According to news reports today, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump will be attending an American Renewal Project event along with Sen. Marco Rubio later this week in Orlando, scheduled to take place exactly two months after the horrific Pulse nightclub shooting. The event includes some of the most extreme anti-gay activists in the country and is organized by an activist who has said that God would punish the country with “car bombs in Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Des Moines” for the LGBT-inclusive program at President Obama’s inauguration.
People For the American Way president Michael Keegan released the following statement:
“That the GOP standard bearer is choosing to rub shoulders with some of the most extreme anti-gay voices in the country speaks volumes about the Republican party today. These are people who revile gay people, calling them ‘demonic,’ and who claim that LGBT rights will lead to the ‘utter destruction’ of our country. But the GOP presidential candidate seemingly has no qualms about casting his lot with these dangerous anti-gay voices.”
People For the American Way’s Right Wing Watch was the first to report that Sen. Rubio is scheduled to speak at the Orlando event. You can read Right Wing Watch’s latest report on the event, including examples of the participants’ anti-LGBT records, here.
People For the American Way is a progressive advocacy organization founded to fight right-wing extremism and defend constitutional values including free expression, religious liberty, equal justice under the law, and the right to meaningfully participate in our democracy.
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