Santorum Nabs Endorsement Of Leader Of Anti-Gay Iowa Family Leader

Rick Santorum has nabbed the endorsement of the uber-anti-gay leader of the uber anti-gay Family Leader, Bob Vander Plaats. Vander Plaats issued the endorsement, but not as the CEO of The Family Leader, as their board wanted to remain neutral. Santorum has built his career attacking gays and claiming his religion allows him to do so.

WATCH: Conservative Marriage Vow’s Vander Plaats Loves A Good Fag Joke

The Family Leader, under Vander Plaats, was the first organization to issue a “marriage vow,” which most of the current GOP candidates now have signed or have stated they support. NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, also issued a marriage pledge.

Brian Tashman at Right Wing Watch today reported:

Bob Vander Plaats of The Family Leader, who led Mike Huckabee’s victorious Iowa campaign in 2008,endorsed Rick Santorum for president today. Chuck Hurley of the Iowa Family Policy Center also endorsed Santorum. Speaking as an individual and not on behalf of his organization, Vander Plaats lauded Santorum as the “Huckabee in this race” and a “champion of the family.” Echoing Huckabee, who frequently reminded Religious Right voters, “I come from you,” Vander Plaats concluded, “I believe Rick Santorum comes from us, he’s not to us, he comes from us, he’s one of us.”

“One of us,” no doubt, as in, bigoted, anti-gay zealot bent of depriving woman and minorities of their civil rights and turning American back towards the 19th century.

The original Marriage Vow — all 3008 words — included anti-​gay rhetoric, language that subordinates women, denounces Islam, and pushed scientifically-​questionable “facts.” Claiming “the Institution of Marriage in America is in great crisis,” Vander Plaats claimed, “The purpose of The Marriage Vow is to have on record the personal convictions of each presidential candidate as it relates to the issue of marriage,” while demanding that each candidate’s “personal convictions” — all 3008 words — be written by Bob Vander Plaats.

Vander Plaats’ Family Leader site also stated, “The Marriage Vow also outlines support for the legal advocacy for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), humane efforts to protect women and children, rejection of anti-​women Sharia Islam, safeguards for all married and unmarried U.S. military personnel, and commitment to downsizing government and the burden upon American families.”

The “vow” contains language such as the phrase, “the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy,” and “faithful heterosexual monogamy.” Wow.

Michele Bachmann was the first to sign the marriage vow, and did so in its original form, which included a statement that claimed America’s blacks were better off under slavery.