Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:09 pm
If you look at the list of speakers at this year’s Values Voter Summit, to be held September 9-11, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C., you see a list of big names but not much evidence of actual values, unless dishonesty and hypocrisy are values.
It’s quite a list: there are those who say God chose them to be president, like Michele Bachmann; those who leak classified information, like Lt. Gen. William Boykin; heads of hate groups, like Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council; guys who want to marry your 15-year-old daughters, like Phil Robertson; Islamophobes, like Laura Ingraham; anti-gay bigots like the Benham brothers, who lost their show on HGTV on account of their bigotry; and, of course, Donald Trump.
Trump, who claims to be a “friend of LGBT Americans,†is scheduled to speak Saturday. Preceding and following him to the stage will be a whole slate of anti-LGBT bigots. The organizer of the event itself is anti-gay, the Family Research Council. As Miranda Blue points out at Right Wing Watch,
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In 2003, when the Supreme Court was considering the constitutionality of Texas’ ban on “sodomy†in the landmark Lawrence v. Texas case, the FRC filed an amicus brief on behalf of the state. When the court ruled against Texas in the case, the FRC called it “a direct attack on the sanctity of marriage†and the group’s president, Tony Perkins, declared, “What’s at stake here is the very foundation of our society, not only of America but all Western civilization.â€
Another event sponsor is the notorious American Family Association, which hosts Bryan Fischer, who has foamed at the mouth over gays, Muslims, atheists, and pretty much everyone else you care to name who isn’t a “White Christian American.” So the hate here is not only deep, it is broad.
It is difficult to see how Trump, despite possibly being the most gay-friendly of the 16 Republican hopefuls to enter the race, plans to prove his gay-friendly bona fides amid such company at such an event. He can hardly stand up before such a crowd and say, as he has said in the past, “ask the gays.” The gays gave him plenty of unwelcome answers at the time.
Not only does Trump make money off countries with anti-gay laws, but the guy he picked as his VP is the guy who riled up most of the country when he tried to impose an anti-gay religious tyranny on Indiana with his “Religious Freedom Restoration Act,†or RFRA.
Trump depends on the support of the Religious Right. Outside of white supremacists, Evangelicals are the only demographic he can depend on. He has refused to alienate his white supremacist supporters, and Trump knows that for many Evangelicals, he is only the lesser of two evils. If he wants to keep their support, Trump is going to have to be at his anti-gay best at the Values Voter Conference.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
