Scroll To Top
Politicians

WATCH: Presidential Hopefuls Join Top Homophobes in New Documentary

WATCH: Presidential Hopefuls Join Top Homophobes in New Documentary

Scott-lively-x400%20copy

Mike Huckabee and Rand Paul, both potential Republican presidential candidates, join the likes of Scott Lively in a new doc on the gay movement's 'persecution' of Christians.

trudestress

If it's true that you know people by the company they keep, then it's telling that potential Republican presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Rand Paul are keeping company with such leading homophobes as Scott Lively, Gary Bauer, Phyllis Schlafly, Brian Camenker, James Dobson, Mat Staver, and Rep. Louie Gohmert in a new documentary.

Antigay activist Janet Porter is readying the film, Light Wins: The Criminalization of Christianity, for premiere February 24, during the National Religious Broadcasters' convention in Nashville, Right Wing Watch reports. The convention runs February 23-26.

Trailers for the film indicate that a good deal of it is devoted to allegations that progress in LGBT rights is threatening the practice of Christianity -- the ultraconservative version of it, anyway -- and may even lead to the faith being outlawed. "What kind of freedom of speech do we have if a person who expresses a biblical viewpoint about marriage is told they can't open their businesses in a location?" Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, asks in one clip.

Another shows Paul and others decrying the 2013 Supreme Court decision striking down a key portion of the Defense of Marriage Act. Paul, a U.S. senator from Kentucky with supposedly libertarian leanings, says the decision's "silver lining" is that it still allowed states to define marriage.

The film's other participants are a who's-who of antigay, antichoice activists from the Christian right. Lively, who's considering a run for Congress from Massachusetts, has been a supporter of antigay laws in Uganda and Russia (and taken credit for inspiring the latter), and has claimed that gay people were perpetrators rather than victims of the Holocaust. Camenker's group, MassResistance, fights what it calls "homo-fascism," especially programs that support LGBT youth. Gohmert, a congressman from Texas, is known for his comment that judges who rule for marriage equality need "plumbing lessons" and a bizarre rant about gay soldiers giving each other massages, allegedly weakening the military.

Porter, president and founder of Faith2Action and a former radio host, has quite a history of antigay rhetoric, too. A roundup from Right Wing Watch: She has claimed that the federal hate-crimes law would make it a felony to rebuff an "unwelcome advance" from a gay person; that she expects to be arrested for opposing LGBT rights and that ministers who refuse to perform same-sex marriages will be arrested as well; that marriage equality will bring on the end of the world; and that pro basketball player Jason Collin's decision to come out as gay is "very dangerous ... to our freedoms in the nation."

In addition to Paul and Gohmert, currently serving elected officials in the film include Iowa's Steve King, Arizona's Trent Franks, and Kansas's Tim Huelskamp, all Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Watch a couple of clips from the documentary below.

trudestress
Advocate Channel - The Pride StoreOut / Advocate Magazine - Fellow Travelers & Jamie Lee Curtis

From our Sponsors

Most Popular

Latest Stories

Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.
Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.