The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute has released a report that exposes the dishonesty of attempts by leaders of the Republican Party to lure black voters based on 'moral values,' and spotlights the false promises inherent in Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman's call for African-Americans to come "back home" to the GOP. The report, False Promises: How the Right Deploys Homophobia to Win Support from African-Americans, compares the voting records of key Republican policymakers in Congress to polling of African-Americans' top voting priorities and finds that Republican lawmakers have abysmal voting records on these issues.

False Promises, authored by Task Force Policy Analyst Nicolas Ray, shows that legislators with low ratings on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality also receive low ratings from organizations that promote the rights of people of color, including the NAACP and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

"The right wing of the Republican Party has a long-standing record of using fear and bigotry to set Americans against each other for its own gain," said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "It is supremely ironic and profoundly sad that this is the party of Lincoln, a party that once sought to unify a nation. It was a party in which 'freedom' was a principle, not an empty platitude espoused purely for political gain as is done so often by present-day Republican leaders."

"This report should be a wake-up call to all black advocates for racial justice and social equality. We can ill-afford having our voices dissipated by those who would exploit our differences over issues of sexual orientation for their own sinister political gain. Now that their thinly disguised attempts to render our votes meaningless has been revealed, it is up to us rebuild our coalition for change. Poll taxes, literacy tests and lynching didn't stop us and I am confident we will prevail against this new tactic," said H. Alexander Robinson, chief executive of the National Black Justice Coalition.