Iowa’s Christian conservative group The FAMiLY Leader is once again objecting to the Governor’s Conference on LGBTQ Youth, a yearly opportunity for students, teachers, and families across the state of Iowa to learn how to better protect LGBT young people from bullying. In the past, the group’s head Bob Vander Plaats has accused the conference of discriminating against straight students, even though allies are welcome.

At a press conference Thursday, The FAMiLY Leader and representatives from other groups (including hate group Concerned Women for America) objected to the conference for compromising the Bible’s teaching on homosexuality and using taxpayer funding in the process. Here’s FL’s Chuck Hurley admonishing LGBT advocates:

HURLEY: This Papa Bear is here to say, regarding the Governor’s Conference, stop coming after my kids and other people’s kids with evil propaganda. Stop twisting the Bible and stop using our tax dollars to do it. [...]

We’re here today to warn parents and to warn lawmakers and other who are responsible for protecting those children, and to urge them to protect appropriate action to protect those children, such as not letting them go to this conference next week, such as considering home and private education if their schools are teaching the things this conference is advocating — that Iowa school districts teach — and above all, teaching our children the truth about the Bible, sexuality, and bullying.

Watch the full press conference (Part 2 here):

This year, the group is specifically targeting Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) for hosting the conference. A conservative student group, Young Americans for Freedom, filed a Freedom of Information Act request to confirm that the university was spending money to help fund the conference. Student Jake Dagel explained, “Diversity is not when you use my tuition money or our tax dollars to fund a conference that bullies people for their Christian or conservative beliefs.”

Sixteen lawmakers have threatened to cut DMACC’s funding for promoting groups “who pervert the Bible, teach our youth to engage in dangerous behavior, and target individuals like Jan Mickelson for hatred and bullying.” Mickelson is a conservative radio host in Iowa that regularly attacks LGBT equality on his show.

Unsurprisingly, none of the conservative religious leaders expressed any concern for the severe consequences LGBT youth experience when they are bullied or shamed by their community, including attempting suicide, homelessness, academic performance, and school truancy.

Yesterday, The FAMiLY LEADER organized a rally in the Iowa State Capitol, calling for the right to vote to ban same-sex marriage in a state where it has been legal for nearly three years. Among the speakers were The FAMiLY LEADER’s Bob Vander Plaats and the National Organization for Marriage’s Brian Brown, both of whom attacked families by comparing same-sex marriage to polygamy, incest, and slavery:

VANDER PLAATS: If we want marriage equality, let’s just stop for a second. Why stop at same-sex? Why not have polygamy? Why not have a dad marry his son or marry his daughter? If we’re going to have marriage equality, let’s open this puppy up and let’s have marriage equality. Otherwise, let’s stick to the way God designed it: one man and one woman, period.

BROWN: We are walking in the same steps of William Wilberforce, who in the late 1800s, stood up and said “No” to the slave trade. He was mocked. Powerful forces, politicians, derided him and said, “Why are you bring your faith into this? This is just the way things work. This is the economy. If we ban the slave trade, where are we going to get our dollars and cents.” William Wilberforce said “No.” When they told him, “Keep your preaching in the four square walls of your church,” he said “No.” What did he do? He stood up and spoke truth to power. We need heroes at a time like this. We need people who will not be shouted down, who will not be silenced… We will resolutely stand up for God’s truth that marriage is by definition the union of one man and one woman.

Watch their speeches:

For what it’s worth, Wilberforce’s abolition work was not in the late 1800s, nor was it even in the United States. And while he was a vocal abolitionist, he disapproved of women in the abolition movement, Catholics holding public office, and the printing of newspapers on Sunday, which suggests he’s perhaps not the best choice for guidance on social morality.

While Vander Plaats tried to claim that his position was not about “hate,” these comments represent a blatant defamation of same-sex families and an intent to legislate discrimination. Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal (D), who has ensured that no amendment to ban same-sex marriage can advance, made it clear this weekend that he’s not intimidated by the opposition’s rally. At a counterpoint press conference outside the Capitol, openly gay Iowa Sen. Matt McCoy (D) said that “Bob Vander Plaats needs to get a real job instead of working on spreading a message of hate and discrimination.”

Bob Vander Plaats

The FAMiLY LEADER’s Bob Vander Plaats is again speaking out against the 7th Annual Iowa Governor’s Conference on LGBTQ Youth, which Gov. Terry Branstad (R) isn’t even attending. The fact that his title in part of the conference’s name is enough for Vander Plaats to be so outraged he needed to pen another anti-gay editorial in the Des Moines Register about it. Having already accused the conference of “recruiting” questioning youth, he now suggests the governor is handing out “sex devices” (condoms) and discriminating against straight youth:

The governor’s only response, thus far, to our respectful requests to reconsider the use of his name, title and support of this conference, is a laugh. To clarify his laughter, his chief of staff uses words to belittle those holding the governor accountable. The governor and his staff attempt to validate the governor’s full support of this conference by stating the conference is about anti-bullying, not about advancing homosexual behavior.

