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Topline
Moms for Liberty, the controversial conservative education reform group, is planning to hold a town hall event onManhattan’s Upper East Side on Thursday night, marking the group’s first major event in New York City and drawing criticism from liberals.
The event will feature at least two elected members of the local school council.
Key Facts
Thursday’s event is potentially the highest profile Moms for Liberty event in the city since the group’s founding in 2021, drawing a reportedly sold-out crowd in a county that voted 86% for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Speakers for the event include Charles Love and Maud Maron, two members of Community Education Council District 2 an elected community board which covers 49 schools in Manhattan and liaises with the superintendent and chancellor.
Maron told Forbes in a statement that she considered Moms for Liberty “one of the more dynamic and genuinely diverse parents groups to emerge from the school closure era,” and said she planned to address “illiberalism that tries to silence parents and hurts kids and schools,” while Love did not return a request for comment.
Maron earlier told the New York Daily News that she was not a member of Moms for Liberty and did not intend to start a chapter.
However, the event is now facing considerable pushback from New York’s elected officials: in a post on social media, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine described the group as “anti-LGBTQ, supports book bans, harasses teachers & school librarians, and has been labeled by @SPLCenter a ‘far right extremist organization.’”
On Wednesday, Levine announced he would hold a protest outside the event, which will be attended by Rep. Jerry Nadler and seven other New York state senators, assembly members and city council members, all Democrats.
Key Background
Thursday’s sold-out event comes as Moms for Liberty works to increase its presence in more liberal states. Last year, Moms for Liberty held their National Summit at the Marriott Hotel in Philadelphia, which was attended by former President Donald Trump, as well as fellow Republican presidential candidates Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley. However, the event was met with hundreds of protesters there. The event even prompted a condemnation from Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, who said his government “oppose[s] this group’s policy goals, which include attempts to disregard history, ban books, and silence conversations about race, gender, and sexuality. New York City Mayor Eric Adams has so far stayed silent on Thursday’s town hall, despite an informal invitation to attend from the group. At the ballot box in November, Moms for Liberty-endorsed candidates lost key school board races in more Democratic-leaning states, including Minnesota, Virginia and Pennsylvania, the Washington Post found.
Tangent
Thursday night’s event is scheduled to take place at the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association, a large event space sharing a building with the Czech Consulate and the Bohemian National Hall. Joseph Balaz, the president of the organization, told Patch that they looked into canceling the event, but were unable to break the contract. Balaz also told the local publication they planned to donate the rental fee Moms for Liberty paid to reserve the space.
What To Watch For
Moms for Liberty has not commented on what topics they planned to address at Thursday’s town hall, and the group did not return a request for comment from Forbes. Moms for Liberty does not have an active chapter in Manhattan, but does have one in Queens, as well as Westchester County and Long Island’s Nassau and Suffolk counties.
Further Reading
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