White House denies existence of evangelical advisory board after facing questions over anti-gay extremist
American Family Association President Tim Wildmon
The Trump White House has denied appointing anti-LGBT extremist Tim Wildmon to serve on a faith advisory board.
Wildmon is head of the American Family Association, which made then news this week for attacking lesbian adverts airing on the Hallmark Channel, while one of its employees compared gay people to Nazis.
Trump White House claims advisory board doesn’t exist
In a statement on Monday, Wildmon said that he had been appointed as a member of the Trump administration’s faith advisory council.
He wrote: “One of the reasons President Trump has taken unrelenting, incoming fire from the liberal elites—even before he was sworn in—is precisely because he is not ashamed of the Bible, the Constitution [and] the family.”
The Trump White House denies that Tim Wildmon is part of an advisory board
However, in a strange twist, the White House has denied that any such body exists.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere told the Washington Blade: “I have no idea what he’s talking about.
“There is no such thing as a White House Faith Council or Advisory Board. There is a Faith & Opportunity Initiative led by an advisor, Pastor Paula White, but it does not include a council or advisory board.”
Trump evangelical advisers are overwhelmingly anti-LGBT
While it is not an official White House body, it has been widely reported that Trump maintains an informal evangelical advisory board which is dominated by extreme anti-LGBT voices.
AFA’s release lists its members as including Robert Jeffress, an American Southern Baptist pastor from Texas who has directly equated gay people to paedophiles and animal rapists in the past.
Other members include Jerry Falwell Jr, president of the fundamentalist Liberty University, which bans students and faculty from having gay sex.
Also listed is James Dobson of anti-LGBT hate group Focus on the Family – who has claimed the 2012 massacre of innocent children at Sandy Hook Elementary School was “God’s judgment” for the acceptance of gay marriage – and Tony Perkins, head of the anti-LGBT Family Research Council.
