Christian Nationalists have plans for Rhode Island

Pastor David Aucoin is not a well-known figure in Rhode Island, but his Christian Nationalist organizing, which has had trouble gaining traction for years, is starting to bear fruit. I wrote about Pastor Aucoin and his Rhode Island Family Institute (RIFI) here when he announced that RIFI was sending three Rhode Island Senate Republicans to a Family Policy Alliance (FPA) “Statesman Academy” in Washington D.C. to “help train and equip legislators to have a Christian Worldview as they carry out their legislative duties.”

RIFI is networked with a host of anti-LGBTQ extremist groups, and on their site, they claim Robert Chiaradio as a board member. Chiaradio last year conducted a tour of Rhode Island school committees and school boards to testify against the life-saving Transgender, Gender Diverse, and Transitioning Student Policies mandated by the Rhode Island Department of Education and federal law. Toward the end of Chiaradio’s year-long tour, he tapped into national Trump agenda trends. He targeted Title IX policies that allow transgender students to play sports on teams that reflected their gender identity. The Republican-controlled United States House of Representatives is currently targeting Title IX.

With Trump due to ascend once more to the Presidency, local Christian Nationalist extremist groups are poised to push the Rhode Island General Assembly to pass laws that target the rights of LGBTQ+ people (but especially trans children) and women.

In a newsletter to his followers, Pastor Aucoin outlined his agenda. [Note: Pastor Aucoin uses terms such as “gender confused” when describing queer, transgender, and gender-diverse children. Pastor Aucoin’s use of such terms is consistent with his bigotry.]

“As we move forward to the new year, we are optimistic that with a new administration in Washington D.C., there will be opportunities to pass legislation that will honor God nationally and in Rhode Island.

“Here are some plans that the Rhode Island Family Institute has to fulfill our mission and make Rhode Island a state where God is honored, religious freedom flourishes, families thrive, and life is cherished.

“In January, I will be meeting with the Senate and House minority leaders to help them with support for passing pro-family legislation for 2025 in the following areas:

• Banning Gender surgery on minors;

• Removing counseling restrictions for gender-confused minors;

• Enforcing obscenity laws in schools and libraries;

• Promoting School Choice Options to help Private Schools and Home-Schoolers;

• Protecting minors from adult porn websites; and,

• Raising awareness of the dangers associated with recreational marijuana and the need to restrict ‘Pot Shops’ that are multiplying in RI neighborhoods.”

Some notes on the list:

• 97% of gender-affirming surgery on minors is breast reduction surgery, and it is performed on cisgender males. These are boys who identify as boys and who don’t want to have breasts.

• In 2017, the General Assembly passed a ban on conversion therapy – a range of dangerous practices that seek to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. RIFI seeks to reverse that ban when they call for “removing counseling restrictions.”

• “Enforcing obscenity laws in schools and libraries” is a call for book banning. Rhode Island has been the target of proposed book bans against books such as Genderqueer. Robert Chiaradio pushed for such a ban in his hometown of Westerly. Bills are being introduced in the General Assembly this year to protect librarians and libraries from these attacks. These bills have failed in prior years.

• School Choice is a nice-sounding name for policies that divert money from public education to private schools, homeschoolers, and religious schools. See here.

• No one wants children accessing inappropriate or misleading information about sex. But we have to be careful how we go about “protecting minors” when we take on complex First Amendment-impacting legislation.

• Currently, cannabis is legally available in Rhode Island. Public health notices about the potential dangers of cannabis use may be appropriate, but restricting so-called “pot shops” has to be done in a way that does not further the racist policies of the failed war on drugs.

Pastor Aucoin said he will meet with Senate Minority Leader Jessica de la Cruz and House Minority Leader Michael Chippendale to discuss RIFI’s priorities. One might hope these Republican legislators will be wise enough to reject most of RIFI’s ideas. Still, in the likely event that they are not so wise, I hope that the General Assembly will not only reject RIFI’s Christian Nationalist agenda but take action to protect Rhode Islanders from it.

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Bonus: Here’s a video of Pastor Aucoin calling for the reopening of churches during Covid: