Center for Christian Virtue (CCV) is a

lobbying Lobbying is a form of advocacy, which lawfully attempts to directly influence legislators or government officials, such as regulatory agency, regulatory agencies or judiciary. Lobbying involves direct, face-to-face contact and is carried out by va ...

organization focused upon implementing conservative Christian

sexual morality Sexual ethics (also known as sex ethics or sexual morality) is a branch of philosophy that considers the ethics or morality of Human sexual behaviour, sexual behavior. Sexual ethics seeks to understand, evaluate and critique interpersonal relatio ...

in public policy. It was originally known as Citizens for Community Values until Feb 2021. It operates primarily in the US state of

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

and is the

Family Policy Council A Family Policy Council (FPC) is one of several US state-level organizations affiliated with Focus on the Family (FotF), a nationwide conservative Christian organization. Family Policy Councils work for policies that FotF describes as "pro-family ...

Focus on the Family Focus on the Family (FOTF or FotF) is an American Christian fundamentalism, Evangelical Protestant organization founded in 1977 in Southern California by James Dobson, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The group is one of a number of Evangel ...

affiliate organization) for that state, with branches in

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

, and

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

. CCV was designated as a

hate group A hate group is a social group that advocates and practices hatred, hostility, or violence towards members of a race, ethnicity, nation, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other designated sector of society. Acc ...

by the

Southern Poverty Law Center The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white ...

from 2015 to 2017 because CCV vilified

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

people as categorically destructive to society and families. SPLC designated CCV as a hate group again in 2023.

Issues

Center for Christian Virtue has described its mission as: "Seeking to eliminate all activities that debase individuals by catering to that which is obscene, pornographic, or indecent." To this end they lobby to prohibit movies, artwork, dance, and writing with sexual content, particularly if connected to homosexuality, and to prohibit publications connected to

LGBT social movements Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) movements are social movements that advocate for LGBTQ people in society. Although there is not a primary or an overarching central organization that represents all LGBTQ people and their ...

. The organization lists support of "Free Speech" as a "Core Issue for a Thriving Ohio" in spite of their extensive censorship efforts. CCV opposes legal same-sex marriage and LGBT employment protections. They also oppose gay-straight alliances and student support groups in schools, saying that "the 'safe school' message of these organizations is nothing more than a deceptive ploy." CCV has strong affiliations with Ohio politicians, including raising support for

Dave Yost David Anthony Yost (born December 22, 1956) is an American politician and lawyer who has served as the 51st attorney general of Ohio since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, Yost previously served as the state auditor of Ohio from 2011 to ...

and

Mike DeWine Richard Michael DeWine ( ; born January 5, 1947) is an American politician and attorney serving as the 70th List of governors of Ohio, governor of Ohio since 2019. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served a ...

History

1983 founding

Center for Christian Virtue was founded by Jerry Kirk in 1983 as an anti-

obscenity An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin , , "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Generally, the term can be used to indicate strong moral ...

organization. The organization's first aim was that the

Cincinnati City Council The Cincinnati City Council is the lawmaking body of Cincinnati, Ohio. The nine-member city council is elected at-large in a single election in which each voter chooses nine candidates from the field. The nine top vote-getters win seats on the co ...

would ban the Playboy Channel from local

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

. CCV opposed "the growing impact of the Playboy philosophy upon America" which members described as "the philosophy that the ultimate good is pleasure and

happiness Happiness is a complex and multifaceted emotion that encompasses a range of positive feelings, from contentment to intense joy. It is often associated with positive life experiences, such as achieving goals, spending time with loved ones, ...

for the individual." In the 1980s and 1990s CCV organized hundreds of people to attend city council meetings in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana urging city governments to outlaw

pornographic Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolved from cave paintings ...

movies from video stores.

1990 Mapplethorpe censorship

CCV gained national attention for prosecuting the Contemporary Arts Center of Cincinnati in 1990; an unsuccessful attempt to censor an exhibition of photographs by

Robert Mapplethorpe Robert Michael Mapplethorpe ( ; November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer, best known for his black-and-white photographs. His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female Nude (art), n ...

. Mapplethorpe's work included

homoerotic Homoeroticism is sexual attraction between members of the same sex, including both male–male and female–female attraction. The concept differs from the concept of homosexuality: it refers specifically to the desire itself, which can be tempor ...

images. According to ''

Smithsonian Magazine ''Smithsonian'' is a magazine covering science, history, art, popular culture and innovation. The first issue was published in 1970. History The history of ''Smithsonian'' began when Edward K. Thompson, the retired editor of ''Life'' magazine ...

'', this was the first time in American history that a museum was taken to court on criminal charges for an exhibition. "Citizens for Community Values launched a publicity and letter-writing campaign against the show" in addition to the criminal prosecution, resulting in "thousands of letters demanding the exhibition be cancelled and that funding be pulled from the Fine Arts Fund (an umbrella campaign to raise funds for eight cultural organizations in the city)."

