人兽性交

Editor's Note: As of Sept. 5, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has confirmed he will participate in the Values Voter Summit.

Where have all the elected officials gone?

The (FRC) annual Values Voter Summit (VVS), set for the end of September, is fast approaching. But unlike prior years, very few high profile politicians have confirmed their participation.聽 And the current line up seems more extreme than ever.

Could this annual rite of passage, a must attend event for politicians courting social conservatives, be losing its luster?

This year, the VVS鈥檚 list is nearly bereft of high level office holders. As of today, the confirmed speakers holding elective office totals four: U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.), Governor Bobby Jindal (Louisiana) and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (Texas), the biggest cowboy of the bunch.

The lineup is a far cry from last year, when 16 federal and state officials participated. Among them were GOP luminaries Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.). This time around, Ryan was until early August listed as an invited speaker, but his name has been pulled. A call to Ryan鈥檚 office to find out why was not answered.

The situation could of course change in the coming weeks.

Right now, there are a handful of elected officials listed as invited to the event, but not confirmed: U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Gov. Phil Bryan (R-Miss.) and U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.). Calls and emails to their offices to determine if they will be speaking at VVS went unreturned.

Perhaps the lack of confirmed high-level speakers is related to FRC鈥檚 increasing extremism, as it wades deeper into a morass of anti-LGBT and anti-Muslim hatred. Just in the last year, FRC President Tony Perkins has said that gay rights advocates are 鈥�,鈥� predicted that will erupt in America, our military is instituting Shariah law and that it鈥檚 people think he鈥檚 a Muslim.

In August, Perkins the GOP鈥檚 plan to field three gay candidates in the upcoming congressional elections. In a rambling statement, he said the GOP was abandoning its 鈥渃ore principals.鈥� 鈥淥f course,鈥� he wrote, 鈥渘ow we know that it鈥檚 not just about getting 鈥榤arried,鈥� it鈥檚 about radically changing the curriculum of our schools 鈥� regardless of what parents want. It鈥檚 about radically changing the culture 鈥� through genderless bathroom ordinances and businesses being strong-armed.鈥�

FRC鈥檚 allies are just as bad.

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

To get a sense of what kind of extremism is on tap for this year鈥檚 VVS, let鈥檚 take a look at some of the confirmed speakers on the .

There鈥檚 Mat Staver of , who will talk about a so-called assault on parent鈥檚 rights. What Staver is best known for is vicious hyperbole. He has those who do not denounce gay marriage to those who were silent during the Nazi era about the Holocaust. He has that gay marriage is the 鈥渂eginning of the end of Western civilization鈥� and that God will soon just as he did Sodom and Gomorrah. More ominously, Staver has Malawi鈥檚 law criminalizing homosexuality and said U.S. opposition to it is 鈥渋mmoral.鈥�

A handful of the remaining confirmed speakers are similarly intemperate, and many have ties to the (AFA), a co-sponsor of VVS that the 人兽性交 lists as a hate group. AFA is sending Don Wildmon, its founder, Tim Wildmon, his son and current CEO, Buddy Smith, the executive vice president, and Ed Vitagliano, director of research. AFA is a hotbed of anti-LGBT, anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant extremism. Here are some of AFA鈥檚 greatest hits:

• 鈥淸Islam] is, in fact, a religion of war, violence, intolerance, and physical persecution of non-Muslims.鈥�?--Tim Wildmon, 2012
• 鈥淗omosexuality gave us Adolf Hitler, and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine and six million dead Jews.鈥�--Bryan Fischer, AFA director of issue analysis for government and public policy, 2010
• 鈥淎s with smoking, homosexual behavior鈥檚 鈥榮econd hand鈥� effects threaten public health鈥�.Thus, individuals who choose to engage in homosexual behavior threaten not only their own lives, but the lives of the general population.鈥�--Gary Glenn, president of Michigan chapter of AFA, 2001

I could include a recent rant by about comedian Robin Williams being demon possessed, but you get the idea.

FRC will also have its own in house extremists on hand. , their executive vice president, will be there. He鈥檚 quite the Muslim-basher, having said the war on terror is a holy war against Islam, which he has labeled 鈥渆vil鈥� and 鈥渘ot a religion.鈥� Boykin has also called for banning mosques in the U.S.

He鈥檚 not just wacky about Islam. Boykin has warned that President Obama鈥檚 health care reform will establish and that American Jews were by wrongly thinking Adolf Hitler was a right-wing extremist. He wants .

Boykin, who ran the secretive Delta Force for some time, has also had some with his former employer鈥攖he Army. In 2013, the Army issued a reprimand to Boykin for disclosing classified information in his book, Never Surrender: A Soldier鈥檚 Journey to the Crossroads of Faith and Freedom. The Army that the book disclosed 鈥渃lassified information concerning cover methods, counterterrorism/counter-proliferation operations, operational deployments, infiltration methods, pictures, and tactics, techniques and procedures that may compromise ongoing operations.鈥�

Perkins will be on hand of course, to give a major talk. Among other things, Perkins has linked , and to gay people, falsely contending that there is 鈥渁 correlation between homosexuality and pedophilia.鈥� He has further warned that are 鈥渄isgusting鈥� and encourage 鈥減erversion鈥� and that same-sex unions are part of a government 鈥溾�� plot.

Again, I could go on, but you get the picture.

And it鈥檚 not just the speakers who are worrisome.

The exhibitors are quite the hate line up as well. Two anti-LGBT hate groups, and , will have booths. They both have defended criminalization, meaning they are fine with throwing people in jail for engaging in consensual gay sex in places like Uganda. will be there as well. That outfit once published a pamphlet, Special Report: AIDS, which proposed a number of means to 鈥渟uppress鈥� the outbreak, including possibly needing to 鈥渆xile鈥� all 鈥渁ctive homosexuals鈥� from America.

The anti-immigrant hate group (FAIR) is also an exhibitor. FAIR founder has white nationalist beliefs and has written that to maintain American culture 鈥渁 European-American majority鈥� is required. FAIR President has complained that today鈥檚 immigrants are engaged in 鈥渃ompetitive breeding鈥� to diminish the power of the white majority. He has said that a 1965 immigration law that ended racial quotas was passed 鈥渢o retaliate against Anglo-Saxon dominance.鈥�

The VVS鈥� sponsors list is filled will hate groups as well. There鈥檚 FRC, of course, and AFA, but also Mat Staver鈥檚 Liberty Counsel Action.

Given the groups and individuals involved in VVS, perhaps it is a good sign that so few elected officials are confirmed. Just this past month, of a World Congress of Families event in Australia and the Federal Senate there WCF for 鈥渟preading homophobic and sexist messages around the world.鈥�

Perhaps the tide is finally turning, and elected officials will no longer sanction with their presence such obvious hatred against the LGBT and other minority communities.