Youngkin Proclamation Praises Anti-LGBT Christian Nationalists

Glenn Youngkin ran for governor of Virginia feigning to be a "moderate."  Meanwhile, Youngkin was in bed with Christian extremists and white supremacist elements acrloss the Commonwealth, including the vicious Family Foundation based in Richmond and one of his first acts in office was to sign an executive order banning an accurate teaching of racial history and opening the door to erasing LGBT students and individuals.  In addition, he has pushed efforts to ban or restict abortion access in Virginia and pushing efforts to dumb down and put a white Christofascist theme in public school curriculums. None of these efforts are the agenda of a moderate and but for the Democrat controled Virginia Senate, Virginia would have lurched backward in time to a far uglier period.  As Youngkin contiues to nurse dreams - delusions? - of a presidential run, he continues to pander to the Christofascist/white supremacist base of today's Republican Party much in the manner of Florida's Ron DeSantis who is on his way to destroying Florida.  One such pandering effort is Youngkin's recent proclamation honoring a gathering of extremists in Virginia Beach.  Right Wing Watch looks at this proclamation and the ugly gather it was honoring.  I suspect Youngkin though the public wouldn't notice who he was honoring. Here are excerpts:

A group of Christian nationalists committed to “re-dedicating (re-marrying) the nation back to God” gathered Wednesday in Virginia Beach, Virginia, for an “Re-Covenanting Ceremony & Gala Dinner Reception” featuring the likes of Glenn Beck, former Rep. Michele Bachmann, pseudo-historian David Barton, and others.

Timed to coincide with the anniversary of the day in 1607 when English settlers landed at Cape Henry, Virginia, erected a cross, and “dedicated the new world to God,” organizers insisted that the event was not intended to “promote any political figure or party, but rather to bring the nation as a whole back to God through prayers, repentance and proclamation.”

Many speakers at the event, of course, had different objectives, judging by the fact that the first two speakers spent a good portion of their remarks attacking drag performers, transgender individuals and the Biden administration.

The very first speaker was Craig Johnson, a conservative commentator who bills himself as “The Hatchet Man” and railed against “demon-possessed people” who are reading “homosexual pornography” to school children. . . . Now ungodliness infects our youth with evil, and they call it a woke culture. These demon-possessed people use cute little picture books for the kindergartners, but they read outright homosexual pornography to middle schoolers and high schoolers.

Father James Altman, a radical right-wing priest who was removed from his ministry in 2021 after making a series of controversial statements, lived up to his reputation as he hurled viciously transphobic attacks on Biden administration officials and others.

“If God is for us, who can be against us?” Altman asked. “Certainly not some mentally ill tranny freak show of a four star admiral in Biden’s cabinet. Why don’t the bishops at this Catholic Church say that? That’s why they hate me, because I do and they don’t and they know it!” . . . we should crush like the vermin that they are—and they are—every filthy school board member or teacher who tries to shove their mentally ill tranny freak show down the throats of our precious children.”

Later in the program, right-wing activist Zoe Warren, who is currently running to be chair of the South Carolina GOP, sought to repent on behalf of “government,” declaring that this nation has become so wicked that “we deserve for our women to be raped and our children to be ripped apart.”

Among the sponsors of the event was the Virginia Christian Alliance, which managed to secure a “certificate of recognition” from Gov. Glenn Youngkin recognizing the “pastors, governmental leaders, and others from the Commonwealth and around the Nation” who had gathered for this event “to rededicate this land according to the 1607 Jamestown Covenant of Land Dedication.”

Youngkin continues to show his true colors by the company he keeps and the extremists he supports.