Michael B. Keegan

• Michael B. Keegan @ Huffington Post: A Gay Tempest in the Tea Party Cup.
• Alvin McEwen: Sign of the Apocalypse: Fox News makes fun of religious right over CPAC controversy.
• Alan Colmes: Iowa Rep. Steve King Often Asks School Children Where They Stand On Abortion.
• Igor Volsky @ Think Progress: RNC Candidates: Marriage Is ‘Foundational In Our Lives,’ But Gay People Should Be Excluded.
• Joe.My.God: Liberty Counsel: Terrorists Are Laughing Themselves Silly Over Repeal Of DADT.
• Andy Birkey @ Minnesota Independent: Hard rock ministry tied to tax evasion scheme.
• Equality Matters: Wash. Times: DADT Repeal Will Lead To "Privileged Homosexual Protected Class With Ramifications That Will Reach Beyond Military Service".
• Rob Boston @ The Wall of Separation: ‘Equal Access’ In Utah: Gay-Straight Alliances At Public Schools Have The Religious Right To Thank.
• Amanda Terkel: Scalia: Women Don't Have Constitutional Protection Against Discrimination.

• Michael B. Keegan @ Huffington Post: Bryan Fischer, Tony Perkins, and the Hate Agenda

• Truth Wins Out: Ex-Gay Survivor to Exodus: ‘Leave the Kids Alone’

• Think Progress: Washington Post Continues Media Whitewash Of Radical GOP Rep.-Elect Allen West

• Katrina vanden Heuvel: The GOP: Gobbling up our blessings

• Salon: Palin, blueblood-bashing and Mitt Romney

• TPM: Minn. Pol With Gun Outside Abortion Clinic Says He Was Just In Area 'Checking On' His Girlfriend

• Michael B. Keegan @ Hufington Post: Trouble with a Capital Tea.
• Justin Elliott @ Salon: GOPer who attacked "the Muslims" wins House seat.
• Ian Millhiser @ Think Progress: Tenther Senate Candidates Get Thumped At The Polls.
• Timothy Kincaid @ Box Turtle Bulletin: Not a good night for NOM.
• Steve Benen: Oklahoma bars imaginary sharia threat.
• Alan Pyke @ Political Correction: Huckabee: Secretary Clinton Wants Election "Alibi" So She Can Challenge Obama In 2012.
• Alan Colmes: George W. Bush Claims He Was “A Dissenting Voice” On The Iraq War.

People For's President, Michael Keegan, sent the following letter today to Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, and Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell, all of whom are scheduled to appear this weekend at the Values Voter Summit, alongside the virulantly anti-Muslim and anti-gay Bryan Fischer.

Dear ________:

I am writing to express my concern about your appearance this weekend at the upcoming Values Voter Summit. Among the participants this weekend will be Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association. We urge you to publically denounce Fischer’s record of hate speech and extremism, and reconsider appearing beside him this weekend.

People For’s RightWingWatch.org blog has tracked Fischer’s career over the past several years. His long and prolific record of hate speech and extremism includes the following recent statements. Just in the past year, Fischer has:

• Demanded that no new mosques be built anywhere in America. (8/10/2010)

• Argued that inbreeding has caused Muslims to be stupid and violent. (9/10/2010)

• Said that Muslims should be banned from serving in the U.S. military. (11/9/2009)

• Insisted that all Muslims are traitors, called for the deportation of all Muslims from the U.S. (4/10/2010)

• Claimed that U.S. service members died in vain because the U.S. failed to make Iraq a Christian nation. (8/19/2010)

• Said that “homosexuals should be disqualified from public office.” (8/5/2010)

• Insisted that gays are biased, sexually deviant felons, not to mention pedophiles, and should never serve on the Supreme Court. (4/15/2010, 4/16/2010)

• Called gay adoption “a terrible, terrible, inexcusable, inhumane thing to do to children.” (8/10/2010)

• Argued that we should“impose the same sanctions on those who engage in homosexual behavior as we do on those who engage in intravenous drug abuse." (2/3/2010)

• Wrote: “The inescapable conclusion is that gay sex is a form of domestic terrorism.” (6/10/2010)

