Florida LGBT Republican group condemned for using photo of dead ambassador

A Florida chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans has been criticized by LGBT groups from both major political parties after using a picture of the body of slain U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens in a political advertisement.

According to The Bilerico Project, the ad ran in The Florida Agenda, a Florida LGBT newspaper and accused President Barack Obama's administration of not protecting "gay/gay-friendly American citizens from the terror of Islamic radicalism," while encouraging voters to "support Israel."

Stevens and three other Americans were killed in a Sept. 11 attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Video has surfaced of Stevens being carried out of the wreckage and taken to a hospital. The U.S. State Department that there was no protest leading up to the attack, as it had previously stated.

The ad also suggests that Stevens is gay, drawing from an unconfirmed rumor that, as Salon reported shortly after his death, has been played up on a number of conservative websites.

Clarke Cooper, national executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative LGBT advocacy group, said the ad did not represent the organization's stance on the fatal attack.

"The 9-11 attack on Americans posted in Libya was a straight up act of terrorism," Cooper said. "There are plenty of reasons to vote Republican on protecting US interests abroad, but such an ad is fallacious, simple minded and irresponsible."

The executive director of the National Stonewall Democrats, Jerame Davis, also condemned the ad, saying the Broward County group had crossed the line of civil discourse.

"It is simply unimaginable to me how any political message, let alone the muddy and ludicrous message of this ad, in any way justifies disgracing the memory of a man who gave his life in service to his country," Davis said. "This level of depravity and moral indifference must not be allowed to enter our political discourse."

[Image via Wikipedia Commons]