Republican Presidential hopeful Rick Perry has certainly gained a great deal of attention after the release of his 30 second campaign ad titled “Strong” but perhaps not what he had hoped for. In the ad Perry unashamedly announced his dedication to his Christian faith while claiming that the allowance of gays and lesbians to openly serve in the military to be what is wrong with America.
Today during a stop in the ad campaigns targeted area of Iowa, Perry was the target of a handful of vocal pro-equality hecklers. At Café Diem in Ames, the Texas Governor spoke in front of an estimated 230 people before voices from the crowd began questioning him about how he was “demonizing gay people” in TV ads.
While attempting to leave the coffee shop, Mr Perry continued to be confronted by many who disagreed with his position against allowing openly gay people to serve in the United States military.
Some of the shouted statements included:
“Why do you hate gays so much?”
“You’re dividing this country, “You don’t deserve to be president. Obama for president!”
For the most part the names of the hecklers have not been disclosed but one man, Jason Arment, 24 of Grimes Iowa made it important to identify himself. Arment, a Marine who served in Iraq in 2007 and 2008 told the Los Angeles Times that he found Perrys ads to be “extremely offensive” and “insulting” to service members.
He asked Perry
“Why can’t gays compete in the military?”
Warren Blumenfeld, an Iowa State University Professor shouted out to the candidate,
"Why are you marginalizing people in this country? Why are you demonizing gay and lesbian people?"
Blumenfeld and the rest of the protesters were largely ignored by Perry, as the Governor signed autographs and worked his way towards the exit of the coffee shop.
It is clear that Perry is not going to back down against his position regarding gays and lesbians openly serving in the United States Military, as it is a key point in his campaign in order to gain support from evangelical Christians.
During an appearance also today, on Fox News Sunday, Perry added that he would diligently work to undo the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” which would force gays and lesbians either back into the closet or out of the military entirely.
No poll has been released showing any improvement in Perry’s Presidential run since the release of the “Strong” ad except that as of Sunday evening, the video has garnished over 627,326 dislike submissions on Youtube.com, making it perhaps the most hated video aired In the history of the website.
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