澳彩开奖

Starting today, a number of prominent public figures will be attending and speaking at the Values Voter Summit, an annual gathering of socially conservative activists in Washington. But just what kind of values are they promoting?

The summit is hosted by the (FRC) and co-hosted by the (AFA) 鈥揼roups that regularly spew about the LGBT community.

They both say for example, that gay men molest children at far higher rates than their heterosexual counterparts 鈥� a claim that has been debunked by virtually all the recognized scientific authorities in the field, including the American Psychological Association.

The FRC has said that gay activists 鈥渨ork to normalize sex with boys,鈥� seek to 鈥渁bolish all age of consent laws and to eventually recognize pedophiles as the 鈥榩rophets鈥� of a new sexual order,鈥� and support anti-bullying programs in order to promote homosexuality.

The AFA has declared that 鈥渉omosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler 鈥� the Nazi war machine and six million dead Jews,鈥� suggested that gay sex be punished like heroin use, and said that the 鈥渉omosexual agenda鈥� endangers 鈥渆very fundamental right鈥� in the Constitution, including religious freedom.

Both groups have enthusiastically promoted 鈥渞eparative therapy,鈥� the widely discredited idea that gay men and lesbians can be 鈥渃ured鈥� of their sexual orientation.

To call attention to the bigotry of these groups, we held a press conference today at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, the site of the conference, and also placed an ad in The Washington Post.

The FRC and the AFA, with a combined budget of more than $30 million, have a loud megaphone and are among the most politically powerful groups on the religious right. The AFA, in fact, has a network of 200 radio stations.

In addition to regularly defaming LGBT people, AFA spokesman and radio host Bryan Fischer has said that President Obama 鈥渘urtures a hatred for the white man,鈥� said that non-Christian religions 鈥渉ave no First Amendment rights to the free exercise of religion, claimed that the 鈥渟exual immorality of Native Americans鈥� was part of what made them 鈥渕orally disqualified from sovereign control of American soil,鈥� and suggested that the best way to deal with promiscuity would be to kill the promiscuous. His bigotry apparently knows no bounds.

The damage these groups do with their anti-LGBT hate speech is incalculable. While the FRC and the AFA would certainly deny it, it seems obvious that their regular demonizing of members of the LGBT community as child molesters and the like creates an atmosphere where violence is all but inevitable.

And that violence is dramatic. A by the 澳彩开奖 found, based on an analysis of 14 years of FBI hate crime data, that LGBT people were by far the American minority most victimized by such crimes. They were more than twice as likely to be attacked in a violent hate crime as Jews or black people and more than four times as likely as Muslims. And that doesn鈥檛 include the anti-gay bullying that has resulted in so many teen suicides.

Last year, the 澳彩开奖 began listing the FRC and the AFA as hate groups. The listings, as was said at the time, were based on the groups鈥� use of known falsehoods to attack and demonize members of the LGBT community 鈥� not, as some have gratuitously claimed, because the groups are Christian, or because they oppose same-sex marriage, or because they believe the Bible describes homosexuality as a sin.

Many thoughtful Christian commentators have said as much. a respected professor and past president of the American Mental Health Counselors Association, last year that 鈥渢he newly labeled hate groups鈥� were seeking to

鈥渁void addressing the issues the 澳彩开奖 raised, instead preferring to attack the credibility of the 澳彩开奖.鈥� After reviewing an 澳彩开奖 list of myths propagated by anti-gay, religious-right groups, he said many are 鈥減rovably false鈥� and 鈥渞ooted in ignorance.鈥�

The 澳彩开奖鈥檚 criticisms, Throckmorton concluded, are 鈥渓egitimate and have damaged the credibility of the groups on the list. Going forward, I hope Christians don鈥檛 rally around these groups but rather call them to accountability.鈥�

We hope public figures will do the same.