One of the nation’s most prominent anti-LGBTQ leaders, Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, has met with President-elect Donald Trump to discuss a potential position in his Administration’s Department of Education.
Falwell was one of Trump’s earliest and most outspoken Religious Right supporters, reported Right Wing Watch. He appeared in Trump campaign ads, hosted the business mogul at Liberty, sang his praises—even going so far as to compare him to Jesus Christ and suggest that God called on him to run for president—and joined Trump in leveling harsh attacks against Muslims, telling students that “if more good people had concealed-carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in.”
“Jerry Falwell Jr. espouses an extreme, anti-LGBTQ worldview. It would be a danger to our community, especially youth in schools, for him to be anywhere near our nation’s governmental affairs,” said Fran Hutchins, deputy director, Equality Federation. “It is deeply troubling that Mr. Trump is surrounding himself with the ‘who’s who’ of homophobic, racist, and xenophobic leaders, and we must not be silent. The incoming Administration is sending a message to our youth that it is okay to bully and discriminate.”
Falwell Jr. is the son of Jerry Falwell Sr., the founder of Liberty University, who is widely viewed as the instigator of the “anti-gay industry.” Falwell Sr. blamed 9/11 on LGBTQ people, and once said, “AIDS is not just God’s punishment for homosexuals; it is God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals.”
Liberty University prohibits “homosexual behavior” and has hosted several anti-LGBTQ events, including those that promote the dangerous, unscientific practices of “conversion therapy.”
Falwell told the Richmond Times-Dispatch this year that he is a stronger supporter of school vouchers, which direct taxpayer funds to religious academies at the expense of public schools.
Falwell would also have an interest in protecting the hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid that Liberty receives thanks to its online programs—but such potential conflicts probably wouldn’t bother Trump.
