Republicans in the Ohio House of Representatives introduced a bill for a month to honor heterosexual married couples with children. The month would run from Mother’s Day to Father’s Day, effectively taking up substantial parts of May and June. June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month, something that has bothered conservatives increasingly in recent years, who often ask why there isn’t a straight pride month as well.

H.B. 262 would label that several-week period in May and June “Natural Family Month,” but it doesn’t define what that means. A website for an Ohio conservative group called the Natural Family Foundation (NFF) says that a “Natural Family is the cornerstone of all civilization” and that “the moral fabric of a society is obliged to protect this family representation.”

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The website says that the group defines family as “one biological born man and woman in a lifelong, committed, monogamous relationship with their biological and/or adopted children” and that anything outside of that is bad for “marriage, children, and society.” They also say they want to make a world where “divorce and premarital sex are uncommon.”

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The group says that Natural Family Month would help “reclaim the foundation of all society, one biologically man, and one woman in a livelong, committed relationship” and implies that families that don’t look like that have contributed to a society with “a 50% divorce rate, spousal abuse, children living in single family homes where the State has become the daddy.” The site does not cite any evidence for this or any of its other claims, which run counter to actual research on the topic.

The group’s website notes that not all families can consist of heterosexual couples and their kids, but that the main point of the “natural family” is a “clear male leader” who is a man “from the family’s lineage”—even a “male elder cousin”—in charge of the family.

James Harrison, executive director of the NFF, told the Buckeye Flame that the motivation behind Natural Family Month is that conservatives like him are envious that LGBTQ+ people celebrate Pride Month, which is a response to centuries of oppression that often involves making LGBTQ+ people feel shame for being themselves.

“If you’re going to celebrate gay Pride, then we’re going to celebrate the natural family,” he said.

LGBTQ+ advocates oppose the bill.

“It not only invalidates the existence of single parents and countless other caregivers, but it takes direct aim at LGBTQ+ families across our state,” Equality Ohio executive director Dwayne Steward told the Buckeye Flame. “The so-called ‘Natural Family Foundation,’ the group pushing this legislation, has made their ideology clear: if you’re not a heterosexual, monogamous couple with children, you don’t count as a family at all.” 

“As an adoptive parent, myself, I feel this erasure personally. This bill is not just offensive; it’s dangerous.”

The Buckeye Flame asked NFF’s Harrison if he believed that it would be better for kids to stay in the foster care system than to be placed with same-sex couples. He said he hasn’t done his research on the topic but he expects that it would be confusing for foster kids who expect parents to be heterosexual.

“It would be like telling our son that Santa Claus existed and then finding he doesn’t,” Harrison said cryptically.

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