Conservative celebrities Ann Coulter
and Glenn Beck are being called “deserters” for their lukewarm
support of gay rights.
Bryan Fischer, director of issue
analysis at the Christian conservative group American Family
Association (AFA), made the case after Coulter accepted an invitation
to speak at next month's Homocon 2010, the first annual
convention of gay conservatives sponsored by gay GOP group GOProud,
and Beck suggested he's OK with gay marriage.
“Count Ann Coulter and Glenn Beck as
the latest deserters in the culture war and in the battle for sexual
normalcy,” Fischer wrote at the group's website. “They have
flinched at 'precisely that little point which the world and the
devil … are attacking,' and so have forfeited the right to consider
themselves any longer culture warriors.”
Neither, however, have exactly endorsed
gay rights.
Appearing on Fox News' the O'Reilly
Factor, Beck said he didn't cover the “culture warrior stuff”
on his radio and TV programs because he felt conservatives have
“bigger fish to fry” and added that the government has nothing to
do with marriage. “That is a religious right,” he argued, adding
that he would get more involved in opposing gay marriage if it
stifled a church's right to free speech.
Coulter's move has already cost her a
speaking gig at World Net Daily's (WND) Taking America Back
National Conference scheduled to take place next month in Miami.
Joseph Farah, editor and CEO of WND,
announced last week that he had rescinded her invitation to speak at
the conference.
“Ultimately, as a matter of
principle, it would not make sense for us to have Ann speak to a
conference about 'taking America back' when she clearly does not
recognize that the ideals to be espoused there simply do not include
the radical and very 'unconservative' agenda represented by GOProud,”
Farah said.
Coulter has defended her right to speak
at Homocon 2010, arguing that “giving a speech is not an
endorsement of every position held by the people I'm speaking to.”
In an appearance on Fox News' Red
Eye, she took it a step further, calling Farah a “publicity
whore” and referring to WND as “fake Christians.”
“These are fake Christians trying to
get publicity,” she said.
Coulter is a syndicated columnist and
author of numerous anti-liberal books, including How to Talk to a
Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter.
Homocon 2010 will take place on
September 25 in New York City.