Meet MassResistance, the group taking credit for Idaho's push to overturn same-sex marriage
Editor's Note: This story was produced through a partnership between Uncloseted Media and the Idaho Statesman. Uncloseted Media specializes in investigative LGBTQ+-focused journalism. Both organizations contributed reporting and editing. Ian Max Stevenson was the Statesman's reporter for the project.
Idaho lawmakers were met in late January by a House committee hearing room full of constituents there to state their beliefs about the institution of marriage — and whom it should extend to. After testimony from nearly two dozen people, the last to speak joined the hearing remotely, and thanked Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, for bringing forward a resolution to challenge same-sex marriages and ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its decade-old landmark ruling that granted the unions.
Arthur Schaper, field director for a group called MassResistance, told the committee that activists at his international organization had brought forward similar resolutions in North Dakota, Montana, Michigan and Wyoming, and that state lawmakers had been 'taking it up.' As of this week, at least nine states have proposed measures to roll back same-sex marriage.
Schaper defended the resolution with discredited claims about homosexuality, which the country's major medical organizations agree is a normal part of human sexuality.
'People are born Black, Hispanic, or otherwise,' Schaper said. 'They are not born homosexual.'
Schaper declined Uncloseted Media's request for an interview and did not respond to a list of questions sent via email.
The Idaho resolution was drafted by MassResistance, a far-right Christian organization that has been fighting against LGBTQ+ rights since it formed 30 years ago. The group is one of the most openly extreme anti-LGBTQ+ groups among the far right, advertising itself as 'engag(ing) in issues and events that most other conservative groups are afraid to touch' and boasting about writing resolutions like the one passed in the Idaho House.
'MassResistance has drafted text for state legislature resolutions that call on the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse its infamous and illegitimate Obergefell ruling,' the group shared on its website in January, referencing Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark decision by the Supreme Court to legalize same-sex marriage.
It also has criticized Southern Poverty Law Center-designated anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and Family Research Council for their 'polite opposition to the latest left-wing lunacy,' and stated that 'rather than being truthful and confrontational, too many pro-family groups want to be seen as 'reasonable' and 'not extreme.'' In addition to its anti-LGBTQ+ activism on home turf, MassResistance works to roll back queer rights globally, with chapters in Africa, South America, the Caribbean and beyond.
Justin R. Ellis, a criminologist at the University of Newcastle in Australia who has written about anti-LGBTQ+ groups and movements, including MassResistance, said that the successes of groups like ADF in rolling back some LGBTQ+ rights is exactly what allows MassResistance to take the spotlight.
'Them coming out with their framing and their litigation and their hostility toward queer issues emboldens other groups like MassResistance to go, 'Hang on, we're gonna go bolder,'' Ellis said in a video interview.
MassResistance's effort to overturn same-sex marriage is the latest in a long list of campaigns where the group has worked to pass anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, from book bans to gender-marker restrictions, in state and local governments across the country, and even abroad.
MassResistance was founded in 1995 in Massachusetts under the name 'Parents' Rights Coalition' by local activist Brian Camenker. After getting his start in activism as an outspoken opponent of LGBTQ+-inclusive sex education in schools, Camenker quickly led the group's first major campaign: drafting and lobbying for state legislation that required schools to notify parents and allow them to opt out of sex education for their children. The group emphasized that doing so would allow parents to ensure their children don't learn about 'homosexuality' or so-called 'transgenderism.' The campaign was successful, and the bill passed into state law in 1996.
The group remained a significant player in Massachusetts state politics. After the Massachusetts Supreme Court made the state the first in the U.S. to legalize same-sex marriage in 2004, the group shifted its focus to fighting that decision. The group temporarily changed its name to the Article 8 Alliance, referencing part of the Massachusetts Constitution that outlines the impeachment of judges. Under this new identity, the group filed state legislation to impeach all of the justices who supported Massachusetts' pro-same-sex-marriage ruling and to outlaw the unions under state law. None of the bills the group wrote were successful.
Despite this, after rebranding back to MassResistance in 2006, the group continued to write legislation opposed to LGBTQ+ inclusion until at least 2017. In one bill from 2011, the group sought to repeal an anti-bullying law because of its protections for LGBTQ+ students.
During this period, the Southern Poverty Law Center designated MassResistance a hate group, in part because it labeled Boston Pride a 'depraved' display that featured 'a great deal of obviously disturbed, dysfunctional, and extremely self-centered people.'
