Seven GOP candidates – Ron Paul,
Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich
and Rick Santorum – are among those being urged to boycott this
weekend's Values Voter Summit because its sponsors are anti-gay.
“The Family Research Council (FRC)
and the American Family Association (AFA) are among the chief
purveyors of lies about the LGBT community – lies that stoke hate
and violence,” said Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty
Law Center's (SPLC) Intelligence Report. “LGBT people are
now, by far, the group most victimized by violent hate crimes in
America. Public figures should not lend their names to groups that
vilify them.”
The SPLC
publicly called on the candidates to avoid the event in an ad
published Friday in The Washington Post.
Under the headline, “Just whose
values are represented at the Values Voter Summit?,” the AFA is
quoted as saying, “The homosexual agenda represents a clear and
present danger to virtually every fundamental right given to us by
our Creator and enshrined for us in the Constitution,” and,
“Homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler, and homosexuals in the
military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine and six
million dead Jews.” The FRC is quoted as saying, “I think there
would be a place for criminal sanctions against homosexual behavior,”
and, “Every special 'right' or concession we make to the homosexual
community Christians pay for in freedom.”
“Our criticism of these groups has
nothing whatsoever to do with their opposition to same-sex marriage
or their belief that the Bible describes homosexuality as a sin,”
Potok added. “Rather, it's based entirely on their continuing use
of discredited research and outrageous falsehoods to defame the LGBT
community.”
Scheduled to appear at the three-day
event on Friday are Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, former
Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain, former House Speaker Newt
Gingrich, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and Texas
Governor Rick Perry. Texas Rep. Ron Paul is expected to address the
crowd on Saturday.
House Speaker John Boehner and Brian
Brown, the president of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM),
the nation's most vociferous opponent of gay marriage, are also
scheduled to attend the event.