Really? If this is sincerely the case, then this conference itself discriminates and excludes the majority of the students who are frequently bullied within our schools. Statistics show the vast majority (around 90 percent) of bullying incidents are because of race, physical attributes and other categories, not because of sexual identification.

Without a citation, it’s unclear what “statistics” Vander Plaats is referencing, but even if his claim holds up, it’s completely irrelevant to the discussion. He is simply playing a numbers game to disguise the legitimate concern of anti-LGBT bullying. According to GLSEN’s 2009 national climate survey, 9 out of 10 LGBT students experience harassment in school, so whether or not other forms of bullying are taking place does not change the real concern for LGBT youth. This conference specifically targets those young people and the challenges they face, but Vander Plaats would prefer the conversation treat them like they don’t even exist.

Prominent Rick Santorum backer Bob Vander Plaats of Iowa’s The FAMiLY Leader is urging “Gov. Terry Branstad to remove his title from the upcoming Iowa Governor’s Conference on LGBTQ Youth in an open letter Tuesday, and invited Branstad to instead partner with his socially conservative group in hosting a more ‘comprehensive’ anti-bullying conference.”

Vander Plaats pressed his case during an appearance on WHO’s Jan Mickelson radio show last week, where he poked fun at “questioning” LGBT youth and suggested that the moniker is meant to recruit young people into homosexuality:

VANDER PLAATS: I know we laugh at the Q category, the questioning. But to me, somebody who has studied leadership enough, that is their growth agenda!

MICKELSON: I never figured out, now I understand what mom said, mind your Ps and Qs! Where are you going to pee? Not where the Qs are!

VANDER PLAATS: [Laughs] Oh, this has gone way off track. But Jan, you know, the Q/Ps is really one of the disturbing items to me as an educator because it’s a growth agenda. If you’re not lesbian, if you’re not gay, if you’re not bisexual, if you’re not transgender, matter of fact, if you just don’t know who you are. If you’re a Q, if you’re questioning — come to this conference and it’s all about promoting an agenda.

Listen:

The FAMiLY Leader has its own long history of anti-gay and anti-Muslim rhetoric. An early version of the group’s fidelity pledge suggested that children were better off under slavery than they are under Obama, and the document likens homosexuality to polygamy, adultery, or polyandry, attacks gays as a public health risk, and foments the non-existent “Sharia” threat to America. Vander Plaats himself led a successful campaign to oust three state Supreme Court justicies who overturned Iowa’s anti-gay marriage law and played in instrumental part and leading Mike Huckabee to victory in Iowa in 2008.

Vander Plaats’ endorsement of Santorum on the eve of the Iowa caucuses produced a backlash among conservatives in Iowa, some of whom accused the FAMiLY LEADER president of engaging in “pay for play” schemes and selling his coveted support to the highest bidder. Santorum admitted that Vander Plaats approached the campaign with an indirect solicitation of money to help promote his support, but other sources familiar with the talks between Vander Plaats and GOP candidates characterized the tactics as “corrupt.”

Bob Vander Plaats tried to downplay his Dec. 20 endorsement of Rick Santorum, but with the former Pennsylvania senator now building momentum in Iowa, the FAMiLY Leader president is now predicting a Santorum surge in New Hampshire, where the candidate is still in single digits and has run what could best be described as a courtesy campaign.

During an appearance on Fox News this morning, Vander Plaats said he expected Santorum to win the caucuses and lashed out against Mitt Romney, who he claimed “has pretty much dissed our base.” Watch it:

The vehemently anti-gay Vander Plaats has sparked criticism in recent days for engaging in “pay for play” schemes and selling his coveted support among Evangelical Christian voters to the highest bidder. ABC News reported last week that Vander Plaats approached Romney in 2008 “seeking money for his backing if he supported the former Massachusetts governor.” “He wanted to be paid,” a former staffer said. “He was clearly looking for a paycheck. There was a conversation about him getting a title, but being a paid consultant was much more important.”

Meanwhile, Rick Santorum revealed yesterday that Michele Bachmann was not the only candidate Vander Plaats called to suggest she drop out. Both he and Rick Perry received similar requests:

This seems to also raise speculation about who exactly Vander Plaats actually wanted to endorse. Last month, he indicated that he had narrowed the endorsement down to four candidates: Santorum, Bachmann, Perry, and Newt Gingrich. During the weeks after that announcement, The FAMiLY LEADER’s attention seemed to be focused entirely on raising support for Gingrich, saying “he’s had a life transformation,” accepting that he “asked God’s forgiveness” for his infidelities, and accepting his affirming letter of the group’s “marriage pledge.”

While Santorum may be correct that conservatives like Vander Plaats were just trying to unite social conservatives, it may be that Vander Plaats was building support for Gingrich, the thrice-married former speaker whose complicated marital past raised concerns for certain Evangelical leaders. After all, Gingrich donated $350,000 last year to his campaign against the Iowa Supreme Court Justices who ruled in favor of marriage equality, which is quite the “pay for play.” Santorum, Bachmann, and Perry have the social conservative credentials Vander Plaats would want to endorse without the baggage of Gingrich’s infidelities, but if they had dropped out, he could have endorsed Gingrich without it looking like blatant quid pro quo.