In the mid-2010s, MassResistance expanded its focus to the national stage. Its first out-of-state chapter opened in 2014 in Virginia. In 2016, Schaper launched a chapter in California. And in 2020, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who MassResistance has said worked closely with members of its Georgia chapter, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
By 2022, the free speech advocacy group PEN America identified at least 16 MassResistance chapters in the U.S., with several more international chapters. PEN America also identified MassResistance as one of the most active groups in the national push to ban books with LGBTQ+ content from schools and libraries.
The effort followed MassResistance publishing in 2017 its own book, 'The Health Hazards of Homosexuality,' which claimed to compile scientific evidence supporting banning or restricting homosexuality. The 600-page book touts endorsements from various anti-LGBTQ+ activists, including Michelle Cretella, former executive director of the American College of Pediatricians, a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group known for publishing and spreading specious science about LGBTQ+ people.
The book rails against 'the coarsening of our culture that has accompanied the normalization of homosexuality' and makes numerous false or misleading scientific claims. For example, it cites statistics indicating higher rates of mental or physical illness among LGBTQ+ people as evidence of innate risks despite many experts agreeing that discrimination and lack of resources are more accurate explanatory factors.
According to IRS filings, MassResistance has received thousands of dollars from several donor-advised funds. They include the National Christian Foundation and Arthur G. Jaros Sr. and Dawn L. Jaros Charitable Trust — both of which financially support other far-right groups, including the ADF and the Heritage Foundation, the group behind Project 2025.
Uncloseted Media and the Idaho Statesman also identified IRS forms for Parents Education Foundation, a group run by Camenker and listed as 'related' to MassResistance. Despite little to no public presence, on its most recent IRS filing from 2023, the organization reported revenue of $211,123, much of which was sourced via donations from large conservative donors and other mainstream donor-advised funds.
The Parents Education Foundation lists Dr. Paul Church as a director. Church is a urologist who was fired from a Boston hospital in 2015 for likening a Pride event to a chosen social agenda, Fox News reported. MassResistance supported Church in his fight against the hospital, and, in 2017, he provided an expert endorsement in 'The Health Hazards of Homosexuality.'
Church could not be reached for comment.
The current Idaho resolution is not the first instance where MassResistance has worked with the state's legislators. In a collection of emails leaked by former conservative activist Elisa Rae Shupe, who died by suicide earlier this year, Uncloseted Media found correspondence from 2020 between Schaper and former Idaho state Rep. Julianne Young, R-Blackfoot, who testified in favor of the anti-Obergefell resolution. Young discussed developing an anti-trans bill that would forbid changing gender markers on state birth certificates. The bill became law in Idaho in 2020.
'We are still going after the governor, though, to make sure that he signs or at least allow(s) the bills to become law,' Schaper told Young in one email.
'MassResistance does send emails. They were looking for people to testify, but I did not make those arrangements with them deliberately. I let them know I would contact the bill's sponsor,' Young told Uncloseted Media over the phone in reference to the 2025 anti-Obergefell resolution, which she said she supports. 'It's a correct principle to allow those decisions to be made by the states and not by a single unelected panel of judges.'
When asked if she takes issue with any of MassResistance's stances on gay issues, Young said, 'It's probably not an issue that I have a relevant opinion on.'
Idaho has been home to some of MassResistance's government targets. In 2023, activists from its state chapter and other anti-LGBTQ+ groups successfully campaigned to elect a majority of far-right candidates onto Kootenai County's Community Library Network board. The board has since enacted multiple policies restricting minors' access to LGBTQ+ content and libraries in general.
At the 2023 Rexburg Pride Event in East Idaho, counterprotesters from Idaho MassResistance, led at the time by former Rep. Ron Nate, R-Rexburg, had physical confrontations with attendees. The spectacle caused police to heighten security and some organizations to pull out of the event the following year. MassResistance made a less conspicuous appearance in 2024 as well.
Nate, now the president of the far-right Idaho Freedom Foundation, did not respond to Uncloseted Media's request for comment.
Ellis, the professor who writes about anti-LGBTQ+ movements including MassResistance, said that coordinating these kinds of local attacks on the LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized groups has become much easier with social media.
