Nick Freitas encourages young men at Young Leaders Summit: Don’t let culture ‘silence you’

Nick Freitas — a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, a Green Beret combat veteran, and a public speaker — took the stage at Live Action’s 2025 Young Leaders Summit on March 22, 2025, speaking directly to the men in attendance about what kind of men our current culture needs.

Freitas spoke about the fact that many men today feel as if they have no say in abortion, because society has told them for so long that it is a “women’s issue” and because pregnancy affects “her body,” abortion has nothing to do with them.

“I think there’s a lot of young men right now that feel like they’ve been getting a lot of mixed signals on… the role they’re supposed to play,” he said. “Nowhere has that been more apparent than on the issue of abortion, because you were repeatedly told to sit down and shut up, you were repeatedly told that it’s not your issue… that you’re not the one getting pregnant.”

What Type of Men Our Culture Needs: Nick Freitas at Young Leaders Summit

Freitas said that modern feminism has told women that in order to make an impact on the world, they must erase all that is special about femininity and womanhood — especially motherhood. Men, meanwhile, are vilified for doing the very same things that women are trying to accomplish — like working long hours at a career or eschewing parenthood.

As a result, society has come to characterize men as weak and powerless.

In response, Freitas told the men:

Stop listening to what the current society and culture is telling you they want out of you, because what they want out of you is to destroy you.

The reason why they tell you to be quiet on this issue among so many others, the reason they want you to be guilty for oppressions or atrocities you never participated in because you weren’t even born yet, is because they want to silence you.

They don’t want to do that because you’re weak; they want to do that because you’re strong and powerful.

He called on men to step into their natural roles as leaders and protectors — roles he said are crucial to strong family life.

Finally, he called on men to hold on to faith and root their lives and their marriages in God. In doing that, they’ll feel their God-given purpose and work hard to fight for the good of their family.

“The moment you come in contact with a man that has fully embraced all the duties and responsibilities that God has given him as a husband and father, and they’ve looked at that as a never-ending journey on their life — anytime they start to feel tired or they start to feel weak, they remember that God has given them a wife to protect and provide for and children to to raise,” he explained. “The man of God continues on because he understands in whose service he is working.”