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Peter J. LaBarbera
Executive Director, Illinois Family Institute

Peter LaBarbera, 43, was born in Chicago and lived in Elmhurst until he
was 7 and then Winfield (near Wheaton) until he was 14, when the family
moved to Michigan.

LaBarbera returned to Illinois from Washington, D.C., in September 2003,
after 18 years as a reporter and commentator on issues ranging from
communism in Central America to the growing controversy over "gay
marriage." After beginning his writing career with Reed Irvine's media
watchdog group Accuracy in Media, he worked for two years as a reporter
for The Washington Times, covering the Congressional debate surrounding
communism in Central America that was a key part of the Reagan foreign
policy.

After returning from a freelance stint in Central America covering
Nicaragua's landmark election that rejected Sandinista communism,
LaBarbera returned to Washington, D.C., and founded The Lambda Report
and Americans for Truth, which focused a critical eye on the homosexual
activist agenda. He moved to the Family Research Council, a leading
pro-family think tank, where he served as a policy analyst on
homosexuality and gender issues while editing FRC's popular weekly
publication, CultureFacts. He held similar positions working with Robert
Knight at the Culture and Family Institute of Concerned Women for
America and became a leading national voice critical of homosexual
activism before joining IFI.

Since taking the lead position at IFI, Peter has been a leading voice
for protecting marriage in Illinois from being redefined by homosexual
activists, appearing on major TV and radio news programs and in
newspapers across the state.

He graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in Political
Science in 1985, and lives in Chicago's western suburbs with his wife
Cristina and their five children.