Convicted sex offender serves as faith leader of Philly ‘Moms for Liberty’ chapter
Moms for Liberty is at the forefront of the effort to ban books that discuss gender identity, sexuality, and race.
A leader of the Philadelphia chapter of Moms for Liberty is a sex offender who was convicted for aggravated sexual abuse of a 14-year-old boy, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Monday.
In 2011, Phillip Fisher Jr. was accused of having oral and anal sex with a 14-year-old boy when Fisher was 25, according to court documents obtained by the Inquirer. Fisher went on to plead guilty in 2012 to one count of sexual abuse of a minor, and remains on the sex offender registry.
Fisher, for his part, told the Inquirer that his sexual abuse conviction is “one blip” in his record.
He claimed that the conviction was a result of trying to escape from a “cult,” which the parents of the victim of the sexual abuse were part of.
“It was a political situation that happened between me and Lyndon LaRouche,” Fisher told the Inquirer. “It was a member of his camp, his party, that made the accusation. They pushed it through. It was really a railroad job.”
Fisher had served as a ward leader for the Philadelphia chapter of Moms for Liberty until the Inquirer’s report was published.
Philadelphia’s Republican City Committee Chair Vince Fenerty told the Inquirer that he demanded Fisher’s resignation from the Moms for Liberty group after learning of his criminal past.
Moms for Liberty is a right-wing “parental rights” group that has led the fight against LGBTQ+ inclusion, and has claimed that teachers in schools are “groomers” who want to build trust with students only to sexualize them later.
The Moms for Liberty group, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has deemed a hate group, has sought to elect its members to school boards across the country in order to advance its anti-LGBTQ+ agenda.
Moms for Liberty had notched school board victories after the COVID-19 pandemic across the country, and helped to pass so-called “Don’t Say Gay” laws that ban the discussion of gender identity or sexuality in schools.
However, the organization was dealt sweeping losses in school board races earlier this month in Pennsylvania, where Moms for Liberty candidates lost seats on the Bucks County School Board, as well as in Pennridge.