1991 presidency of Phil Burress

In 1991 CCV of Ohio became officially affiliated with

, and the Wisconsin branch became affiliated with

American Family Association The American Family Association (AFA) is a conservative and Christian fundamentalist 501(c)(3) organization based in the United States. Phil Burress, a self-described former "porn addict", became head of the organization in 1991. Saying that his addiction made him unable to safely consume pornography, Burress's wife examined pornographic movies and magazines on her husband's behalf, writing summaries for him so that he could speak about them to legislators and prosecutors. Burress led legislative efforts against pornographic movies available in hotel rooms, dedicating a budget of over one million dollars. CCV created a consumer website to rate hotels as "clean" or "dirty" depending on if the hotel made adult movies available. Ohio pornographer

Larry Flynt Larry Claxton Flynt Jr. (; November 1, 1942 – February 10, 2021) was an American publisher and the president of Larry Flynt Publications (LFP). LFP mainly produces pornographic magazines, such as '' Hustler'', pornographic videos, and three p ...

, opposing CCV, commented "when you check into a hotel room and order up a movie, it doesn't have any effect on Phil Burress." CCV also fought to remove works from libraries that Burress considered indecent, such as ''

The Advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. The Advocate, The Advocates or Advocate may also refer to: Magazines * The Advocate (magazine), ''The Advocate'' (magazine), an LGBT magazine based in the United States * ''The Harvard Advocate' ...

'' and other LGBT publications. In 2001

John Ashcroft John David Ashcroft (born May 9, 1942) is an American lawyer, Lobbying, lobbyist, and former politician who served as the 79th United States attorney general under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. A Republican Party (United States), R ...

, then United States attorney general, agreed to a meeting with "representatives of about a dozen anti-porn groups" organized by Burress and CCV.

2004 opposition to LGBT rights

CCV spearheaded the successful 2004 effort to make gay marriage unconstitutional in Ohio. This ban would be challenged in 2013 by James Obergerfell of Cincinnati, leading to the court case

Obergefell v. Hodges ''Obergefell v. Hodges'', ( ), is a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court which ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of th ...

which would legalize gay marriage throughout the United States. Community activists in 2004 sought to repeal a part of the Cincinnati city charter that prohibited the city from offering employment protection to people "because of homosexual, lesbian or bisexual orientation." CCV opposed the repeal, which CCV head Phil Burress described as "anti-religious bias." The repeal passed with tri-partisan support.

2007 restrictions on strip clubs

Approximately 50

strippers A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at private events. Modern forms of stripping m ...

, calling themselves Dancers for Democracy, showed up at the

Ohio House of Representatives The Ohio House of Representatives is the lower house of the Ohio General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio; the other house of the bicameral legislature being the Ohio Senate. The House of Representatives first met in ...

in 2007 to oppose restrictions on

strip clubs A strip club (also known as a strip joint, striptease bar, peeler bar, gentlemen's club, among others) is a venue where strippers provide adult entertainment, predominantly in the form of striptease and other erotic dances including lap dances. St ...

drafted by CCV. Charity Fickisen, a dancer who spoke at a

Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451–1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, the capital city of the U.S. state of Ohio * Columbus, Georgia, a city i ...

news conference, said "This is America, where consenting adults should be able to do what they want, as long as no one is getting hurt." Most dancers are young women with children who use their wages to pay for college, according to Fickisen. The law restricting strips clubs passed in the Ohio legislature, so Ohio strippers canvassed the streets to gather the quarter million signatures needed to put the law on hold and onto the November 2007 ballot. CCV successfully disputed the validity of the signatures Dancers for Democracy had gathered; the

referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

to undo the law did not appear on the ballot. Famous stripper

Stormy Daniels Stephanie A. Gregory Clifford (born Stephanie A. Gregory; March 17, 1979), known professionally as Stormy Daniels, is an American pornographic film actress, Film director, director and former stripper. She has won many industry awards and is a ...

was charged under this law in 2018 because she touched undercover detectives posing as customers.

