Anti-gay Duck Dynasty star gets ‘free-speech’ award
Phil Robertson, the Duck Dynasty star notorious for his anti-gay remarks, has been named the recipient of a free-speech award.
Robertson will receive the “Andrew Breitbart Defender of the First Amendment Award” during this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference on 27 February.
“In a time where conservative Christians are under attack by the media and pop culture, Phil Robertson continues to courageously stand by truth and his convictions,” David Bossie, president of the organisation, said in a statement.
“Even when the entire mainstream media demanded he disavow his beliefs and attempted to have him fired from his own hit show for expressing these beliefs, he stood firm in his faith.”
Robertson was suspended from the A&E reality show for less than two weeks in 2013, when he questioned in an interview to GQ why gay men would prefer “a man’s anus” over a vagina.
Robertson added to controversy when he claimed that sexually transmitted infections are God’s punishment for gays.
Despite the family claiming it had “moved on” from the incident, last year Robertson gave an Easter Sermon claiming that the “sexually immoral” would go to hell.
In September, Robertson claimed that he is only as homophobic as Jesus – though his son Alan Robertson has hailed him as a 21st Century prophet more akin to John the Baptist.
