Last month, after he shockingly revealed a 19-year-old “son,” Florida GOP Congressman Matt Gaetz criticized what he called “gay-shaming smears” from social media users who suggested the teen is in fact his lover.
“Are you saying being gay is something to be ashamed of?” Gaetz wrote. “I’m not gay, but I don’t think it would be if I were. … The New Woke is mean.”
Fast forward to Wednesday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing with CEOs from major tech, when Gaetz took a stand in support of anti-LGBT hate groups including the American Family Association and the Family Research Council.
Mother Jones reports: Gaetz remarks came in the course of attacking the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit organization that maintains a list of hate groups that Amazon has chosen to ban from using its fundraising service. “The Southern Poverty Law Center, which you allow to dictate who can receive donations on your AmazonSmile platform, have said the Catholic Family News, Catholic Family Ministries, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, the American Family Association, the Family Research Council, the Jewish Defense League, and even Dr. Ben Carson are extremists,” Gaetz said to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. “I’m just wondering why you would place your confidence in a group that seems to be so out of step and seems to take mainstream Christian doctrine and label it as hate?”
More from Business Insider: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos folded under questioning from Rep. Matt Gaetz during Wednesday’s tech antitrust hearing. Gaetz, a Republican representative from Florida, asked Bezos about Amazon’s Smile program, which donates 0.5% of eligible purchases to the charitable organization of a customer’s choice. Amazon relies on the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a nonprofit that identifies hate groups and extremist groups in the US, to help it determine ineligible charities. … The SPLC came up again a few minutes later in another line of questioning, and Bezos again implied that Amazon would explore other options besides the SPLC when determining appropriate charitable organizations. “While I accept what you’re saying that the SPLC and US Foreign Asset Office are not perfect, and I would like a better source if I can get it, that is what we use today,” Bezos said.
Watch a clip below.
