Founding FRI (known then as ISIS) was founded in 1982 in
Lincoln, Nebraska, by psychologist
Paul Cameron. Cameron was vehemently opposed to legal protections for gay people, and presented his opposition as grounded in his psychological research. The opposition organization he formed was successful not only in defeating the proposed law, but in quickly becoming a major part of the nationwide anti-LGBT movement.
AIDS epidemic Sociologist
Sara Diamond of
UC Berkeley states that the
AIDS epidemic gave FRI a chance to oppose gay rights using "fear-mongering pseudoscience" before accurate scientific understanding of AIDS could be communicated to the public. Among other proposals, FRI advocated limiting AIDS by imprisoning "sexually active homosexuals" in
concentration camps. In 1986, the
American Sociological Association (ASA) passed a resolution condemning Cameron for "consistent misrepresentation of sociological research" based on a report from the ASA's Committee on the Status of Homosexuals in Sociology, which summarized Cameron's inflammatory statements and commented, "It does not take great analytical abilities to suspect from even a cursory review of Cameron's writings that his claims have almost nothing to do with social science and that social science is used only to cover over another agenda. Very little of his work could find support from even a bad misreading of genuine social science investigation on the subject and some sociologists, such as Alan Bell, have been 'appalled' at the abuse of their work." In 1996, the board of directors of the
Canadian Psychological Association approved a position statement disassociating the organization from Cameron's work on sexuality, stating that he had "consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism". Herek and others have also said that the FRI's research has been published in
Psychological Reports. The
Boston Globe says that the small journal charges authors to publish their studies, and that it has a non-standard peer-reviewing policy. Herek says that it has a "low rejection rate" and that Cameron's research "would have been rejected by more prestigious scientific journals"
Decline The
Christian right began to distance itself from FRI and Cameron in the mid-1990s. His acrimonious attacks on gays and lesbians were backfiring, according to journalist
Wayne Besen; his attacks were responsible for a growing impression that Christianity was intolerant, and his claims appeared further removed from the truth as public understanding of AIDS grew.
Focus on the Family denounced FRI, and moved on to associate itself with other pseudoscientific claims, such as
conversion therapy, instead. However, FRI's claims are still cited in politics as of 2020. ==Hate group designation==