Palmetto Family Council is a nonprofit public policy organization focused upon implementing conservative Christian ideas in

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

state law, especially concerning

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 ...

. It opposes same-sex marriage, sex education, and vaccination against

sexually transmitted infection A sexually transmitted infection (STI), also referred to as a sexually transmitted disease (STD) and the older term venereal disease (VD), is an infection that is Transmission (medicine), spread by Human sexual activity, sexual activity, e ...

. It supports restrictions on abortion and pornography. It works to place symbols of Christianity into schools and civic institutions. Similar national groups include the

Family Research Council The Family Research Council (FRC) is an American evangelical 501(c)(3) non-profit activist group and think-tank with an affiliated lobbying organization. FRC promotes what it considers to be family values. It opposes and lobbies against access ...

, a domestic hate group. Palmetto Family Council has stated its goal is to "transform the culture in South Carolina by promoting the values and virtues of marriage, the traditional family model, and sexual purity." South Carolina politician Todd Rutherford described Palmetto Family Council as "a group whose mission is to fight against equal rights and equal treatment of others." Palmetto Family Council is a

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 ...

, meaning that it is a

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 ...

state-level affiliate organization. Its headquarters are in Columbia near the

South Carolina State House The South Carolina State House is the building housing the government of the U.S. state of South Carolina, which includes the South Carolina General Assembly and the offices of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina. Located in ...

Prohibiting same-sex marriage

Palmetto Family Council president Oran Smith authored South Carolina Amendment 1, a 2006 state constitutional ban of same-sex marriage. The organization argued gay marriage should be illegal because of "evidence of dysfunction" in gay people.

Henry McMaster Henry Dargan McMaster (born May 27, 1947) is an American politician and attorney serving since 2017 as the 117th governor of South Carolina. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he was the 50th List of Attorneys Ge ...

led Palmetto Family Council's campaign to persuade voters to prohibit gay marriage while he was

Attorney General of South Carolina The attorney general of South Carolina is a statewide elected attorney and South Carolina's chief legal officer and prosecutor. They are a constitutional officer responsible for providing legal opinions to the legislative and executive branch, repr ...

Mandating ultrasounds

The

South Carolina House of Representatives The South Carolina House of Representatives is the lower house of the South Carolina General Assembly. It consists of 124 representatives elected to two-year terms at the same time as U.S. congressional elections. Unlike many legislatures, seatin ...

passed a bill requiring women seeking an abortion to view an ultrasound image in 2007. Palmetto Family Council

canvassing Canvassing, also known as door knocking or phone banking, is the systematic initiation of direct contact with individuals, commonly used during political campaigns. Canvassing can be done for many reasons: political campaigning, grassroot ...

was crucial in passing the bill, and in opposing any exception for victims of rape or incest. Supporters of the bill hoped an emotional experience upon seeing ultrasound pictures would cause women to change their minds about abortion. Other states require ultrasound images be made available, but the South Carolina House bill was alone in mandating that women must look at the pictures.

Dabo Swinney and hate group alligations

Clemson University Clemson University () is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university near Clemson, South Carolina, United States. - The blue-shaded pattern denotes university property. This shows Clemson University is ''out ...

coach

Dabo Swinney William Christopher "Dabo" Swinney (; born November 20, 1969) is an American college football coach, currently serving as the head football coach at Clemson Tigers football, Clemson University. Swinney took over as head coach of the Clemson Tiger ...

was criticized by gay rights groups for planning to receive an award from Palmetto Family Council in 2015. After which he declined to receive the award and the Palmetto Family Council defended itself from allegations it is a hate group for supporting bigotry and homophobia. Even the council chairman Reese Boyd III stated that during the Swinney controversy critics characterized PFC 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 ...

Scandal

Former Palmetto Family Council President, Dave Wilson Jr., resigned quietly on March 9, 2023 after being exposed for an extramarital relationship. He was replaced by interim president Mitch Prosser, and then by Steve Pettit as a new president in 2024.

References

External links