Austin Ruse is an American conservative political activist, journalist and author. He is the president of a nonprofit NGO, Center for Family and Human Rights (C-FAM), which has been listed as an anti-LGBT hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Through C-FAM and his own writings, Ruse advocates anti-LGBT and anti-abortion conservative positions, and has advocated for the criminalization of homosexuality. Career Ruse received a Bachelor of Journalism degree and a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Missouri, and received an honorary doctorate from the Franciscan University of Steubenville. Having been involved in the establishment of the C-FAM, Ruse has headed this organization since the summer of 1997, holding the title of President since 2000. Around the turn of the millennium, he also was a diplomatic attaché of the Permanent Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations. In July 2013, Ruse was identified as a convener of a Groundswell coalition meeting among conservative activists and journalists. In 2017 Ruse published the book Littlest Suffering Souls: Children Whose Short Lives Point Us to Christ, which profiles three devoutly religious children who died after extended periods of illness. Ruse's second book, Fake Science: Exposing the Left's Skewed Statistics, Fuzzy Facts, and Dodgy Data was also published in 2017. Ruse's third book --- The Catholic Case for Trump --- was published by Regnery Publishers just prior to the 2020 United States presidential election. Ruse was a regular contributor to the media outlet Breitbart and was instrumental in encouraging Steve Bannon to get involved with Vatican reporting, which paved the way for the establishment of Breitbart's Rome bureau. Moreover, Ruse has published in First Things, The Washington Times, National Review Online, The Weekly Standard, Human Events as well as Touchstone (magazine), and has been a columnist for The Catholic Thing (biweekly) and Crisis Magazine. Awards and honors In 2004, Ruse and his wife were awarded the John Paul II Award for Advancing the culture of life from the Institute for the Psychological Sciences. Ruse became a Knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta as well as a Knight of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. Views and controversies Anti-left views Ruse stated that the "hard left, human-hating people that run modern universities... should all be taken out and shot" while hosting a radio talk show on American Family Radio in March 2014. Monsignor Anthony Frontiero,