With Texas governor Rick Perry throwing his hat into the Grand Old Party circus ring last month, the disturbing anti-gay elements which have permeated this GOP primary season continued. Since his August 13^th announcement, Perry has made his anti-gay position clear by aligning himself with strident homophobes like David Barton, John Stemberger and Pam Olson.

Along with fellow candidates Bachmann and Santorum, Perry signed the National Organization for Marriage Pledge, and committed himself to supporting a federal constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage throughout the country; defending the Defense of Marriage of Act in court; appointing judges and a U.S. attorney general who “will respect the original meaning” of the U.S. Constitution; supporting legislation allowing D.C. residents to vote on whether to overturn the district’s same-sex marriage law; and appoint a presidential commission to “investigate harassment of traditional marriage supporters” should he become President.

Just a week before his announcement he attended The Response, A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis, hosted by the American Family Association (AFA).

Founded by Rev. Don Wildmon in 1977, the AFA calls itself as a “pro-family advocacy organization.” It may sound harmless, but the AFA actively lobbies against the social acceptance of the LGBT community.

In November 2010, the Southern Poverty Law Center changed their designation of the AFA as a “group that used hate speech” to a full-on hate group. Mark Potok, Director of the Intelligence Project at SPLC, said that the AFA’s “propagation of known falsehoods and demonizing propaganda” and the fact that the AFA was “one of the most strident voices spreading malicious anti-LGBT propaganda” was the basis for the change.

Bryan Fischer, Director of Issues Analysis and chief spokesperson at the AFA, can claim credit for much of the demonizing to which SPLC refers, and include the following:

• Holds gays responsible for the Holocaust and likened them to domestic terrorists and Nazis who are intent on committing “virtual genocide” against the military, and asserts that “homosexuals should be disqualified from public office;”
• 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 US, 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; and
• Suggested that the anti-Muslim manifesto of the right-wing Christian terrorist who killed dozens in Norway was “accurate.”

His openly homophobic, racist and misogynistic comments are shocking, but even more troubling is a presidential candidate aligning himself with an organization that looks to a man like Fischer as their talking head.

Again, Fischer isn’t loosely associated with AFA, he is its chief spokesperson.

Also making an appearance with Perry on stage at the prayer rally was Alice Patterson, a member of the New Apostolic Reformation. Patterson believes the Democratic Party is controlled by demonic spirits and denounces any political support of gay or reproductive rights. She warns, “the further you get up the ladder in Washington, D. C. or state government, the harder it is to withstand the power of the Ahab structure if you’re a Republican.”

On the heels of that event, Perry and 200 of his closest friends attended a retreat in rural Texas. Calling itself A Call to Action this retreat was co-hosted by none other than David Barton. Barton is the founder and president of Wallbuilders, an ultra-conservative, “pro-family” organization. Barton holds revisionist historical views, specifically regarding the history of civil rights. His anti-gay stance is no less incendiary. Most recently, when the state of New York legalized same-sex marriage, Barton argued that anti-gay groups should proverbially “scalp” the four Republican state senators who had backed the bill.

It would serve to reason that a candidate like Perry, who coincidently does not support the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, would take no steps to improve equality in America and would look to dismantle those strides that have been made. That’s an American landscape I don’t want to see.