A Former Liberal, State Native To Head Campaign Against Same-Sex Marriage

By DANIELA ALTIMARI

Courant Staff Writer

July 26, 2007

His grandfather was a New Deal Democrat who idolized FDR and his great-uncle was a New York intellectual who moved in radical Socialist circles. In high school, he marched to protest the arms race and in college, he was president of the campus Democrats - a high point was meeting Bill and Hillary Clinton.

But in law school, Peter Wolfgang's world view shifted. He began reading conservative writers, his connection to Catholicism deepened and he grew increasingly disillusioned with the pro-choice philosophy of his liberal friends.

The spiritual and political journey Wolfgang set off on a decade ago has brought him to the top of one of the state's most prominent conservative groups. This month, he took over as executive director of the Family Institute of Connecticut, which is leading the charge against same-sex marriage in the state.

Wolfgang's steady voice and earnest, scholarly demeanor are markedly different from the in-your-face style of his predecessor, Brian Brown, who has been the group's public face since 2001.

Brown, who hails from Orange County, California, predicted that Wolfgang's Connecticut roots will serve him well in the land of steady habits.

"Peter has connections around the state," said Brown, who is leaving to take charge of a new group dedicated to fighting same-sex marriage at the national level. "He's very much a go-getter and he's in this for the fight."

Wolfgang, 37, is the son of a Catholic woman of Portuguese heritage and a secular Jew from Hartford's North End. A native of Manchester who graduated from American University and the University of Connecticut Law School, he now lives in Waterbury with his wife, Leslie, and their four children.

After reading a newspaper column six years ago about the family institute, Wolfgang e-mailed Brown. He was a stay-at-home dad at the time and wanted to get involved.

Soon, he was hired as the institute's public policy director. His wife quit her job and began home-schooling the children.

"I had just been through this intellectual journey and I wanted to do what I could for the conservative cause in Connecticut," Wolfgang recalled. "I knew it would be an uphill battle."

Wolfgang was a frequent visitor to the state Capitol.

He lobbied in favor of one bill that would have required parents to be notified if their underage daughter seeks an abortion and another that would have established an electronic registry to keep sex offenders off the Internet.

But it is same-sex marriage - what he calls the family institute's "signature issue" - that has consumed most of his attention.

This being Connecticut, it has at times been a lonely crusade, despite the large crowds and diverse base of support he has helped to assemble.

The family institute lost a major battle in spring 2005, when the legislature passed, and Gov. M. Jodi Rell signed, a bill legalizing civil unions in the state.

This year, a same-sex marriage measure made it through the judiciary committee, but did not come up for a vote in the House and Senate after supporters concluded it probably wouldn't pass this year. However, they vow to try again.

"There is this real sense of a state government that has somehow lost its moorings, that it doesn't represent the people," he said.

He says he is gratified by the scores of people who have called and written.

"We get calls all the time: `Thank God you're out there,"' he said.

The courts may decide the matter: Eight gay and lesbian couples have filed a lawsuit seeking the right to marry. The case is pending before the state Supreme Court.

Whether it is attained through the courts or the legislature, supporters say same-sex marriage is inevitable. They cite polls that show most young people favor permitting gays and lesbians to marry.

Wolfgang disputes that view. "I would offer myself as Exhibit A," he said. "If you had asked me 15 years ago if I was in favor of same-sex marriage, I would have answered yes. But you grow, you mature, you have life experience that gives you perspective."

In coming months, he intends to start a youth wing to promote conservative activism.

He also intends to broaden the group's focus on other issues, such as promoting fatherhood and protecting parents' rights to home-school their children, though fighting same-sex marriage remains the main mission. (Anne Stanback, who leads the gay rights coalition Love Makes a Family, declined to comment on the leadership change at the family institute.)

Wolfgang draws enormous strength from his religion. He grew up "an Easter-and-Christmas Catholic" but that changed when he was attending law school.

Leslie Wolfgang, a former atheist, was converting to Catholicism, and her experience led him to embrace a more conservative form of the faith.

He recently moved into Brown's office, located in the institute's Buckingham Street headquarters.

The room is mostly bare: Brightly colored crayon drawings created by his children adorn one wall. A print of George Washington, kneeling in prayer before his horse in the snows of Valley Forge, hangs on another.

The scene depicted in the painting probably never happened, Wolfgang said. But he likes it anyway.

"It shows Washington recognizing a higher power," he said. "It captures the proper balance of faith and politics."

Contact Daniela Altimari at altimari@courant.com

Copyright © 2007, The Hartford Courant. Reprinted with permission.