A prominent grassroots parental rights organization in Fairbanks won’t have even a single-day booth at the Tanana Valley State Fair after the left-leaning board of directors rejected an application, while refusing to offer reasons for the denial.

The Fairbanks chapter of Moms for Liberty applied for a one-day booth at Alaska’s oldest fair to share their mission of empowering mothers and fathers to exercise and defend parental rights in schools, libraries and other areas of society.

Gail McBride, chair of the Moms For Liberty Fairbanks chapter, said she attended a recent Tanana Fair Board meeting to correct misinformation about Moms For Liberty, which is a nationwide organization that defends the right of parents to direct the education and upbringing of their children. The organization has made national news for campaigning against school curricula and policies that promote critical race theory, LGBTQ ideology and sexually explicit library books.

After McBride spoke at the April 15 board meeting, former Tanana Fair employee David Leslie addressed the fair board, claiming that Moms For Liberty is an “anti-government, extremist hate group,” as designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“They target LGBT people specifically,” Leslie claimed. “This is extremely dangerous.”

Leslie, who served as the fair’s executive assistant until last year, identifies online  as a queer “dancer, actor, choreographer, fire spinner, filmmaker, burlesquer, writer and anti-fascist activist.” His Facebook page includes photos of him dancing on stage in little more than a thong.

He was also one of the main advocates for a proposed controversial LGBTQ drag show performance that the fair abruptly cancelled last summer after widespread community pushback.

Leslie, who remains highly involved with the fair as a member of the larger fair association, used his recent testimony to criticize the fair board for cancelling the 2025 drag performance, and urged current board members to bar anyone associated with Moms For Liberty from ever running for a seat on the fair board.

“Because hate groups are dangerous,” Leslie said. “People die because of hate. People kill themselves.”

A few days after Leslie’s testimony, the board blocked Moms For Liberty from having a one-day table at this year’s fair.

“It was pretty interesting,” Moms For Liberty Chair McBride said. “The community needs to know it’s another one of these attempts to cancel conservatives by screaming loudly.”

“We had hoped to share this vision with our community and we were surprised to have been rejected an opportunity to do so,” she wrote. “This position does not represent our community.”

She noted that Leslie cited the controversial Southern Poverty Law Center in asserting that Moms For Liberty is a “hate group.” The U.S. Department of Justice recently announced that a federal grand jury indicted SPLC on 11 counts of fraud, false statements to banks and conspiracy to commit money laundering. 

“I think it’s pretty interesting that the SPLC is under incitement and in all the news, and that’s really the only resource they have to substantiate their claims about us,” McBride said.

In rejecting the Moms For Liberty booth, the fair issued a short email saying, “Application reviewed – does not meet current guidelines – participation declined.”

No other reasons were given.

“Since there is nothing in their online policy guidelines that we believe would apply to our mission, we believe this is a result of a [fair association] member’s rant about Moms for Liberty on SPLC’s hate map,” McBride told the Alaska Watchman. “We believe this is discrimination by a small group having influence in our fair.”

McBride responded to the application denial with a June 25 letter to the fair board, explaining her group’s mission.

“We had hoped to share this vision with our community and we were surprised to have been rejected an opportunity to do so,” she wrote. “This position does not represent our community.”

Across the country, Moms For Liberty is widely respected by mainstream conservative groups.

Earlier this month, a number of Alaska political candidates met with McBride at a June 21 event hosted by the Republican Women of Fairbanks and signed a Moms For Liberty pledge, vowing to defend parental rights. Those who signed the pledge included gubernatorial candidates Shelley Hughes, Bernadette Wilson and Adam Crum, along with Congressman Nick Begich and Lt. Gov. candidate Josh Church.

The Tanana Fair board, however, is dominated by members who are aligned with hard-leftist political and cultural agendas.

Shortly after cancelling last year’s drag show, left-wing activists flooded the membership rolls and successfully voted in five new faces to the nine-member Tanana Fair Board, many of whom are now intent on reviving the quest to introduce leftist causes into the 102-year-old fair.

Historically, however, the popular annual gathering has been focused on family-friendly entertainment like livestock, games, rides, an amusement park, horse shows, art and crafts, competitive exhibits, quilt shows, giant cabbages, contests and music.

TAKING ACTION

— Voting members of the Tanana Valley State Fair Association are authorized to select new board members to serve on the governing board. Members can also run for the board. In order to be a voting member, you must be at least 18 years of age and live within a 150-mile radius of Tanana Valley State Fair Grounds. Membership is good for one calendar year, starting January 1 and ending December 31. To be a voting member for the upcoming 2026 election, one’s membership must have been renewed before February 23, 2026. Click here for more information.

— To contact the fair’s board of directors, click here.

— To learn more about local Alaska chapters of Moms For Liberty, click here.

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