Trump to attend anti-queer rally in Orlando

Yes, our potential next president is attending an anti-queer rally in the same city that our community was targeted and massacred in the deadliest mass shooting in American History.

Yes, you should be very angry about this.

Donald Trump has accepted an invitation to attend “Rediscovering God in America Renewal Project”; a vehemently anti-LGBT conference in Orlando on August 11th and 12th just down the street from Pulse Nightclub.

“In attending this vehemently anti-LGBT event, Trump continues to show he is truly a danger to the LGBT community,” said Eliel Cruz, Executive Director of Faith In America.

“He isn’t savvy enough to understand how he’s being manipulated by the organizers of this conference. It is reported organizers of the event want to ask Trump about how he plans to combat ‘homosexual totalitarianism.’ Trump will probably nod his head and say ‘yes’ to any anti-LGBT requests made at the conference as his campaign is driven by his ego and he’ll do anything, including courting the most anti-LGBT voices, to become president.”

He’s not the only politician attending the bigoted event, as Marco Rubio will join him at the rally. Neither of which are aliens to courting anti-queer Evangelicals. Trump invited hundreds of anti-LGBT evangelicals to Trump Towers in New York City earlier this summer. In doing this, Trump and Rubio are fighting to grab votes from anti-queer leaders and their followers.

“The event ‘Rediscovering God in America Renewal Project’ is a who’s who some of the country’s most harmful anti-LGBT persons,” said Eliel Cruz. “It’s incredulous a Senator of United States is willing to collude with individuals who are dedicated to oppressing LGBT people. The beliefs shared by this group actively harm LGBT people. This is not the America we want. God will not be found anywhere near that event.”

The event is held by the American Renewal Project, which aims to “mobilize conservative Christian viewers and inspire right-wing pastors to run for elected office.”

According to an invitation posted by the group Liberty Counsel Action, the speakers will also include:

• Mat Staver, whose Liberty Counsel Action sent out the invitation to the event and who is scheduled to speak, has gained a national reputation by representing Davis and Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore through the affiliated Liberty Counsel. Last month, Staver denounced memorial gatherings for the victims of the Orlando nightclub attack as “homosexual love fests.” Staver has claimed that gay people are “demonic,” seek to abuse children and are similar to terrorists, and has warned that gay rights victories could lead to “forced homosexuality” and “another civil war.” At the same time, he has praised countries that outlaw same-sex relationships.
• David Barton, a Republican Party activist who styles himself as a historian, thinks that God is justly preventing a cure for HIV/AIDS because it is a divine “penalty” for homosexuality, and has lamented that public schools try to “force” students “to be homosexual” when homosexuality really should be regulated by the government.
• Maine pastor Ken Graves preaches against “militant homofascism” that he says “seeks to take over our land and make it Sodom” and argues that gay people cannot build happy families because they are “depressed.”
  Bill Federer, a Religious Right activist and conspiracy theorist, believes that gay rights are bringing about the Islamist takeover of America.

So Trump, tell us how you’re a ‘champion’ for queer rights again …