Recent history

In 2015, The

(SPLC) designated CCV as a hate group because of anti-LGBT statements on the CCV website, such as "homosexual behavior is unhealthy and destructive to the individual, to families, and thus to communities and to society as a whole." SPLC defines a hate group as an organization with "beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics." In 2017 the CCV removed the controversial statements from their website and is no longer listed by the SPLC. In 2019 the Ohio House introduced a

non-binding resolution A non-binding resolution is a motion adopted by a deliberative body that does not enact a law or a substantive rule, and is simply used to make known what the opinions of that body are in relation to a certain fact or event. This type of resoluti ...

backed by CCV to declare pornography a public health hazard, saying that "the #MeToo movement has exposed how dangerous and harmful it is." CCV worked closely with Ohio lawmakers in the creation of Ohio House Bill 290 or the "backpack bill" in which they drafted, edited, and reviewed the law. The bill would allow “families to choose the option for all computed funding amounts associated with students’ education to follow them to the public and nonpublic schools they attend.” During the 2022 Columbus City Schools teachers strike, CCV placed six billboards highlighting the bill and promote private schools through

school choice School choice is a term for education options that allow students and families to select alternatives to traditional public schools. School choice options include scholarship tax credit programs, open enrollment laws (which allow students to att ...

programs. The organization also helped to found a "micro-school" in the Hilltop area. The private school in the underserved community, where most students are likely eligible for an income or performance-based voucher, is funded using state education dollars instead of private donations. In 2021, CCV paid $1.25 million for a building on Broad Street across from the

Ohio Statehouse The Ohio Statehouse is the List of state and territorial capitols in the United States, state capitol building and seat of government for the U.S. state of Ohio. The Greek Revival building is located on Capitol Square in Downtown Columbus, Ohio, ...

. Two years later, it purchased the former ''

Columbus Dispatch ''The Columbus Dispatch'' is a daily newspaper based in Columbus, Ohio. Its first issue was published on July 1, 1871, and it has been the only mainstream daily newspaper in the city since '' The Columbus Citizen-Journal'' ceased publication i ...

'' building next door for $1.1 million and intended to sell the building it purchased in 2021. The organization plans to use its close proximity to the Ohio Statehouse to influence the state's lawmakers and other initiatives. Also in 2021, CCV president Aaron Baer issued a letter asking lawmakers to oppose the Ohio Fairness Act, which would criminalize discrimination against LGBTQ individuals. FOIA requests show that CCV was consulted by representative Sarah Fowler Arthur for legislation proposing restrictions on "divisive topics" in classrooms, and corresponded with representative Jennifer Gross on a bill to restrict gender affirming care for minors. In 2023, Ohio lawmakers and CCV religious lobbyists began working on anti-trans legislation banning trans women from women's sports teams. In 2024, CCV solicited Utah endocrinologist Daniel Weiss to testify in a hearing about Missouri's ban on gender affirming care for minors and paid costs related to preparing his testimony. Weiss had formerly prescribed hormones to transgender adults and had no clinical experience with minors or puberty blockers. The CCV 2024 Essential Summit featured Ohio officials

Matt Huffman Matt Huffman (born April 1, 1960) is an American politician serving as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives, representing the 78th district since 2025, while concurrently serving as Speaker of the House as a Republican. The district inc ...

David Yost David Harold Yost (; born January 7, 1969) is an American actor and producer. He is best known for portraying Billy Cranston in ''Mighty Morphin Power Rangers'', '' Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie'', '' Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers'', ...

, Rob McColley, and Josh Williams, as well as

Ben Carson Ben Solomon Carson Sr. (born September 18, 1951) is an American retired neurosurgery, neurosurgeon, academic, author, and government official who served as the 17th United States secretary of housing and urban development from 2017 to 2021. A pio ...

Hillsdale College Hillsdale College is a Private university, private, Conservatism in the United States, conservative, Christian liberal arts college in Hillsdale, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1844 by members of the Free Will Baptists. Women were admi ...

president Larry P. Arnn, and Kevin Roberts, president of

the Heritage Foundation The Heritage Foundation (or simply Heritage) is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1973, it took a leading role in the conservative movement in the 1980s during the Presi ...

. The summit was advertised as challenging the "myth" of

separation of church and state The separation of church and state is a philosophical and Jurisprudence, jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the State (polity), state. Conceptually, the term refers to ...

and preceded the Ohio March for Life.

Board of directors

The board of directors for Center for Christian Virtue of Ohio includes: *Joseph L. Trauth, Jr., CCV chairman and senior partner at Keating Muething & Klekamp law firm in Cincinnati *Alex Tornero, Vice Chairman and Republican political consultant *Sally Alspaugh, Director of Estate Giving at

Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden is the second oldest zoo in the United States, founded in 1873 and officially opening in 1875. It is located in the Avondale, Cincinnati, Avondale neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. It originally began with ...

*Ken Taylor, president of

Caterpillar Inc. Caterpillar Inc., also known as Cat, is an American construction, mining and other engineering equipment manufacturer. The company is the world's largest manufacturer of construction equipment. In 2018, Caterpillar was ranked number 73 on the ' ...

Ohio * Seth Morgan, Ohio politician *David Myhal, Ohio lobbyist for debt collection firms

References

{{reflist Anti-pornography movement in the United States Focus on the Family Christian organizations established in 1983 American Christian political organizations Censorship of pornography Obscenity controversies in art Conservative organizations in the United States Anti-LGBTQ Christian organizations Organizations that oppose LGBTQ rights in the United States