1983 founding Center for Christian Virtue was founded by Jerry Kirk in 1983 as an anti-
obscenity organization. The organization's first aim was that the
Cincinnati City Council would ban
the Playboy Channel from local
cable television. CCV opposed "the growing impact of the Playboy philosophy upon America" which members described as "the philosophy that the
ultimate good is pleasure and
happiness for the individual". In the 1980s and 1990s CCV organized hundreds of people to attend city council meetings in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana urging city governments to outlaw
pornographic movies from video stores.
1990 Mapplethorpe censorship CCV gained national attention for
prosecuting the Contemporary Arts Center of Cincinnati in 1990; an unsuccessful attempt to
censor an exhibition of photographs by
Robert Mapplethorpe. Mapplethorpe's work included
homoerotic images. According to
Smithsonian Magazine, this was the first time in American history that a museum was taken to court on criminal charges for an exhibition. "Citizens for Community Values launched a publicity and letter-writing campaign against the show" in addition to the criminal prosecution, resulting in "thousands of letters demanding the exhibition be cancelled and that funding be pulled from the Fine Arts Fund (an umbrella campaign to raise funds for eight cultural organizations in the city)."
1991 presidency of Phil Burress In 1991 CCV of Ohio became officially affiliated with
Focus on the Family, and the Wisconsin branch became affiliated with
American Family Association. Phil Burress, a self-described former "porn addict", became head of the organization in 1991. Saying that his addiction made him unable to safely consume pornography, Burress's wife examined pornographic movies and magazines on her husband's behalf, writing summaries for him so that he could speak about them to legislators and prosecutors. Burress led legislative efforts against pornographic movies available in hotel rooms, dedicating a budget of over one million dollars. CCV created a consumer website to rate hotels as "clean" or "dirty" depending on if the hotel made adult movies available. Ohio pornographer
Larry Flynt, opposing CCV, commented "when you check into a hotel room and order up a movie, it doesn't have any effect on Phil Burress." CCV also fought to
remove works from libraries that Burress considered indecent, such as
The Advocate and other LGBT publications. In 2001
John Ashcroft, then United States attorney general, agreed to a meeting with "representatives of about a dozen anti-porn groups" organized by Burress and CCV.
2004 opposition to LGBT rights CCV spearheaded the successful 2004 effort to make
gay marriage unconstitutional in Ohio. This ban would be challenged in 2013 by James Obergerfell of Cincinnati, leading to the court case
Obergefell v. Hodges which would legalize gay marriage throughout the United States. Community activists in 2004 sought to repeal a part of the
Cincinnati city charter that prohibited the city from offering
employment protection to people "because of homosexual, lesbian or bisexual orientation." CCV opposed the repeal, which CCV head Phil Burress described as "anti-religious bias." The repeal passed with
tri-partisan support.
2007 restrictions on strip clubs Approximately 50
strippers, calling themselves Dancers for Democracy, showed up at the
Ohio House of Representatives in 2007 to oppose restrictions on
strip clubs drafted by CCV. Charity Fickisen, a dancer who spoke at a
Columbus news conference, said "This is America, where consenting adults should be able to do what they want, as long as no one is getting hurt." Most dancers are young women with children who use their wages to pay for college, according to Fickisen. The law restricting strips clubs passed in the Ohio legislature, so Ohio strippers canvassed the streets to gather the quarter million signatures needed to put the law on hold and onto the November 2007 ballot. CCV successfully disputed the validity of the signatures Dancers for Democracy had gathered; the
referendum to undo the law did not appear on the ballot. Famous stripper
Stormy Daniels was charged under this law in 2018 because she touched undercover detectives posing as customers.
Recent history In 2015, The
Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) designated CCV as a hate group because of anti-LGBT statements on the CCV website, such as "homosexual behavior is unhealthy and destructive to the individual, to families, and thus to communities and to society as a whole." SPLC defines a hate group as an organization with "beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics." In 2017 the CCV removed the controversial statements from their website and is no longer listed by the SPLC. to declare pornography a public health hazard, saying that "the
#MeToo movement has exposed how dangerous and harmful it is." CCV worked closely with Ohio lawmakers in the creation of Ohio House Bill 290 or the "backpack bill" in which they drafted, edited, and reviewed the law. The bill would allow "families to choose the option for all computed funding amounts associated with students' education to follow them to the public and nonpublic schools they attend." During the 2022 Columbus City Schools teachers strike, CCV placed six billboards highlighting the bill and promote private schools through
school choice programs. The organization also helped to found a "micro-school" in the Hilltop area. The private school in the underserved community, where most students are likely eligible for an income or performance-based voucher, is funded using state education dollars instead of private donations. In 2021, CCV paid $1.25 million for a building on
Broad Street across from the
Ohio Statehouse. Two years later, it purchased the former
Columbus Dispatch building next door for $1.1 million and intended to sell the building it purchased in 2021. The organization plans to use its close proximity to the Ohio Statehouse to influence the state's lawmakers and other initiatives. Also in 2021, CCV president Aaron Baer issued a letter asking lawmakers to oppose the Ohio Fairness Act, which would criminalize discrimination against LGBTQ individuals. FOIA requests show that CCV was consulted by representative
Sarah Fowler Arthur for legislation proposing restrictions on "divisive topics" in classrooms, and corresponded with representative
Jennifer Gross on a bill to restrict
gender affirming care for minors. In 2024, CCV solicited Utah endocrinologist Daniel Weiss to testify in a hearing about
Missouri's ban on gender affirming care for minors and paid costs related to preparing his testimony. Weiss had formerly prescribed hormones to transgender adults and had no clinical experience with minors or puberty blockers. The CCV 2024 Essential Summit featured Ohio officials
Matt Huffman,
David Yost,
Rob McColley, and
Josh Williams, as well as
Ben Carson,
Hillsdale College president
Larry P. Arnn, and
Kevin Roberts, president of
the Heritage Foundation. The summit was advertised as challenging the "myth" of
separation of church and state and preceded the Ohio March for Life. ==Board of directors==