• Said: “Hitler discovered that he could not get straight soldiers to be savage and brutal and vicious enough to carry out his orders, but that homosexual solders basically had no limits and the savagery and brutality they were willing to inflict on whomever Hitler sent them after. So he surrounded himself, virtually all of the Stormtroopers, the Brownshirts, were male homosexuals.” (5/25/2010)

• Disparaged family values in the Hispanic community, saying “Also, the illegitimacy rate among Hispanic women is over 50%. I’m not sure pro-family values are as strong in the Hispanic community as Dr. Land wants to believe.” (7/23/2010)

• Called the President a “fascist dictator” for taking steps to hold BP accountable for the Gulf oil spill: “And remember the President's been a fascist ... he says ‘I've been a fascist from day one. They can't blow their nose without asking permission from me, they can't clean the wax out of their ears unless they get a sign-off from me.’ That's what fascist dictators do!” (6/18/2010)

I am attaching the names of over 6,500 concerned citizens who have signed the following letter regarding your participation in the summit:

Values Voter Summit Participants:

Reasonable people can, and do, have reasonable differences of opinion. Bryan Fischer, of the American Family Association, is not a reasonable person.

By sharing a stage with Fischer at this year's Values Voter Summit, public figures acknowledge the credibility of his shameless anti-Muslim and anti-gay propaganda. Any candidate thinking seriously of running for president in 2012 should think twice about standing alongside a man who has called for the deportation of all Muslims in America; insulted Muslim servicemembers; claimed that brave Americans died in vain because Iraq was not converted to Christianity; and called gay people deviants, felons, pedophiles and terrorists. Bryan Fischer is no mainstream conservative. And neither is any person who shares a platform with him while refusing to denounce his hate-filled propaganda.

We urge you to denounce Fischer's extremism and separate yourself from his comments.

For more background on Fischer’s extreme rhetoric, please click here.

Fischer’s appearance with conservative leaders such as yourself lends his extreme hate speech credibility. We urge you to publicly denounce Fischer’s record and to think twice about sharing the stage with him.

Sincerely,

Michael B. Keegan
President, People For the American Way

• Michael B. Keegan @ Huffington Post: Glenn Beck's Political, Hypocritical, Me-Party, Tea Party Weekend.
• Frederick Clarkson @ Talk To Action: When Politics Means the End of the World (as we know it).
• Steve Benen: Angle even opposed Katrina relief funds.
• Good As You: NOM and LaBarbera: Bound by a Gagnon.
• Timothy Kincaid @ Box Turtle Bulletin: NOM blatantly appeals to homophobia.
• Think Progress: Arson Suspected At Construction Site Of Tennessee Mosque Expansion.
• Jillian Rayfield @ TPM: Judge Rejects Cuccinelli's Subpoena Of UVA 'Climate-Gate' Docs.
• Towleroad: Focus on The Family Says School Anti-Bullying Curriculum Forces Kids to Learn That Homosexuality is Normal.
• Chris Rodda @ Talk To Action: No, Alveda King, Our Founders Did Not Put "God" On Our Money.
• Justin Elliott @ Salon: Bigot starts ground zero church: Where's the outrage?

• Michael B. Keegan @ Huffington Post: The GOP v. the 14th Amendment.
• Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion: Ex-Muslim Pastor Warns of Exploitation by “Corrupt ‘Underbelly’ of the Right Wing Political Movement”.
• David Monday @ Crooks & Liars: David Boies: Tony Perkins appeals to 'fear and prejudice' against gays.
• Media Matters: Tony Perkins' fearmongering about same-sex parenting is refuted by medical consensus.
• Joe.My.God: NY Sen. Ruben Diaz: Same-Sex Marriage Will Bring The End Of The World.
• Jason Hancock @ Iowa Independent: Push to oust Iowa judges backed by American Family Association.
• Nick Seaver @ Americablog: Dr. Alveda King hijacks the King legacy while promoting equality for some.
• Igor Volsky @ Wonk Room: Florida Gubernatorial Candidate McCollum: ‘I Really Do Not Think That We Should Have Homosexuals Guiding Our Children’.
• Finally, two posts from Truth Wins Out: PFOX President Greg Quinlan: I Was Not a Limp Wristed Flaming Faggot and Abba Goldberg: Gays Lift Weights Because They Don’t Feel Masculine.