A number of public figures vocally
opposed to LGBT rights were among President Donald Trump's guests at
a White House dinner for 100 evangelical leaders.
One person who attended Thursday's
dinner told Religious News Service that the administration
hosted the dinner to honor “all the good work” evangelicals do.
During the celebration, Trump called
America “a nation of believers.”
“As you know, in recent years the
government tried to undermine religious freedom, but the attacks on
communities of faith are over,” Trump
said. “We've ended it. We've ended it. Unlike some before
us, we are protecting your religious liberty.”
The president called on the
evangelicals to “make sure all of your people vote” in the
midterms, claiming that “[Democrats] will overturn everything that
we've done and they'll do it quickly and violently.”
Other administration officials who
attended the event included Vice President Mike Pence, Ivanka Trump
and Jared Kushner.
Evangelical leaders with an anti-LGBT
history who attended the dinner included Franklin Graham, Jim Garlow,
Tony Perkins and Robert Jeffress.
Jeffress, a pastor at First Baptist
Church in Dallas and a Fox News contributor, has said that gay
people are “engaged in the most detestable, unclean, abominable
acts you can imagine.”
(Related: Robert
Jeffress compares gay sex to plugging a TV into the wrong outlet.)
Perkins is the president of the social
conservative Family Research Council (FRC), which has been labeled a
“hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) over its
anti-LGBT rhetoric.
Garlow, who heads the Skyline Wesleyan
Church in La Mesa, California, has described marriage equality as the
“creation of Satan.”
(Related: Jim
Garlow: Like slavery, it may take century to end gay marriage.)
Graham, son of the late televangelist
Billy Graham, has claimed that marriage equality will lead to the
persecution of Christians and bring God's judgment.
(Related: Franklin
Graham prepared to have his head “chopped off” for opposing gay
rights.)
Jeffress told Fox News that the
event “almost turned into a campaign rally,” with evangelicals
praising the president.
Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of
GLAAD, commented in a statement: “Last night President Trump, Vice
President Pence, and others in the Administration surrounded
themselves with anti-LGBTQ activists who have equated marriage
equality with genocide, likened being gay to some of the most
reprehensible behaviors, and suggested that transgender people should
be shot in public restrooms. The President and Administration’s
practice of bringing fringe groups united around hatred towards LGBTQ
Americans through the White House gates cannot go unnoticed and must
be called out and checked.”