NOM Endorses GOP Presidential Candidate Who Stood With ‘Kill The Gays’ Pastor

NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, has just endorsed a Republican presidential candidate who literally has stood with a pastor who calls for the biblical killing of gay people.

Over the years, as it faced an ever-increasing uphill battle to “protect marriage and the faith communities that sustain it,” the National Organization For Marriage (NOM) has become increasingly hostile to LGBT people and as it embraces the more radical elements of the religious right.

That became evident several years ago when NOM hosted an anti-same-sex marriage rally in New York City, where a pastor they invited told supporters gays are “worthy of death,” in Spanish. NOM refused to officially issue a statement denouncing it.

Today, NOM announced they are endorsing for President a Republican who also stood on the same stage as a pastor who says gay people are “worthy of death” and refused to denounce it.

Last month, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke at the National Religious Liberties Conference, created and hosted by Pastor Kevin Swanson. Swanson “has frequently claimed that the government should put gay people to death,” as Right Wing Watch has documented.

Pastor Swanson, true to form, on the very same stage that Cruz – along with Mike Huckabee and Bobby Jindal – spoke, called for the death of gay people.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, in a blistering report calling it “a Republican presidential candidates event,” noted a “significant portion” of what was talked about at the conference “was the exact contours, the exact language of what they believe is a biblical commandment that gay people in the United States should be rounded up and executed.”

“It really was a ‘kill the gays’ call to arms,” Maddow decried. “This was a conference about the necessity of the death penalty as a punishment for homosexuality.”

Clearly, participating in a “conference about the necessity of the death penalty as a punishment for homosexuality” is not a disqualifying act for an endorsement from NOM.

“Sen. Ted Cruz is a proven champion for marriage and religious freedom and someone we can absolutely count on to fight to restore marriage to our nation’s laws and defend the religious liberty of the tens of millions of Americans who believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman,” NOM president Brian Brown said in a statement today. 

“Sen. Cruz has not only signed NOM’s presidential marriage pledge committing to take specific actions as president, but he has personally authored the pending federal marriage amendment to restore the right of states to define marriage as one man/one woman. Moreover, he has spoken out consistently and forcefully on the campaign trail as an advocate of true marriage. We are pleased to endorse him and will do everything in our power to support his election.”

Today, in a separate, fundraising statement, NOM requested supporters send money because “we are doing God’s work.”

Last month, Sen. Cruz, just days before the Colorado Planned Parenthood shooting, touted the endorsement of an anti-abortion activist who argues that the murder of doctors who perform abortions should be justifiable homicide. And yesterday, rather than denounce Donald Trump‘s call for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S., Sen Cruz announced, “I commend Donald Trump.”

 

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Republican Presidential Candidates Align With Anti-Gay Religious Leaders

 

Image: Screenshot via UStream/NOM