Move over Michele Bachmann , there’s a new rabidly anti-queer and anti-women member of Donald Trump’s election team.
Late last week the Republican presidential nominee’s campaign announced that former senator Rick Santorum has been appointed to the candidate’s Catholic Advisory Committee. The committee will “provide advisory support to Mr. Trump on those issues and policies important to Catholics and other people of faith in America,” according to a Sept. 22 press release.
Santorum, who has compared fighting same-sex marriage to fighting terrorism, will join over 30 other advisors on the committee including Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, Matt Smith, president of the Catholic Advocate and Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony List. Together, they will aid Trump in strategizing around key issues like religious liberty, judicial nominations and pro-life activism.
Santorum, who dropped out of the GOP presidential race in February, endorsed Trump for president in May saying that he had a “long heart-to-heart” with the nominee and that he is “committed to working with Donald and his Administration to ensure that conservative priorities are advanced — not simply judicial nominees, but nominees to key administration positions.”
The addition of the former Republican senator to Trump’s roster continues to up his campaign’s anti-queer ante. Trump has previously stated that he would “strongly consider” appointing judges to the U.S. Supreme Court who could reverse marriage equality. He’s also said he believes North Carolina should be able to choose to discriminate against queer people and most recently pledged to sign the First Amendment Defense Act, which the New Civil Rights Movement notes is “a bill that would allow discrimination against same-sex couples by any person, business, or institution.”
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar,rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.
