OPINION MOMS FOR LIBERTY IS NOW ACTIVE IN BOULDER COUNTY Look to Florida schools to see the damage this far-right group is capable of

BY CLAIRE WOODCOCK

The local chapter of the national far-right group Moms for Liberty (M4L) — which made a name for itself in Florida by campaigning on a fictitious moral panic around whether books and curricula with LGBTQ and racially diverse characters and themes belong in public schools — has been active in Boulder County for over a month.

In a Jan. 9 press release from M4L, Boulder County chapter chair Sameer Brenn wrote, “We are happy to launch our chapter to help parents that felt isolated and shut out feel heard and understood. Our priority is our children, and we will fight to preserve our rights.”

Brenn’s resume is packed with tech sector leadership experience, including time as a software engineer on staff at Twitter in downtown Boulder. He also held a coveted “Entrepreneur in Residence” position at the University of Colorado Boulder.

I’ve been reporting on M4L nationally for about a year, and as I’ve watched chapters pop up in counties from Florida to California, I’ve taken pride in the fact that Boulder and

Longmont have remained untouched. Until now.

The organization claims that since January 2021, at least 260 local chapters now exist and include more than 110,000 members. Today in Florida, where the 501(c)(4) is nationally headquartered, teachers are de-shelving their classrooms of books in order to comply with guidelines in HB 1467, which M4L members helped craft. Local chapters have also been successful in helping M4L members get elected to school boards across the country in order to

FEBRUARY 23, 2023

Volume XXX, Number 27

PUBLISHER: Fran Zankowski

CIRCULATION MANAGER: Cal Winn

EDITORIAL

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Caitlin Rockett

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