The nation's largest LGBT advocacy organization, GLAAD, issued a fact check of Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker's commencement speech at a private Catholic college. (Chris Unger / Stringer/ picture alliance / Contributor)
GLAAD fact-checked Butker's assertion attributing the COVID-19 pandemic to "bad policies and poor leadership." Butker further contended that inadequate leadership had ramifications on various fronts, including "abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia," which he attributed to "degenerate cultural values and media," all stemming from what he described as "the pervasiveness of disorder."
"Fact: Butker omits the fact that Donald Trump was president at the inception of COVID, lied about COVID, and downplayed the threat for months as hundreds of thousands of Americans died and got sick," the organization wrote.
Another fact check by the organization stated, "Fact: Extremist legislators and Supreme Court justices have restricted access to deeply personal health care decisions that are supported by a majority of Americans across party lines and all faith backgrounds."
Much of Butker's speech urged graduates to be "authentically and unapologetically Catholic" and stick to traditional values. However, GLAAD's fact-check called Butker's "generalizations about Catholics" at odds with the papal authority of Pope Francis, who has "has taken more actions than any pope in history in support of LGBTQ people and to welcome LGBTQ people in the church."
"American Catholics have supported marriage for same-sex couples at consistently higher rates than the general population over the past two decades," the organization wrote.
NFL star Harrison Butker's speech at Benedictine College was focused on more conservative family values, which raised eyebrows with his proclamations of conservative politics and Catholicism, but he received a standing ovation from graduates and other attendees of the commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 11. (AP Photo)
Earlier in Butker's speech, he asserted that "for most of us," their vocation is to be "married men and women."
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"It is only in the past few years that I have grown encouraged to speak more boldly and directly, because, as I mentioned earlier, I have leaned into my vocation as a husband and father and as a man," he said.
Fox News' Chantz Martin contributed to this report.
Jamie Joseph is a writer who covers politics. She leads Fox News Digital coverage of the Senate.
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