The June shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. that killed 49 people is part of what propelled Florida Senator Marco Rubio to run for reelection after losing his bid for the White House. But two months to the day of the Pulse massacre on Aug. 12, Rubio will reportedly give a keynote address at an Orlando event hosted by anti-LGBT leaders.
The event, "Rediscovering God in America," is hosted by the Florida Renewal Project, an offshoot of the conservative, evangelical American Renewal Project and Liberty Counsel. The Liberty Counsel defended Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, who refused in 2015 to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the Supreme Court had ruled efforts to limit same-sex marriage unconstitutional.
Per MicNews:
The Miami New Times referred to Liberty Counsel as a "virulently anti-gay Christian group" and noted American Renewal Project head David Lane once "argued that God would punish homosexuals praying at President Barack Obama's 2013 inauguration with 'car bombs,'" among a host of other heated charges such as homosexuality being a "Marxist psychological conditioning plot."
Liberty Counsel co-founder Mat Staver, who will also speak at the event, reportedly criticized some churches that hosted memorials for Pulse victims, claiming the churches turned them into "homosexual love fest[s]."
Rubio's office did not immediately return Complex's request for comment.
