The perennial appearance of an unassuming little yellow sign on a busy intersection heralds apocalyptic doom for all mankind at the hands of leftist liberals and minority groups, complete with a call to action to protect America by outlawing LGBTQ+ families.

Seriously. This is a scary rabbit hole.

I think I should get this out of the way now so there is no ambiguity about where I stand on the LGBTQ+ communities. I am completely supportive of the LGBTQ+ communities and always have been. Love is love — everyone has a right to exist in the way they want to exist. I do not believe there is any sort of order or divine plan that dictates a persons gender or sexual orientation.

There is no “but” at the end of that statement. The messaging and ideals I write about here are completely against what I believe.

I saw the sign…

…and it opened up my eyes (ask your parents).

For the past couple of years — one could argue close enough to Pride Month to be considered trolling — I’ve been seeing a little yellow sign at the corner of High Street and Bennett Drive in Caribou. I didn’t know exactly what it was about, but the phrase “natural family” was an immediate red flag as it sounds like one of those concepts used by right-wing extremists attempting to argue that LGBTQ+ families shouldn’t exist (which, as it turns out, is exactly what’s happening here).

This year I decided to actually look at the website listed on the sign, https://naturalfamilystrong.com/.

What is the “Natural Family Foundation”

It’s the subtle hint of a corrosive force beneath the fabric of everyday life, slowly spreading, only revealing itself when its found a good enough foothold, like paint flaking off a rusting pickup body.

Think The Handmaid’s Tale.

It’s a platform to extol the virtues of the patriarchy and white supremacy, and a gateway to more extreme conservative beliefs.

The Natural Family Foundation, directed by James Harrison, aims to save the very fabric of society (American society, apparently) by bringing back the “natural family”, a more traditional family model led by a “naturally born male” (e.g. father, grandfather, uncle, male elder cousin¹) and supported, but never led by, a “naturally born female”.

James makes the case that the “natural family” is the best-practice approach to rebuilding society, backed by centuries of scientific evidence.

He introduces the concept with a short video presentation. The contents of the video remind me of something you would see on a news segment featuring a small town boy being radicalized by internet propaganda and driven to mass murder. The pace and soundtrack of the video are designed to raise your blood pressure, especially if you’re prone to entertaining conspiracy theories.

The website contains links to like-minded blogs, podcasts and other media that, when taken together, form a conspiratorial rabbit hole attacking such classic right-wing targets as:

• same sex parents ²
• The COVID-19 pandemic (via the Y2K bug!?) ³
• mask and vaccine mandates ⁴
• DEI ⁵
• Muslims/Islam ⁶

You really don’t have to dig very deep to get the gist, and hopefully that’s all you come out with.

Where is this coming from?

The whole website is a smorgasbord of extreme conservative views regarding loosely defined threats to “our” nation, but the website claims to derive authority from a subtly altered text from an executive order issued by Ronald Reagan on September 2nd, 1987. You can find the text on their website, but I’ve included a screen clipping to show their “interpretation” of the order.

The original text of the executive order can be found on page 54 of this PDF file on the federal register website.

A dangerous message

While billing itself as an organization that supports the “family”, the Natural Family Foundation appears to be nothing more than an echo chamber for extreme conservative views. The flimsy pretext of fixing an ailing nation dissolves into nothing when you actually start reading the content and following the links.

It is simply a movement to convert the United States to a truly Gilead-like nation where men rule, women are subservient, and “gender-traitors” are outlawed.

Other parts of the country are seeing this movement creep into their neighborhoods as well, with some pushing for legislation to formally recognize Natural Family Month.

The placement of the sign is likely no accident as its one of the busiest intersections in Caribou (hence all the political campaign signs during election season). That little island of grass serves as an effective platform on which to broadcast your message, for better or worse.

I feel strongly that the sign posted at this busy intersection in Caribou, seen by hundreds of people every day, including children on their way to school, sends a dangerous message of exclusion in the extreme.

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Footnotes / Citations

1. https://naturalfamilystrong.com/about-us/about-nff/ ↩︎
2. Natural Marriage Versus Same Sex Marriage — written by Sarah Holiday, https://naturalfamilystrong.com/natural-marriage-versus-same-sex-marriage/ ↩︎
3. Looking for the Corona Canary — written by James Harrison, https://naturalfamilystrong.com/looking-for-the-corona-canary/ ↩︎
4. Family Protection from Health Care Officials – Sheriff Order, https://naturalfamilystrong.com/action-alert/ ↩︎
5. Faith and Family Matter More Than Race and Status When It Comes to Children: Study — written by Brian Chai, https://naturalfamilystrong.com/faith-and-family-matter-more-than-race-and-status-when-it-comes-to-children-study/ ↩︎
6. Last Call 8/5/2017 Islam Invasion, The Cost, https://naturalfamilyfoundation.blogspot.com/2017/08/last-call-852017-islam-invasion-cost.html ↩︎