Representatives Steve King of Iowa and
Michele Bachmann of Minnesota are among the lawmakers backing social
conservative groups recently labeled hate groups.
The Republicans are defending the
groups against claims by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
The SPLC recently added the Family
Research Council (FRC), the American Family Association (AFA) and the
National Organization for Marriage (NOM) to the same list of hate
groups as the Ku Klux Klan, the Nation of Islam and the Aryan Nations
for their opposition to gay rights.
“We, the undersigned, stand in
solidarity with Family Research Council, American Family Association,
Concerned Women of America, National Organization for Marriage,
Liberty Counsel and other pro-family organizations that are working
to protect and promote natural marriage and family,” the
open letter, sponsored by the FRC, reads. “We support the
vigorous but responsible exercise of the First Amendment rights of
free speech and religious liberty that are the birthright of all
Americans.”
The SPLC has “targeted FRC and other
organizations that uphold Judeo-Christian moral views, including
marriage as the union of a man a woman.”
Also signing onto the letter are
Majority Leader-elect Eric Cantor, House Speaker-elect John Boehner,
presidential hopefuls Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee,
Representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio and Louie
Gohmert of Texas, and South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint.
In rejecting the SPLC's label, the
AFA's Bryan Fischer asserted that it's true that “homosexuals
controlled the Nazi Party and helped orchestrate the Holocaust,”
that “homosexuals molest children at far higher rates than
heterosexuals,” that “hate crime laws will lead to the jailing of
pastors who criticize homosexuality and the legalization of practices
like bestiality and necrophilia,” and that being gay is a choice.
In an appearance on Fox &
Friends, Tony Perkins, the president of the FRC, denied he hates
gay people.
“No. Not at all,” Perkins said,
then quickly added that, “homosexual behavior is harmful not only
to society, but more importantly to the individuals who engage in
that behavior.”
NOM President Brian Brown echoed a
similar sentiment: “This is about protecting marriage. This isn't
about being anti-anyone.”
Over the summer, however, Brown refused
to repudiate speakers participating in the group's Summer for
Marriage Tour 2010 who
had described gay people as “perverted,” “diseased and likely
pedophiles.”
“What I believe is that pastors and
religious leaders need to be able to speak up for traditional,
Christian sexual morality,” Brown told Arisha Michelle Hatch, who
was documenting the tour on behalf of gay rights groups the Courage
Campaign and Freedom to Marry. “And they have the right to do
that. They have the obligation to do that.”
On another NOM-hosted bus tour, Iowa
Congressman Steve King equated gay men and lesbians raising kids to
having them being “raised in warehouses.”