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Evan Wolfson, the founder of the one of the country's top same sex marriage advocacy groups, on Sunday assured Family Research Council President Tony Perkins that "the gay people are not going to use up all the marriage licenses" if the Supreme Court strikes down marriage discrimination.

CBS host Bob Schieffer asked a Face the Nation panel if it would make more sense to drop the same sex marriage bans and allow churches to decide if they wanted to include gay and lesbian couples.

"And then various churches could define what they thought marriage was," Schieffer explained. "And gay people, other people could choose the church that fit their particular beliefs."

"If you want to talk about rights, let's talk about those rights that have been lost in the wake of same sex marriage," Perkins argued. "And religious freedom has been among them. You've got Catholic charities no longer doing adoptions, not providing vital services right here in this city as a result of same sex marriage in D.C. You've got parental rights that have been lost, parents no longer being able to determine what their children are taught, whose moral values they are taught in school. We have small businessmen losing their rights because they won't participate in same sex ceremonies. So you talk about rights, let's talk about rights."

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CNN host Soledad O'Brien on Wednesday told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins that he could be "on the wrong side of history" after he defended the Boy Scouts' ban on LGBT members by suggesting that homosexuals were more likely to be pedophiles.

As the Boy Scouts of American national board was set to decide if local organizations would be allowed to include gay members on Wednesday, O'Brien asked Perkins if there was "a possibility that you're wrong" because "historically there have been core values that in retrospect turned out to be flawed?"

"You're comparing immutable characteristics with characteristics that are not immutable," Perkins explained. "In part, their policy has been to protect boys, to create obviously not a perfect environment, but one that is in line with what the parents want, to ensure their children are safe when they go out in these scouting activities."

O'Brien wondered "why it would make a difference to open up scouting to people who are gay" because the Boy Scouts had already released 14,500 pages of so-called "perversion files" showing years of sexual abuse on minors that had been covered up by the organization.

"Why would I let a man who is attracted to other males go camping with my boys?" Perkins argued.

"A pedophile has sex with children," O'Brien pointed out. "Are you saying that someone who's gay is a pedophile?"

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Family Research Council (FRC) President Tony Perkins is defending the Boy Scouts of America's policy banning gay members by saying the organization wanted to "make good citizens" by encouraging scouts to be "morally straight."

In a letter earlier this week, Perkins had blasted UPS CEO D. Scott Davis after the shipping company decided to stop funding the Boy Scouts over its anti-LGBT stance.

"Apparently, the company isn't interested in true diversity but in strong-arming anyone who disagrees with their extreme agenda -- including a century-old youth development program, whose only crime is instilling character into millions of American boys," a statement on FRC's website said. "As for their longstanding policy on homosexuality, the Boy Scouts are doing what every parent would want them to: putting children's safety first."

CNN host John Berman on Friday, invited Perkins, who founded the designated hate group, to explain why his organization was boycotting UPS.

"Well, the Boy Scouts for over 100 years, as part of their moral code, has challenged boys to be straight and to be upstanding citizens," Perkins opined. "That's their code, morally straight, that they not engage in sexual behavior, that they keep themselves morally conditioned and mentally sharp, and that's been their code."

"What have you is you have a few corporations, major corporations, who are saying, look, unless you abandon a century old value set, we're not going to give you money," he continued. "And the -- some things don't change with time. The Boy Scouts are one that have laid down a marker and said we will continue with what's worked for our boys. We're going to continue to produce young men who make good citizens."

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If anyone wanted to know where wingnuts Mike Lee and Rick Santorum got their talking points in opposing this United Nations treaty that just got voted down by the shameless Republicans in the Senate who were too afraid of the crackpots among their ranks to do the right thing, look no further than this guy -- Michael Farris.

CNN's Anderson Cooper did a nice job going after Sen. Mike Lee the other night when he was trying to defend leading the opposition to the treaty. This Monday evening, Cooper brought on the Home School Legal Defense Association's Farris to defend his position as well. Despite Cooper continually reminding Farris that the treaty would not directly impact United States' law or force parents of disabled children here to do anything, Farris continued to maintain that the opposite was true and that it has already impacted cases in the United States.

After he went off the air, Cooper did some follow up with their chief legal analyst at CNN, Jeffrey Toobin, who basically said that Farris was full of it. Farris continually challenged Cooper during the interview as someone who had no idea what he was talking about and painted himself as an expert because of his experience teaching law at the school he founded, Patrick Henry College. After reading a bit about it, it pretty well sounds like just another Liberty University, designed with the purpose of pushing home schooled evangelicals into the government and positions of power.

