Cancel culture just hit home in a whole new way. You may have read about it or seen me interviewed on Fox News.

First, let me introduce myself. I’m Victoria Cobb, President of The Family Foundation in Richmond, Virginia – one of the nearly 40 state groups served by Family Policy Alliance. I’m also privileged to serve on the board of Family Policy Alliance.

The other night, as I was about to head to a restaurant in Richmond for a dinner with a group of supporters of The Family Foundation, one of my team members got a call from an owner of the restaurant. He said staff members had looked up our organization and discovered our leading role in defending life and marriage in Virginia. As a result, they would not be serving us dinner that night.

While my team was able to quickly find another restaurant that gladly served our group a great dinner, the ugly reality hung in the air – we were canceled because of our work to protect life and to uphold God’s design for the family.

It’s not the first time we’ve been canceled.

The Family Foundation and some of our sister groups in other states were recently forced to find a new database provider because of those pro-life and pro-family positions. Some of our allies have suffered bank or insurance cancellations. And that’s not to mention physical attacks, such as when our Wisconsin ally was firebombed on Mother’s Day because of their pro-life work.

Why is this happening? Because this network of nearly 40 state “family policy councils” is having huge impact. In the last legislative cycle, they played a key role in passing more than 200 new pro-life, pro-family and pro-parent state policies – and defeating hundreds of anti-life, anti-family and anti-parent bills.

I’m so thankful we have a great national ally in this work. Family Policy Alliance, which helped start many of these state organizations over the years, is standing with us and equipping us to not only endure, but to thrive through cancel culture.

This year, Family Policy Alliance convened like-minded leaders in the fields of technology, insurance and banking to establish best policies and cancel-proof options for organizations like ours. I believe this ongoing work is critical to protecting freedom and continuing the progress on the issues that you and I care about.

That’s why I’m asking you to support Family Policy Alliance with your generous donation today.

You often see the work of the Family Policy Alliance team on key issues around the nation. But I’m here to tell you that their behind-the-scenes work in supporting the network of state policy organizations like the one I run is critical for the direction of our nation. Thanks for making this work possible with your support!

For life, family and freedom,

Victoria Cobb
President, The Family Foundation of Virginia
Board Member, Family Policy Alliance

 

P.S. It was a surreal feeling to be told that we couldn’t dine at a restaurant because of our beliefs. But cancel culture threatens far more than our restaurant choices. That’s why it’s critical that we prepare for it and push back against it. Your gift to Family Policy Alliance will help us continue to stand unapologetically for life, for family – and for freedom!

Families across the nation were thrilled last week when they saw that family issues won the day in Virginia – especially after the tragic situation out of Loudoun County Public Schools. There, the local school district seemingly covered up the sexual assault of a young girl (in the girls’ bathroom) by a boy who was wearing a skirt.

Since then, the Commonwealth’s election results have been the recipient of significant attention. Families have wondered, could a victory like that happen in my state? What does this mean for family issues and upcoming national elections?

Find out what really happened in Virginia when you join us TODAY for a conversation with Victoria Cobb, the seasoned leader of The Family Foundation of Virginia.

What Really Happened in Virginia?

Streaming on Facebook Live and YouTube

November 10, 2021

1 pm ET – 12 pm CT – 11 am MT – 10 am PT

Victoria Cobb is President of The Family Foundation of Virginia, which is the Commonwealth’s largest and oldest pro-family organization. The Family Foundation plays a key role in Virginia family policy – including in the issues that have taken front and center these last few weeks. Victoria been with the organization for over twenty years, and she’s served as President for over fifteen of those years. She’s an in-demand speaker, the recipient of many awards, and a longtime friend to Family Policy Alliance.

If you’re ready to get inspired, see victories across the nation, and cast a vision for a family-friendly America, don’t miss this event.

Grab a friend, bring your questions, and we’ll see you on the livestream today!

Meridian Baldacci
Director, Strategy

 

P.S. Seeing this late? You can still watch! Join the conversation on Facebook or YouTube.

 

You know you’re doing your job right when the Washington Post writes an attack article against you! Victoria Cobb is President of our allied state organization in Virginia, The Family Foundation. Victoria and The Family Foundation have been working tirelessly on behalf of pro-family Virginians to defeat what’s called the “Equal Rights Amendment” (ERA).

