A flier distributed at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., on Friday that promoted a book titled "The Health Hazards of Homosexuality" prompted outcry when photos surfaced on social media.
The flier was given out to attendees at the gathering where President Donald Trump spoke in complimentary tote bags that also included a sticker saying, "I don't believe the liberal media."
MassResistance, a group based Massachusetts that identifies itself as "a pro-family activist organization that educates people to help them confront the attacks on the traditional family" on its website, created the fliers to promote the book by its founder, Bryan Camenker.
A request for comment from MassResistance was not immediately returned. The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated MassResistance a hate group since 2008.
According to its preface, the book "aims to alert the public — especially young people and their parents — on the serious physical and physiological health dangers inherent in adopting a 'gay,' lesbian or bisexual (GLB) identity."
The book says the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that resulted in the legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide, made "sodomy a right and a legitimate basis for marriage."
It also claims homosexuality is a mental disorder and the truth is being suppressed by "the homosexual lobby and their allies," including the "radicalized" entertainment industry, press and educational establishments.
The book touts an official endorsement from a Dr. Paul Church, where he is listed as "Urologist, Asst. Clinical Professor of Surgery (part-time), Harvard Medical School Boston, Massachusetts, October 2016." A spokesperson for Harvard Medical School told NBC News that Church has not been affiliated with the school since December 2015.
Church was fired in January 2016 from his position as a urologist at Beth Israel Deaconess, one of Harvard’s affiliated hospitals, for sending anti-gay emails to staff.
Trump received a standing ovation at the Value Voters summit, which was organized by the Family Research Council (FRC), when he said in his remarks Friday that Americans "don't worship government, we worship God."
He became the first sitting president to address the annual gathering of evangelical conservatives, a powerful bloc that helped propel him to the White House in November.
According to its website, the FRC "does not consider homosexuality, bi-sexuality, and transgenderism as acceptable alternative lifestyles or sexual 'preferences'; they are unhealthy and destructive to individual persons, families, and society."
LGBTQ advocate groups condemned Trump's appearance at the summit.
"This morning, addressing a gathering of some of the most extreme anti-LGBTQ activists in the country, Trump once again legitimized hate speech and vowed, again and again to write discrimination into law by pushing laws focused on religious exemptions," Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, a media watchdog group, said in a statement, adding that religious exemption laws serve to legalize discrimination.
