The Trump Administration dined in the White House with an anti-LGBTQ activist who said marriage equality was the ‘creation of Satan’

August 28, 2018, NEW YORK – GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, released the following research to draw attention to the anti-LGBTQ record of the guests Trump hosted last night and call on media to put the event into proper context by reporting on the anti-LGBTQ records of the public figures who attended the event.

“Last night President Trump, Vice President Pence, and others in the Administration surrounded themselves with anti-LGBTQ activists who have equated marriage equality with genocide, likened being gay to some of the most reprehensible behaviors, and suggested that transgender people should be shot in public restrooms,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD. “The President and Administration’s practice of bringing fringe groups united around hatred towards LGBTQ Americans through the White House gates cannot go unnoticed and must be called out and checked.

President Trump and Vice President Pence, along with Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, and other Administration officials, warmly hosted and posed for pictures with FOX News regular Robert Jeffress, who preaches that gay people are “engaged in the most detestable, unclean, abominable acts you can imagine,” and Tony Perkins, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center-designated anti-LGBTQ hate group Family Research Council, who has called gay people “intolerant”, “hateful,” and “vile.”  Also in attendance was Jim Garlow who has said same-sex marriage is the “creation of Satan.”

Last night GLAAD shared photos of Trump Administration officials posing with the anti-LGBTQ activists and shared their anti-LGBTQ records in real time via twitter: https://twitter.com/glaad/status/1034228158734643200.

Read more about the anti-LGBTQ views and remarks of event attendees below.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Anti-LGBTQ Records and Statements from Trump’s Evangelical Dinner Attendees

Robert Jeffress, prominent member of Trump’s advisory council:
Preaches that gay people are “engaged in the most detestable, unclean, abominable acts you can imagine” and that homosexuality is “as immoral” as bestiality, incest, and pedophilia.

Tony Perkins, president of SPLC-designated hate group Family Research Council:
Says about gay people: “They are intolerant. They are hateful. They are vile. They are spiteful”…”pawns” of the “enemy.”

Franklin Graham:
Graham, who spoke at the dinner, says he loves gay people “enough to care to warn them that if they want to continue living like this, it’s the flames of hell for you.”

James Dobson:
Dobson, who received a shout-out from President Trump during the event, claims that marriage equality is “the fall of Western civilization” and has even longed for the days when a husband would have shot a transgender person in a bathroom.

Ronnie Floyd:
Believes that “Satan has taken his tool of homosexuality, a gross and evil sin, and done a con job on the American culture, making it seem like all is okay when you are gay.”

Jim Garlow:
Said same-sex marriage is the creation of Satan, and compares children of same-sex couples to children who lost their parents on 9/11.

Alveda King:
Equates marriage equality with genocide.

Michele Bachmann, former congresswoman:
Claims homosexuality is “part of Satan.”

Greg Laurie:
Insists that gay people should not be who they are “any more than a person who is tempted to steal, lie, lust, or murder.”

Darrell Scott:
Said his church believes the Bible is “anti-homosexuality.”