Trans and queer-led groups are protesting the Marriott for hosting Moms for Liberty conference this summer
Members of ACT UP Philadelphia — an AIDS activism group — and other advocates plan to rally Friday at 4 p.m. outside the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown.
Trans and queer-led groups are mounting a campaign against the upcoming Moms for Liberty summit in Philadelphia, calling on the Marriott to refuse to host a group they say is racist and transphobic.
Members of ACT-UP Philadelphia — an AIDS activism group — and other advocates rallied Friday evening outside the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, at 12th and Market Streets, where the national gathering of the conservative parent group is scheduled to be held June 29 through July 2.
Activists are also urging people to call the Marriott and demand that it “stop hosting hate.” A script shared on social media by groups including Galaei — a nonprofit serving queer and trans Black, Indigenous, and other people of color — suggests people tell the hotel that it “will no longer have my business if it does not cancel the Moms for Liberty summit reservations and do its part to keep our schoolchildren safe.”
“They say they’re ‘moms for liberty,’ but they’re really for their liberty,” said Jazmyn Henderson, an ACT-UP member. “It’s basically parents who are like them. Not a parent who is trans” — like Henderson — “or a trans child.”
» READ MORE: Moms for Liberty is convening this summer in Philly, a backdrop for the group’s focus on ‘preserving American values’
Moms for Liberty didn’t respond to a request for comment.
A Philadelphia Marriott employee said the hotel’s manager was in a meeting Friday morning, while an email sent to Marriott corporate representatives was not returned.
Moms for Liberty, which started in Florida in 2021, has spread nationwide, claiming its second-largest membership base in Pennsylvania. The group is aligned with a conservative “parental rights” movement that has opposed so-called critical race theory, and pushed to remove school library books and exert control over curriculum.
Moms for Liberty says its book concerns focus on inappropriate sexual content, though LGBTQ-themed books have been heavily targeted. Members have also objected to books pertaining to racism. The group — which has labeled people as “groomers” who support letting students access books with sexual content — was suspended from Twitter last year for saying that gender dysphoria is a “mental health disorder that is being normalized by predators across the USA.”
“They turn everything sexual,” said Henderson, 46. “Being trans is not about anything sexual. It’s about our identity and who we are.”
Aaron Bodiford, another ACT-UP member who planned to protest, said it “breaks my heart” that trans students are facing attacks on their identities, fueled by Moms for Liberty and other groups’ rhetoric.
“When you don’t have schools that are supportive environments, you don’t have anything outside of your family and any scraps you’re able to connect yourself to,” said Bodiford, who is 20 and trans.
“The way this has ramped up so dramatically, more than ever we should be focusing on what’s happening in schools,” he said of anti-trans actions.
Moms for Liberty leaders have said they hope to draw 650 people to the Philadelphia summit, with tickets priced between $249 and $499. The event follows Moms for Liberty’s first national summit last summer in Tampa, also hosted at a Marriott.
Both Bodiford and Henderson said Friday’s actions were just the start of efforts to get Marriott to cancel the event, which they thought did not represent the values of most Philadelphians.
“I feel like they picked Philadelphia because of the population that’s here, to make a statement,” Henderson said, referring to the city’s sizable Black and LGBTQ communities. “They want to call themselves ‘joyful warriors.’ You can’t start any joy doing what you’re doing.”