In the late 80s, FRC fell under another Dobson organization, Focus on the Family. The two separated in 1992. FRC has an offshoot lobbying organization called FRC Action, a PAC that was once directed by Josh Duggar. In 2020, FRC became an ‘association of churches’ to evade financial scrutiny.
Gary Bauer, an advisor to President Ronald Reagan, was President of FRC from 1988 to 1999 when he left FRC to unsuccessfully run for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination. Bauer’s most recent work has focused on support for Israel via Christians United for Israel and the Emergency Committee for Israel. Tony Perkins has been President of FRC since 2003. While managing a US Senate campaign in Louisiana in 1996, Perkins famously paid KKK Grand Wizard David Duke $82,500 for access to Duke’s mailing list. The FEC fined him $3000 for trying to hide this payment. Perkins has previously also spoken at events run by the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white supremacist group.
Like Focus on the Family, FRC often conflates pedophilia and homosexuality and advocates for conversion therapy. FRC’s staff have repeatedly testified against gender-affirming healthcare before Congress. Senior FRC analyst Kenneth Blackwell was in charge of domestic policy in the 2016 Trump administration transition. Though primarily domestic, FRC has in the past lobbied Congress on international issues—in 2010, FRC lobbied against a congressional condemnation of Uganda’s 2014 anti-homosexuality law. FRC’s executive vice-president, former Lt. General William G. Boykin, has spoken in support of Hungarian government family planning and anti-immigration policies at DC conferences hosted by the Hungarian embassy.