Here's more on that from Daily KOS: German reporter goes underground at Patrick Henry College:

Amrai Coen, a writer for the German weekly Die Zeit, wanted to visit Patrick Henry College, but the college administration refused her visit since the school had "bad experiences with foreign journalists." Undeterred, Amrai posed as a prospective student and showed up on campus on "Visitor's Day". Her piece on her experience that day provides a rare inside glimpse of life at America's Madrassa,

Nearly all of the students at Patrick Henry College have been home-schooled by ultra-conservative evangelical Christian parents. At Patrick Henry these young people can complete their christo-fascist indoctrination before joining right-wing think tanks and media groups in Washington. Students are taught to kneel before images of Jesus and Ronald Reagan; they attend lecturess on how America can waterboard its way to global dominance. Professors are dismissed if they actually teach science, since students are taught that the earth is only 6000 years old and baby Jesus frolicked with dinosaurs.

(Note: my translation from the Zeit piece)

The college has one mission: to save America from its downfall, from the abyss into which Barack Obama has steered the country in the past four years. Young conservative Christians are the soldiers in this wa. At Patrick Henry College they will be trained to fight one day on the front - as politicians, filmmakers, or entrepreneurs they will win back American society. Some have rejected Harvard or Yale in order to study here.

I'm sure much to the dismay of their founder, an LGBT group has also been making the public aware of how the school treats their students: Patrick Henry College, Homeschool Bastion, Has LGBT Group.

Here's more background on Farris from Right Wing Watch as well: Michael Farris Warns that the UN might 'Get Control' over Children With Glasses:

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As Nicole wrote earlier today, Dana Milbank took his turn this month helping to mainstream the type of hatred and bile spread by the likes of the FRC's Tony Perkins. This Thursday it was Mrs. Greenspan allowing him air time to defend Todd Akin after the Republican establishment threw him under the bus and to pretend that Joe Biden has ever said anything nearly as offensive as what came out of Akin's mouth.

Naturally we could count on Andrea Mitchell to allow Perkins' lies and obfuscation to go unchallenged, but the bigger problem is that she's allowing him to go on the air at all if she's not going to all and treating him as though he's some respectable member of the beltway establishment. As Nicole explained though, that's exactly the problem because in Mitchell's mind, that's exactly what he is. Just another lobbyist out there running the cocktail circuit with the rest of them.

Tony Perkins downplays ‘legitimate rape’ as a ‘Biden-ism’:

Family Research Council President Tony Perkin on Thursday defended Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), saying that his assertion that women could not get pregnant from “legitimate rape” was the type of innocent gaffe that Vice President Joe Biden might make.

Perkins told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell that he met with Akin in private “to encourage him and the stand that he’s taken.”

“This is a challenge for him,” the evangelical leader explained. “It was a Biden-ism that he made. It was inexcusable, it was inappropriate, he has acknowledged as such and he’s moving on. Now, there are some in the Republican Party that want him to get out, he has made his decision that he’s going to stay in.

He continued: “And from my perspective as our organization endorsed him in the primary, we endorsed him based upon the totality of his record. He has been a strong advocate for national defense, a strong advocate for life, for family and for all Americans. And so our position on him and his candidacy has not changed.”

Mitchell wondered how widespread was the view in the anti-abortion movement that women who were “legitimately raped” could not get pregnant.

“I’ve never had a discussion about that,” Perkins insisted. “It’s not something that’s discussed. Look, I see that every human life is sacred, it should be welcomed into our world and protected by our laws …. Todd [Akin] said he misspoke, he apologized for it. Now, I think it’s time to move on.” Read on...

"Biden-ism" huh? Yeah, good luck with that Tony. I think that's going to stick about as well as "Obamaloney" did for Mittens.

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The absolutely venal Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, wasted no time in politicizing the shooting which occurred at their Washington office yesterday. A short time later the equally noxious hate group the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) joined in in condemning the SPLC.

via CNN

(CNN) -- Accusations of blame abounded Thursday, a day after a 28-year-old man who had volunteered for a center that serves gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people was taken into custody for allegedly shooting a building manager at the headquarters of a Christian conservative group.

"Let me be clear that Floyd Corkins was responsible for firing the shot yesterday," Family Research Council President Tony Perkins told reporters in Washington about the suspect. "But Corkins was given a license to shoot an unarmed man by organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center that have been reckless in labeling organizations hate groups because they disagree with them on public policy."

