Before anti-woke crusader Chris Rufo became a right-wing influencer and leading force driving moral panic around sex education and LGBTQ curriculum in our nation’s schools, his now-defunct nonprofit created a course that assisted students in making films about affirming and supporting gay youth and going through pregnancy in high school. A review of the student films reveal Rufo’s organization was involved in helping students produce the type of content that he now seeks to ban from schools, and he charged them hundreds of dollars for his services.

From 2009 to 2011, Rufo’s nonprofit Documentary Foundation ran a program called Doc School, a “community outreach and education initiative” intended to teach students how to make films on “important local topics” and gain skills necessary for “activism in the community.” (Rufo reportedly closed the foundation last year but not before he funneled at least $1.3 million in dark money to a new right-wing media nonprofit whose stated goal was to reveal “the implications of a far-left ideological takeover.”)

Media Matters reviewed student films posted to Doc School’s apparent Vimeo account — which bears the program’s name, location, and a link to Documentary Foundation’s now-defunct website — and tax filings for his organization, which show Rufo’s nonprofit earned more than $23,000 from the program in its first year.

Doc School student films celebrate gay youth and pregnant teens overcoming adversity

Before Rufo helped influence a Florida law that bars discussion of LGBTQ identity in schools, he and his collaborator Keith Ochwat assisted high school students in making a number of short documentaries highlighting the sorts of experiences Rufo fearmongers about today.

Gay Youth tells the story of a 17-year-old who discovered his sexuality in sixth grade and was removed from school by his parents after he came out. The short ends with an uplifting and affirming message describing how finally being able to come out gave him newfound confidence. 

The filmmakers thanked Rufo by name in the credits.

Other films feature underage high schoolers’ descriptions of their experience with sex and pregnancy, as well as sexually explicit descriptions of hazing.

Are You Ready? — A film about Teen Pregnancy features a 17-year-old girl recounting the difficulties of going through pregnancy as a high schooler. The film features discussion of both drug use and considerations about when to first have sex. A copy of the film found on YouTube lists both Doc School and Documentary Foundation as sponsors in the credits. 

Another film, Hazing High, features high schoolers recounting their experiences with hazing, including being stripped and forced to consume bodily fluids. 

In 2009, Rufo’s nonprofit earned nearly a quarter of its annual income — more than $23,000 — from Doc School

Rufo founded Documentary Foundation in 2007,  billing it as an organization “dedicated to the production and support of documentary films.” Along with production and “community outreach,” the nonprofit also claimed its mission included “youth education.”

Youth education took the form of Doc School, which launched in 2009 in partnership with a Northern California PBS affiliate. A flier describing the course listed Rufo and Ochwat as instructors and filmmakers who “enjoy sharing their filmmaking experience with our communityʼs next generation of filmmakers.” Documentary Foundation described Doc School as an “integral part of the Foundationʼs community outreach and education initiative.”

For $390, local high school students met with Rufo and Ochwat every Saturday for two months to make their own documentary shorts. Students were instructed to pay their tuition directly to Rufo’s nonprofit. After the instruction and films were completed, the films were screened at a “Doc School Film Festival.” 

According to Documentary Foundation’s 990 form from 2009, Doc School netted the foundation more than $23,000, nearly a quarter of its total revenue for the year. The organization said the program would be offered biannually going forward, and it lasted until 2011, per tax filings.

Rufo went from empowering gay youth to deploying culture warriors against them

Today Rufo endorses a completely different view of how students and teachers should express themselves.

He now insists that K-12 schools are weaponizing “principles of academic queer theory,” which he alleges teachers have translated into “K-12 pedagogy,” and he worked to pass Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, which prohibits K-12 educators  from discussing gender identity, sexual orientation, or reproductive health with students. 

Rufo’s crusade has similarly inspired conservative parents and groups to harass and take over local school boards based on the perception that public schools are implementing “woke” curricula and policies. 

When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Rufo to the board of trustees of New College of Florida, a public liberal arts college in Sarasota, Rufo pushed to abolish gender studies programs at the school, claiming that “gender studies and queer theory” were “explicitly opposed to the classical conceptions of the true, the good, and the beautiful.”

Rufo recently announced he would be leading a new program to fund the projects of aspiring culture warriors who seek to advance the right’s war on “gender ideology” and issues like “critical race theory” to reshape public policy. Rufo again promised to teach his students important skills for activism. This time around, though, he will be paying them.