in a generic sense. They were not affiliated with FotF and are now defunct.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has described FotF as a fringe and anti-LGBT organization that relies on misrepresenting scientific studies.^[3]