Bachmann, Pawlenty asked to publicly denounce Fischer’s anti-gay, anti-Muslim statements

Rep. Michele Bachmann and Gov. Tim Pawlenty are among seven conservative leaders sent letters from People for the American Way on Thursday urging them to publicly denounce statements made by Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association, an organization sponsoring the Values Voter Summit, at which both will be speaking this weekend. PFAW has criticized statements by Fischer over the last several months that the group views as anti-Muslim and anti-gay.  Also receiving letters were Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, and Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell,

The letter, below, follows the group’s verbal calls for a denunciation of the speaker a day earlier.

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 publicly 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