House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks during a news conference where House and Senate Democrats introduced the Equality Act of 2019 which would ban discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, on March 13, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

The American Family Association has stepped up anti-LGBT smears against the Equality Act, branding the LGBT+ civil rights bill the “Paedophile Protection Act.”

The US House Judiciary Committee voted on Wednesday (May 1) by 22-10 to approve the Equality Act, a bill that would extend existing Civil Rights Act provisions to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Anti-LGBT evangelicals are stepping up their lobbying efforts against the bill before its consideration by the full House of Representatives.

American Family Association pushes anti-LGBT smears in Equality Act lobbying campaign

In a blog post on the website of anti-LGBT evangelical group American Family Association, evangelical radio host Bryan Fischer dubbed the law the “Paedophile Protection Act.”

He falsely claims: “If the Equality Act were to become law, paedophiles would have special privileges and protections under the law that you and I would not have.”

Fischer suggested that if LGBT+ people are protected under law “paedophiles could not be prevented” from joining youth groups for “small boys,” adding: And if you have a problem with that, you’re the one who is going to wind up in jail.”

The evangelical campaigner then baselessly claims: “It will not be long before bestiality (sex with animals) becomes a protected category.

“Prostitution will soon follow, as will incest and necrophilia (sex with dead people).This is what the future holds if this law passes.

“If you want to keep our country from becoming the Disneyland of Deviancy, it’s time to bombard our men and women in Congress with phone calls urging them to vote against the Equality Act.

“Why? Because it, in reality, is the Paedophile Protection Act.”

Needless to say, outlawing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity would not decriminalise sex with children, animals or corpses.

It would, however, prevent discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in all 50 US states.

Bryan Fischer has blamed gay people for the Holocaust

Fischer is known for his outlandish anti-LGBT beliefs.

Fischer regularly makes disturbing comments on his American Family Association radio show, blaming gay people for the Holocaust and claiming that freedom of religion only applies to Christians.

He was disavowed by Jewish groups in 2015 after claiming: “Homosexuality gave us Adolf Hitler, and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine and six million dead Jews.”

Commenting on the Boy Scouts of America’s decision to allow gay youth members in 2013, he said that the organisation should be renamed the “Boy Sodomisers of America”.