Standing strong for traditional family values is not fascism, as the mainstream media often insinuates, but merely a concern for the future of humanity, Aleksey Komov, of the World Congress of Families (WCF), has told RT.

Liberal media, spurred on by hate-mongering “watchdogs” like the Southern Poverty Law Center, have lost their collective mind over the 13th WCF meeting that took place in Verona, Italy in late March, labeling the attendees “far-right” and “neo-Nazis” who attack women and roll back the rights of sexual minorities.

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Komov, who represents the WCF at the UN and in Russia, dismissed these claims as “complete fake news,” arguing that the World Congress of Families was being held simply because “it’s important to support the family for any healthy society, so that people can have children and nations can flourish in the future.”

Family values are in danger because there are very powerful international lobby groups pushing for gender rights, introduction of same-sex marriage, abortions, euthanasia as well as legalization of drugs and prostitution. We think that this is destructive to the ‘natural family’ and a madness that will bring humanity to destruction.

As for the participants, they were “politicians, scientists, scholars and activists” from the US, Europe, Russia, Latin America and Australia. Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister, Matteo Salvini, “gave a fiery speech” and two other Italian ministers attended, as did representatives from 60 countries, including leaders of US conservative groups and members of the Russian parliament and the Orthodox Church, the activist said.

According to Komov, the media’s bashing of the WCF has been so harsh because “those people, who wanted to demonize Russia, are very angry at us because, despite all the sanctions and all the massive disinformation – despite all the efforts to make us enemies of each other – the conservative friendship stands.”

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And the attacks weren’t restricted to the internet. More than 10,000 “LGBT and feminist” protesters descended on Verona during the event, with riot police even being forced to interfere and roadblocks being set up at various points around Verona’s Piazza Bra, where the conference took place.

Activists even tried to “shut down” the event “through calling the hotels where the participants were staying and using threats to make those hotels cancel their bookings. There were even physical threats of attacks against the attendees. Can you imagine this happening in Europe in the 21st century?” Komov wondered.

But it’s impossible to shut us down, because the vast majority of people, not only in Italy but in all of Europe, in Russia and all over the world are with us. Defending the traditional family is a winning concept.

Komov pointed out that there was also a rally in support of the conference in Verona, which attracted twice as many people as the anti-WCF protest and took place without incident – or media attention.

Despite their demonization in the media, the WCF and its activists never resorted to the means employed by their opponents, Komov said. “We’re very peaceful people. We are for freedom of expression and freedom of thought, religion and education.”

We’re not imposing our ideas on anybody, while the other side tries to impose their new, totalitarian, politically correct ideology and way of thinking on all of society.

Komov also addressed media speculation that he was “Putin’s agent” by saying that the level of connection between WCF and the Russian government has been “exaggerated.” However, he acknowledged that the congress fully backed Moscow’s stance of promoting family values and made no secret of the fact that WCF has received support from like-minded private Russian foundations, as well as from the Orthodox Church.

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