The 30-year anniversary: How MassResistance changed the rules for pro-family lobbying in 1996!

We got the Parental Notification Law passed in “blue” Massachusetts.

Despite hostile legislature and governor – and angry sex-ed special interest groups.

These “new” rules have worked across the country.

The Massachusetts Legislature is normally a lonely, hostile place for pro-family conservatives. But we didn't let that stop us!

August 20, 2026

By Brian Camenker

Do you really want to get a pro-family bill passed (or a bad bill stopped) in a blue state? It’s not impossible.

We’re celebrating the 30th anniversary of how we changed the rules of pro-family lobbying to get a parental rights bill passed that the legislature didn’t want to pass!

Early 1990s: The comprehensive sex-ed agenda arrives in the schools

In the early and mid-1990s, the “comprehensive” sex-ed agenda was completing its long march into the public schools in Massachusetts. It was a well-crafted strategy of disinformation, intimidation, and fear by the national sex-ed organizations. They got all their ducks in order, including the fawning support of school committees and other public officials. (Two of their favorite rationales were prevention of AIDS and teen pregnancies.)

Early on, the radicals observed that whenever sex ed was not compulsory almost no one signed up to take it. So they made sure that it became mandatory in every school district.

But soon the reports from parents started coming out about the graphic sexuality being pushed at their children, even in elementary school. People were shocked and outraged. But school committees were adamant that it must continue to be mandatory.

Going to the Legislature

At that time, MassResistance was known as Parents’ Rights Coalition and was only in Massachusetts. Parents from across the state frantically approached us with their lurid stories, and how their school districts would not listen to them. It became clear that a state law was needed to protect parents. So we got to work.

We were complete novices on dealing with the State House. But the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston helped us greatly. Their public policy and lobbying arm, the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, identified legislators (both Republicans and Democrats) who would support this effort.

I drafted a bill to introduce to the legislature with some help from a lawyer at a national pro-family foundation. Our original version was aggressive and detailed. But as soon as it got into a committee, the legislative machine wanted it scaled back. So I worked with the House Republican Minority Leader and put together text that I was confident would accomplish what was needed.

By today’s standards the bill was pretty tame. It basically says that schools must allow parents to opt-out their children from school curricula “which primarily involves human sexual education or human sexuality issues.” It also says that “to the extent practicable, program instruction materials for said curricula shall be made reasonably accessible” for inspection and review. None of that is unreasonable.

The Left’s vicious reaction

The Left’s reaction was over-the-top panic and fury. The state teachers’ union was focused on stopping the bill. They sent a mailing to all their members with a warning about me and how dangerous I was!  Planned Parenthood and the LGBT groups focused their lobbying efforts on the legislators of both houses. Supporters of the bill and I were labeled in ways I can’t repeat here.

It became such a hot issue that several local TV stations held televised debates between me and the president of the Massachusetts Teachers’ Union on the bill. She said that all kinds of terrible things would happen to children if this bill was passed and they did not get the “important” comprehensive sex-ed information they needed!

Our strategy takes form – by rejecting the experts’ advice

How could we get this passed? From the very beginning, we were given solid advice from the experts: Ask for what you think you can reasonably get, but not too much. Appear reasonable, factual, and moderate. Don’t come off as angry or emotional.

I thought about it. And we decided to do exactly the opposite. We started by asking for everything we wanted, which ended up being a good move because they scaled the language down from a high demand, not a low demand. We showed no interest in trying to look reasonable, factual, or moderate. Instead, we demanded that parents get the freedom to escape from this lunacy. Using emotion was particularly important. If these stories of sexual topics being pushed on innocent children don’t cause emotional reactions by parents, then why whould anyone take us seriously?

(Interestingly, I was approached by another Massachusetts pro-family group that was so shocked at this strategy that they said they’d withdraw support for our bill unless we behaved properly. I politely declined to change. Their “moderate” support wasn’t missed.)

Also, we didn’t present reams of evidence, which experts also suggested. We put together a simple one-sided page of bullet points that proved very effective.

Parents take on the battle

It was a brutal fight. Mothers with their little children in tow would come to the State House nearly every day. They yelled at the reps. They made it clear they were not taking “no” for an answer.

It became so tumultuous that a Boston radio station had its afternoon talk show host broadcast her show from the State House every day to cover it!

On the last day of the 1996 legislative session a group of LGBT lobbyists lined up at the entrance of the House chamber to intimidate the reps from voting for the bill. But a group of very angry parents also lined up right there and intimidated the intimidators!

The Parental Notification bill becomes law!

All along it had been clear that the majority of the House and Senate, as well as the (RINO) Governor, did not want to deal with the bill. They would have preferred it just died a quiet death.

But in the end, the House and Senate passed it. And 30 years ago this month, Governor Bill Weld signed it. It became M.G.L. Ch. 71 Sec. 32A. And it’s still on the books. It was an unbelievable victory!

Numerous times over the intervening years, Planned Parenthood and the LGBT lobby have tried to repeal this bill or amend it in a way to completely subvert it. Each time, parents have stood up and stopped those efforts.

More battles won since then

In the years since then, this aggressive approach has garnered wins in blue states that would never have happened otherwise. Here are just a few examples:

• Our heavy pressure STOPPED a powerful bill in the Massachusetts Legislature that would have mandated the HPV vaccine to all 6th-grade girls – despite heavy lobbying and radio ads by the Merck drug company. (See our report.)
• Pressure from local California MassResistance parents forced their liberal school board to abandon its “comprehensive sex-ed” curriculum. (See our report.)
• California MassResistance organized heavy pressure from across the state to STOP a horrible anti-family, anti-therapy bill in the State Assembly (after it had overwhelmingly passed an initial floor vote). (See our report.)

A MassResistance family protests the graphic curriculum outside of the school board meeting. The officials got the message and stopped using it!

Final thoughts

Thirty years later it’s still an uphill battle in our movement! There is a strong feeling that conservatives must be “respectable” and not “extreme” – despite the history of negative results from that. Our MassResistance friend and political commentator John Haskins calls it “Defeat with dignity.”

The Left doesn’t have that impediment, and their unsavory results in legislatures across the country reflect that.

There’s another lesson we’ve learned that goes against the grain for conservatives. We no longer consider “opting out” to be a suitable alternative. Parents shouldn’t have to jump through bureaucratic hoops. Opt-in is the only acceptable alternative. But the real solution is to remove the radical “curricula” – which have no benefit and cause enormous harm. Unfortunately, most conservatives are fine with “opt-out” and don’t want to fight the bigger battle.

So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that over the years our against-the-grain direct activism has caused MassResistance to become a pariah in mainstream pro-family circles. They’re all our friends but, yes, they do keep their distance.

MassResistance is committed to pushing forward!