'One of the things that groups such as MassResistance can do is, through their online networks, coordinate protests against Drag Queen Story Time childhood literacy events, for example, and now same-sex marriage, and what they do is get people in other jurisdictions to go to those locations and protest in person,' he said. 'Through social media, you can coordinate ideologically aligned individuals quickly and cheaply.'
MassResistance has taken credit on its website for the Idaho resolution carried by Rep. Scott. The group noted that an Idaho House member 'offered to spearhead' the resolution this year, but did not name the lawmaker.
In response to a public records request, Scott reported she had no communications with MassResistance, and she declined to respond to a question from a Statesman reporter about whether she worked with the group.
In an interview on The Ranch Podcast in early February, Scott said she was first approached about opposing same-sex marriage in the Legislature eight years ago. Over the summer, she said, she was looking through a list of ideas for legislation, and decided to 'push (same-sex marriage) up to the top this year.' '
Scott's resolution states that the Obergefell decision is an'overreach' from the U.S. Supreme Court, which should leave marriage laws to the states.
However, it also asks the Supreme Court to 'restore the natural definition of marriage, a union of one man and one woman.'
On the podcast, she underscored her perspective on gay marriage. 'Don't force me to say that that's a marriage, because in my eyes that's an abomination to God,' she said, noting that she would support creating a legal relationship between LGBTQ+ couples that would provide them with the legal rights of marriage.
MassResistance also advocates against LGBTQ+ rights around the world. On its website, the group claims to have worked with activists from at least 24 countries and territories, including Mexico, Brazil, Croatia, Nigeria, Taiwan and Australia. Last year, the group started a new chapter in Kenya, where it reported on its website that it was holding trainings for youth to 'resist the LGBT agenda' in schools.
In many of these countries, the group circulates a video by Camenker titled 'What 'gay marriage' did to Massachusetts.' The video has been converted into booklets, which have been translated and circulated in Mexico, Costa Rica, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and more.
'Once same-sex marriage gets a foothold, society becomes more oppressive, hammering citizens with the force of law. The judicial system becomes more radical and arrogant, and politicians become more cowardly. And once that concept is institutionalized, other boundaries on sexual behaviors continue to fall,' Camenker said in the video. 'The push for gay marriage is really about putting the legal stamp of approval on homosexuality, and forcing its acceptance on otherwise unwilling citizens and on our social, commercial and political institutions. To those of you where this is being threatened, do not wait — it is absolutely necessary for you to call, write, and even visit your elected officials. They must feel your outrage.'
Camenker did not respond to Uncloseted Media's request for comment.
Some of MassResistence's more noteworthy interventions abroad include helping keep anti-sodomy laws on the books in Sri Lanka and supporting propaganda campaigns against the legalization of same-sex marriage in Taiwan. In the latter case, the group says that Schaper spoke directly with a representative of Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party and was invited to a party event in the U.S. over the course of the campaign.
In Ghana, meanwhile, MassResistance has collaborated with Freedom International, an organization that congratulated Uganda for its anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that threatens life in prison for consensual same-sex relations, to start anti-LGBTQ+ youth clubs in secondary schools.
'(Africa) is the land of opportunity when it comes to restricting LGBTQ rights,' Wendy Via, president and co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, told Uncloseted Media. 'There are a lot of huge worldwide groups with lots of money who are working on the same thing, and they also come at it from a Christian point of view.'
The future of Scott's resolution in Idaho is uncertain. It passed the Idaho House in a 46-24 vote in late January, meaning 15 Republicans joined the nine Democrats in opposition. Before a vote on the Senate floor, the measure must advance out of a Senate committee. The committee's chairman, Sen. Jim Guthrie, R-McCammon, told the Statesman he is not sure whether he will allow a hearing.
'The public has weighed in, and it's been pretty one-sided in terms of, 'Why are we doing this?'' he said.
Guthrie said he expects to meet with Scott to discuss her resolution before deciding whether to hold a hearing, but acknowledged his own concerns.
'The effect of it could be pretty harmful to a lot of people, making them feel for whatever reason that they don't belong. … I just don't see the benefit being greater than the hurt,' Guthrie added, noting that it could 'tear people's lives apart.'
Via said MassResistance's goal is to overturn Obergefell, and starting in deep-red pockets of the country is a trial run.
'The little, tiny resolution in Idaho, it's like the butterfly wings,' she said.
Sam Donndelinger of Uncloseted contributed reporting.
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