Mitt Romney is scheduled to speak at the far-right "Values Voter Summit" on Saturday morning, immediately before the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer, a man with a long and shocking record of bigotry toward gays and lesbians, American Muslims, Native Americans, African-Americans, Mormons and other minorities. Today, I sent Romney this open letter outlining Fischer's record and urging him to publicly distance himself from Fischer's bigotry before sharing a stage with him.
- held gays responsible for the Holocaust and likened them to domestic terrorists and Nazis who are intent on committing " virtual genocide" against the military, asserts that "homosexuals should be disqualified from public office" and has even called for the re-criminalization of homosexuality;
- said "we have feminized the Medal of Honor" by awarding it to a soldier who saved his fellow combatants rather than killing enemies;
- demanded all immigrants " convert to Christianity" and renounce their religions;
- asserted that Muslims have "no fundamental First Amendment claims" and should be banned from building mosques and deported from the U.S., adding that Muslims are inherently stupid as a result of inbreeding;
- claimed African-American women " rut like rabbits" due to welfare and that Native Americans are " morally disqualified" from living in America because they didn't convert to Christianity and were consequently cursed by God with alcoholism and poverty;
- maintained that "President Barack Obama nurtures this hatred for the United States of America and, I believe, nurtures a hatred for the white man."
- said that the anti-Muslim manifesto of the right-wing Christian terrorist who killed dozens in Norway was "accurate."
I and others have often criticized you for abandoning your principles when it is politically convenient, but I hope in this instance you will prove us wrong. Bryan Fischer deserves to be a marginalized figure, not a celebrity embraced by the mainstream GOP. I hope that you won't silently hand over the microphone at a nationally televised event to a man with such a record of bigotry -- including towards members of your own faith. Will you publicly distance yourself from Fischer and his dangerous rhetoric?
Respectfully,
Michael Keegan
President, People For the American Way