Phyllis Schlafly, often referred to as the founding mother of the Christian conservative movement and described as “one of the top five most powerful anti-gay forces in the country” by The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, was fondly remembered as a “fierce and tireless warrior” by Donald Trump during a subdued eulogy Saturday.

Will be in Missouri today with Melania for the funeral of a wonderful and truly respected woman, Phyllis S! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 10, 2016

Trump, who has courted the LGBT community in recent months, said Schlafly, who died Monday at age 92 in her home in St. Louis, “never stopped fighting for the fundamental idea that the American people ought to have their needs come before anyone and anything else.”

He called the ardent opponent of same-sex marriage and gays serving openly in the military, a “truly great American patriot,” adding, “Phyllis was a strong, proud, fierce, and tireless warrior, and she was a warrior for the country, which she loved so much.”

In the 1970s, she led the successful fight against the Equal Rights Amendment, a law which would have ensured women were treated the same as men under state and federal laws, partly by claiming it would pave the way for same-sex marriages.

Slate writes:



Anti-gay rhetoric was central to Schlafly’s anti-ERA campaign, and it allowed her to bring together a variety of groups that were united in their opposition to homosexuality. A staunch Catholic, Schlafly innovatively drew from different conservative and religious traditions to build a multifaith and geographically diverse coalition. Drawing from longstanding opposition to racial integration, interracial marriage, and mixed-race families, her pamphlets and articles transposed racial rhetoric onto fears of homosexuality. She frequently associated the ERA with the dangers of “sex mixing,” “homosexual marriage,” and the threat of “homosexual schoolteachers.” As early as 1973, she warned that the ERA “would legalize homosexual marriages and open the door to the adoption of children by legally married homosexual couples.” The ERA would enable these gay rights, she said, because any “law that defines a marriage as a union of a man and a woman would have to be amended to replace those words with ‘person.’ ”

Television evangelist Pat Robertson has warmly praised Schlafly as the woman who gunned down the ERA. “If it were not for this lady,” Robertson said, “we

would have had homosexual rights written into the Constitution.”

In 1992, Schlafly’s son John, was “outed” as a gay man by the New York-based magazine Queer World, also known as QW, which has since suspended publication. Phyllis characterized the media’s interest in her son’s revelation as “obviously a political hit against me.”

Her son disagreed with one common contention of the religious right, that homosexuality is a choice. “You can say in some sense I choose to write with my right or left hand,” Schlafly told the Examiner. “But the point is that it is such an automatic decision. That’s how I see homosexuality.” He also objected “to anyone saying that being gay constitutes not having good moral character.”

Trump called Schlafly, who fought aginst the dangers of the gay agenda, “one of the great champions for the American family.”

“Phyllis fought very hard to the very end for a free and prosperous America. She understood that to be truly united as a country, we can’t simply turn to government or to politicians,” Trump said. “The bedrock of our unity is the realization that we are all brothers and sisters created by the same God. Phyllis understood that. Phyllis understood that.”

Even in her final years, the Eagle Forum founder and leader continued her crusade against same-sex marriage. She warned the LGBT community that despite the Supreme Court’s decision in June on marriage equality, it will only serve to reinvigorate the anti-gay movement.

“We should develop all kinds of strategies — legal strategies, legislative strategies and public opinion strategies, in order to reject the rules of, in many cases, a single judge or just a simply majority of judges,” she said. “I do believe the grass roots can take back the Republican Party… These kingmakers… they’re the people who really want us to be bipartisan and get along with everybody. But that’s not the American way. Americans believe in the adversarial concept.”