The Curious Timing of Louisiana Gov. Jindal's Absence at Values Voter Summit
As recently as Sept. 26, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal was listed as a confirmed speaker for this afternoon at the 鈥� the annual religious-right conference hosted by prominent anti-LGBT hate groups like the (FRC) and .
But on that day, we for appointing the FRC鈥檚 president, Tony Perkins, to a state law enforcement commission. Not only is the FRC an anti-LGBT hate group, we observed, but Perkins has a checkered history concerning race and ethics and even failed to attend meetings for the other Louisiana commission he sits on 鈥� the Commission on Marriage and Family.
We also noted that Jindal was scheduled to speak, as he鈥檚 done in the past, at the Values Voter Summit. Later that day, the conference schedule was updated to change Jindal from 鈥渃onfirmed鈥� to 鈥渋nvited.鈥�
Then on Monday, the Southern Poverty Law Center, publisher of Hatewatch, joined with a number of human rights groups to calling on him to not lend the prestige of his office to the conference. Later in the day, Jindal spokesperson Kyle Plotkin told the that Jindal would not be attending due to a scheduling conflict. And yesterday Plotkin told the Baton Rouge , 鈥�We unfortunately are not able to attend the event because of a scheduling conflict, but we wish all the participants the best.鈥�
The timing of Jindal鈥檚 scheduling conflict is convenient, to say the least. He switched from confirmed to invited on Sept. 26 after being criticized for the Perkins appointment (as you can see below) and then dropped off altogether after the letter was sent to reporters on October 7.
Regardless of why he skipped the event, what matters at the end of the day is that Jindal isn鈥檛 lending his support to groups that demonize LGBT with falsehoods. In the future, we hope that public officials will not cite scheduling conflicts but rather the bigotry and extremism at the core of the event鈥檚 organizers.
