Joseph Backholm, the head of the conservative Family Policy Institute of Washington who…
• led the effort to reverse marriage equality in Washington State
• compared gay marriage to bloodletting
• argued gay parents are bad for kids
• claimed that gay marriage would “send a message to fathers… that it isn’t important for them to be in the lives of their children”
• attempted to roll back trans rights via the ballot
• told signature gatherers for that anti-trans ballot measure to follow women into bathrooms to “make the point”
• failed to get enough signatures
• tried again
• failed again
• defended conversion therapy
• compared funding for Planned Parenthood to funding for Iran
• wondered if President Trump could “just blow up the airports in the 7 countries to implement the [travel] ban”
• recently wrote that, “For the left, Seattle is the dream and that dream now has some scary clowns and guys with chainsaws,” and
• made a cool $95,000 a year for all this
…is stepping down from his post.
According to an email sent to FPIW’s supporters, Backholm will be taking a job at the Colson Center for Christian Worldview.
FPIW board chair Larry Sundquist wrote in the email that FPIW leaders will now be “discussing what the leadership structure will look like in the near and long-term.”
“Change is never easy,” Sundquist wrote, “but it is inevitable.”
From all of us here at The Stranger: Congratulations, Joseph, and go fuck yourself.
