Stephen Baskerville (2019 TFRM Conference in Vegas) Part 3: Fathers Must Lead for Reform and Unity

In his 2019 speech at the Fathers’ Rights Movement Conference in Las Vegas, Stephen Baskerville called on fathers to lead a movement for family court reform. “Men alone are the ones held responsible… the only way forward is that men must lead,” he declared, followed by rousing applause. This final part restates his vision for fathers to take the moral high ground, restore marriage, and build coalitions to fight injustice.

Taking the Moral High Ground
Baskerville warned that fathers must transcend narrow grievances: “As long as we can be depicted… as a group of whiners narrowly concerned with our own rights and grievances, we will continue to be dismissed by those who have a vested interest in dismissing us.” He urged focusing on “the larger injustices and threats the child custody system represents,” including “the perversion of the legal system and the violation of the most basic constitutional rights” and “the destruction of marriage in the family.” He stated: “Only when we are perceived as being the moral leaders of society will we and our children begin to get justice.”

Restoring the Marriage Contract
Baskerville emphasized restoring marriage to protect fatherhood: “The only way forward in my view is to restore not to renounce marriage.” He rejected the “men going their own way” (MGTOW) strategy: “As a long-term strategy for men in society, renouncing marriage and disengaging men from women makes no sense at all… If men permanently abandon marriage, it will only give the state more excuses to augment its own power.” He argued that marriage ensures “the rights and authority of parents and especially that of the father,” citing the failure of single-father alternatives: “Anyone familiar with the child protective system knows they’re extremely hostile to single fathers and they will swoop down and take away the children very quickly.”

Challenging Conservative Failures
Baskerville criticized conservative Christian groups for ignoring divorce’s role in family breakdown: “I frequently speak to these conservative Christian organizations and I scold them for not taking on these issues well.” He noted their focus on “abortion and same-sex marriage,” which “are only marginally related to the family,” while “the most serious threat to the integrity and survival of the family is the unjust system of divorce and child custody.” He urged fathers to challenge these groups: “We must challenge these groups… to take on the injustices of family courts.”

Building a Coalition
Baskerville proposed a coalition model, citing Serbia: “I found that the father’s groups and the Christian family groups work together very well… They’re not embarrassed by one another and they work together.” He stated: “If they accept this challenge, then we must build a broad coalition with these groups and if they do not… they will show the world that they are not really serious at all about… preserving the family.” He argued that fathers and conservatives share “the same opponents—the extreme feminists and the other sexual radicals and the family police of the welfare state,” and unity is essential: “This movement will only succeed when these groups combine against common opponents.”

The Cost of Truth
During his closing remarks, Baskerville shared his personal sacrifices: “I was dismissed from my work at a previous university because of my research in this field and now… I’ve just been dismissed in mid-contract without notice or warning by Patrick Henry College for similar reasons.” He praised scholars like William Comanor, present at the conference, and Ed Kruk, whose absence he noted. “We should make much better use of the professional scholars who are willing to commit themselves to the truth,” he urged, warning: “The number of scholars who sell themselves with research that is misleading, distorted, rigged and simply false is prodigious… We will lose [our scholars]” without support.

A Unified Movement
Baskerville concluded: “The bottom line is that men alone are the ones held responsible… Complaining about it or even trying to change it will only bring more contempt upon men.” His speech, met with applause, underscored the urgency of leadership. All of our advocacy groups, he implied, must unite with allies to restore justice and family integrity.

-David B
Fathers Anonymous