Louisiana Family Forum held its annual legislative awards ceremony Thursday to honor Louisiana’s lawmakers in a unique form under COVID-19 restrictions. 

The event which usually hosts 1,500-2,000 was reduced to approximately 250 attendees, over 40 of whom were legislators. LFF held discussions with the venue, Healing Place Church, as well as local government officials to gain approval for the event.   

“We bring together the faith world with the political world, and this event gives us the opportunity to honor the legislators in a way they haven’t been honored before and that no one else does for them,” said Arabelle Adams, administrative assistant for LFF. 

Rep. Rick Edmonds commenced the event by identifying LFF as “one of the premier family organizations in America,” and describing the event as a night of hope.  

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum spoke to the attendees via a prerecorded message in which he voiced his support for paid parental leave.  

“This is a critical area that so many of our pro-family and pro-life organization forget about,” Santorum said. “We focus on life and we focus on the importance of marriage in the family, but we don’t do concrete things to actually help nurture those families, to actually support them in their time of need and create an environment where families can thrive.” 

Santorum serves on the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Task Force on Paid Family Leave to promote an actionable, fiscally responsible policy for America’s families.  

Edmonds led a panel discussion with Rep. Beau Beaullieu, Sen. Beth Mizell and Daniel Erspamer, CEO of the Pelican Institute. They discussed the importance of the state’s constitutional Amendment 4, up for vote on Nov. 3. The amendment, if passed, will change the state’s expenditures limit to promote economic growth. 

“I want everyone to remember three words: stability, predictability and job growth,” Erspamer said. “We’ve lived through the ups and downs of fiscal cliffs and what we need to do is smooth that out and have more predictability in the budget process.”  

Erspamer said this amendment means more money in the taxpayer’s wallet as well as increased job growth around the state.  

“You know what’s scary about this? It makes sense,” Edmonds said.   

The panel also discussed Amendment 1 which is up for vote on Nov. 3. This amendment would alter the state’s constitution to discontinue the right of abortion and abortion funding within Louisiana.  

“Your voice is tremendously important,” Mizell said. 

Following the panel, Gene Mills, president of LFF, gave the keynote address. He defined the main principles of the organization and the policy steps they plan to pursue in the coming year.  

“We believe every resident in Louisiana should be free to live and work in accordance with their core convictions without fear of state interference,” Mills said. “We believe churches should be free to operate according to their doctrines without state permission or involvement. We believe history should never be politicized or rewritten by a disgruntled group of advocates. We believe the Supreme Court’s misguided opinions on life, marriage and gender have not ended those debates.” 

Mills also defended election integrity, parental rights in education, funding for Louisiana infrastructure and the use of taxpayer dollars.  

Following the address, a video entitled “The Louisiana Blessing” was debuted. It featured singers from around the state coming together virtually to sing the song “The Blessing” by Elevation Worship, interspersed with scenes highlighting Louisiana’s rich culture. The video can be streamed at thelouisianablessing.com.