As the Left becomes increasingly worried about the overturn of Roe v. Wade and advancing an LGBT agenda in our laws, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU have resurrected a decades-old effort to amend the Constitution with the ERA. The ERA is an extremely dangerous effort to enshrine abortion-on-demand in the Constitution. And today’s ERA would also open the floodgates to creating a constitutional right for a man to identify as a woman—anytime, any place, and at any cost. This means women’s locker rooms, restrooms, prisons, scholarships, sports teams, and even shelters for victims of sexual assault would all be accessible to men—without question.

We are so incredibly proud of Victoria and her team—and their leadership on this issue! Their work advancing pro-family values in Virginia can now be felt across the nation. And the Washington Post is NOT happy about it.

Check out the full article in the Washington Post.

Voters need to know when a candidate is pro-life and when one is not.

Victoria Cobb, president of Family Foundation Action in Virginia, wants everyone to understand where the state attorney general stands on the life issue.

Family Policy Alliance has been assisting her organization in reaching voters who, if they knew, might make an extra effort to vote.

If you appreciate our work, please join with us in informing voters where candidates across the country stand on the issues you care about.

 

Family Policy Alliance is proud to work with nearly 40 state-based family policy councils, including The Family Foundation of Virginia. Victoria Cobb is president of the organization. This op-ed appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Stephanie is the adoptive mother of two girls who were sexually assaulted, each of whom suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. In a raw and powerful letter addressed to members of the Virginia General Assembly telling her story, she wrote: “A particular risk to my daughters is exposure to the anatomy of the opposite sex. To my daughters, the male anatomy is a weapon by which they were assaulted. But the risk extends to even being in the presence of biological males in situations where my daughters feel vulnerable, such as when they are using the bathroom, changing clothes, or showering.”

Now, according to a federal court, assault victims like her daughters will just have to deal with that horrible fear.

Are we really willing to force sexual assault victims into situations like these?

Even for most adults, preferring to shower or dress in the most private atmosphere possible is completely rational. Remarkably, that natural desire for physical privacy in public restrooms, locker rooms and showers shared by the overwhelming majority of Americans is being attacked as unreasonable, discriminatory — even bigoted. Worse, some are attempting to force our school children into vulnerable interactions with kids of the opposite sex in restrooms, locker rooms and showers, in addition to those who have suffered sexual abuse.

Last week the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals opined that a federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in schools should be interpreted as prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity. Despite erroneous media reports, the court did not mandate that schools immediately require access for students to restrooms of the opposite sex, despite a request by the plaintiff and ACLU for just that. Instead, the case was sent back to the lower court for further proceedings.

Yet for the first time, rather than following the plain language of law, a court concluded that the term “sex” no longer refers to the reality of biological differences between males and females. Rather, it refers to an individual’s subjective and changing feelings of “gender identity.” No other court in the country has come to this conclusion.

More important, as Judge Paul Niemeyer said in his dissent, the decision “overrules custom, culture, and the very demands inherent in human nature for privacy and safety. . . . An individual has a legitimate and important interest in bodily privacy such that his or her nude or partially nude body . . . (is) not exposed to persons of the opposite biological sex. Indeed, courts have consistently recognized that the need for such privacy is inherent in the nature and dignity of humankind.”

The court argues that ignoring the realities of biological sex is necessary because the plaintiff may feel “irreparable harm” at not being able to use the restroom of her choice.

But what about the irreparable harm and humiliation children might feel being exposed to someone of the opposite sex in a locker room or shower? Is their humiliation and discomfort at having their bodies exposed to someone of the opposite sex irrational?

And while the ACLU may argue this case involves only restrooms and not locker rooms and showers, logic dictates — as Judge Niemeyer rightly stated in his dissent — the new definition of sex cannot be compartmentalized and must be applied to showers and locker rooms.

Unfortunately, the court failed to properly consider the vast harms that will result from allowing boys to share private facilities with girls. Students from all walks of life find it deeply humiliating and offensive to be forced to share showers, restrooms and locker rooms with the opposite sex.

For those students, there is no “appropriate use” that justifies the deeply harmful intrusion on their privacy. This is especially true for victims of sexual abuse, which some reports put at 1 out of 10 students under the age of 18, and for whom the very presence of a biological male in a female restroom will trigger psychological and emotional harm.

The privacy rights and safety of vulnerable school children shouldn’t be cast aside or used as a political pawn for special-interest groups that desire to impose a genderless society.

Remarkably, the court seems to have concluded that a single student’s need for public affirmation trumps the desire inherent in human nature for privacy and safety, dismissing even the fear of sexual assault victims. Hopefully, a reasonable court will step in and reaffirm that our children have the dignity of basic privacy rights in bathrooms and showers. Anything short of that will put vulnerable children at tremendous emotional, physical and developmental risk.