Presidential candidates and Congressional leaders to mingle with anti-gay hate groups

From People for the American Way's Right-Wing Watch:

In April, the Freedom Federation will host its second annual "Awakening" conference entitled "Raising Our Voices: Equipping and Empowering a New Revolution" which organizer hope will feature a mix of right-wing activists like Lou Engle, Tony Perkins, Mat Staver, Frank Gaffney, Wendy Wright, David Barton, and Gary Bauer with Republican leaders like Cuccinelli, Michele Bachmann, Marco Rubio, Alan West, Mike Pence, Newt Gingrich, and Mike Huckabee

The following are the list of speakers, some of which are a cornucopia of anti-gay voices:

I see that Mike Huckabee, Sen. Marc Rubio, and Reps. Mike Pence, Allen West and Michelle Bachmann are going to be at the conference and thus will be hobnobbing with members of the Family Research Council (Tony Perkins), the Traditional Values Coalition (Andrea Lafferty), and Concerned Women for America (Wendy Wright). FRC and TVC were declared anti-gay hate groups according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, while CWA was profiled for its anti-gay animus.

The designations was given to these three organizations not because of their "religious beliefs" regarding homosexuality and gay marriage but because of their insistence in spreading false and ugly propaganda about the gay community (i.e. homosexuality and pedophilia are connected.)

One has to wonder what the panel discussions at the conference will be this year. Last year, Lafferty and the Liberty Counsel's Matt Barber led a panel discussion on the so-called dangers of homosexuality. It was during this discussion that Lafferty made the absurd claim that pro-gay nondiscrimination laws will lead to the molestation of crippled war veterans.

No doubt, Huckabee and company will probably still attend this conference even after told about these organizations and no doubt they will give a false explanation of why they will mingle with anti-gay groups if asked - something along the line of "it's unfair that these groups are being called hateful simply because their religious beliefs."

But the fact that these folks will attend a conference with anti-gay hate groups is good to know, especially in light of the knowledge that Huckabee, Pence, and Bachmann are possible Presidential candidates.  All the more reason that they become three people who have no place residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.