Wisconsin congressman and vice
presidential candidate Paul Ryan is among the Republicans being
called on not to attend the Family Research Council's (FRC) Value Voter
Summit, because the FRC and the American Family Association (AFA), a
co-sponsor of the event, are anti-gay.
In a letter addressed to 15 Republican
elected officials, a coalition of groups states that their presence
at the 3-day conference would “legitimize anti-LGBT extremism.”
“Given the FRC's and AFA's public
statements, we urge you not to lend the prestige of your office to
the summit,” the letter stated.
“The FRC is far outside the
mainstream. It has engaged in repeated, groundless demonization
portraying LGBT people as sick, vile, incestuous, violent, perverted
and a danger to the nation. One of its officials has gone so far as
to say that homosexuals should be criminalized.”
“The FRC's extremism is vividly
illustrated by the fact that it has invited the American Family
Association (AFA) to co-sponsor the Summit at which you have been
invited to speak. Here is what Bryan Fischer, the AFA's Director of
Issue Analysis, wrote in 2010: 'Homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler
and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi
war machine and 6 million dead Jews.'”
The letter was sent to Governors Jan
Brewer of Arizona and Bob McDonnell of Virginia, Virginia Attorney
General Ken Cuccinelli, Senators Jim DeMint, Marco Rubio and Rand
Paul, and Representatives Michele Bachmann, Eric Cantor, Jeff
Fortenberry, Tim Huelskamp, Jim Jordan, Steve King, Jim Lankford,
Paul Ryan and Allen West.
Signers
to the letter include the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC),
People for the American Way Foundation (PFAWF), the Human Rights
Campaign Foundation (HRCF), the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation (GLAAD), the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), the
National Council of La Raza (NCLR) and Faithful America.
Richard Cohen, president of the
Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement: “Our message is a
simple one. Pubic officials should not lend the prestige of their
office to groups that spread demeaning and false propaganda about
other people.”