Perkins said the SPLC "should be held accountable for their reckless use of terminology that is leading to the intimidation and what the FBI here has categorized as an act of domestic terrorism."

Mark Potok of ths SPLC responded by releasing this statement to Perkin's offensive claim:

Perkins’ accusation is outrageous. The SPLC has listed the FRC as a hate group since 2010 because it has knowingly spread false and denigrating propaganda about LGBT people — not, as some claim, because it opposes same-sex marriage. The FRC and its allies on the religious right are saying, in effect, that offering legitimate and fact-based criticism in a democratic society is tantamount to suggesting that the objects of criticism should be the targets of criminal violence.

Full statement below.

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Christian think tank leader Tony Perkins is blasting President Barack Obama over an effort to market the U.S. that includes images of LGBT people.

During a Thursday radio address, the Family Research Council president pointed to a recently created tourism advertisement that shows two gay men vacationing together.

"A new batch of U.S. travel ads should send some leaders packing--permanently," Perkins asserted. "[W]hen Congress passed the Travel Promotion Act, people thought it'd be a great chance to highlight American attractions. What they didn't know is that it would highlight same-sex attractions."

"That's right," he added. "The commercial invites people to America-not to see the Grand Canyon, but to celebrate homosexuality. In one scene, a gay man is sleeping on his partner's shoulder in a trolley."

"According to Brand USA, the ads were supposed to 'open up some minds as to what America really is' -- which, based on this commercial, is a country of radical values and backwards priorities. I suppose this is part of the President's push to 'rebrand' America."

The Travel Promotion Act, signed by Obama in 2010, was hailed as a tax-free stimulus and the country's first-ever national tourism promotion. Ads began airing on May 1 in the United Kingdom, Japan, and Canada, with the original song "Land of Dreams" composed by Rosanne Cash, daughter of American music legend Johnny Cash.

Brand USA, which created the 60-second commercial, was clearly trying to show the world that America is welcoming to diverse groups of people by depicting various races, ethnicities, religions and sexual orientations.

"It’s bigger than us," New Orleans actor Edward R. Cox, who appears as one of the gay men in the ad, told Out Smart magazine. "It’s not just a step forward for the GLBT community but a stride forward."

"My agent sent my real life partner and me for it because we are both Equity actors, and they were looking for gay actors and in particular gay couples," the actor explained. “The country needs this... Both the tourism dollars and the positive message it sends. Is it an idealized version of America? Is the GLBT community here still struggling? Yes. But this is just so exciting and humbling.”

Watch this advertisement from Brand USA.

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(h/t: Right Wing Watch)

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Family Research Council President Tony Perkins found himself in an awkward situation on Thursday when one CNN host insisted he explain why "homosexuals bother you so much."

When Perkins agreed to appear on CNN to hype his press conference supporting the Defense of Marriage Act, he probably didn't expect host Brooke Baldwin to make the conversation personal.

"Everyone has the right to opine," Baldwin told Perkins. "But my question is more on a personal level to you: Have you ever been to the home of a married, same sex couple?"

"I have not been to the home of a married, same sex couple, no," Perkins admitted.

"If you were ever to do so and you were sitting across from them over dinner, how would you convince them that their life together -- either two men, two women -- hurts straight couples?" the CNN host wondered.

"That's not how we make public policy," Perkins replied. "Certainly there are some same sex couples that are probably great parents, but that's not what the overwhelming amount of social science shows us. And we've got some great single moms that are doing great jobs and we applaud them and encouraged them, but we still know that the best environment for a child is with a mom and a dad."

"I know you don't want to answer the personal questions, but I'm going to try again," Baldwin pressed. "Why do -- you've never been to the home of a same sex couple -- why do homosexuals bother you so much?"

"They don't bother me," Perkins insisted. "I'm not going to be silent while they try to redefine marriage in this country, change policy, what my children are taught in schools and what religious organizations can do. I'm not going to be silent, nor are millions of other Christians across this country."

"We don't have a dislike for homosexuals," he added. "They don't have a right to redefine marriage for the rest of us, they don't have a right to take away my religious freedom, they don't have a right to step between me and what my child is taught. That's what's happening."

(h/t: Mediaite)

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A member of the Fox News Medical A-Team on Thursday warned that legalizing polygamy was inevitable if "narcissistic" LGBT couples were allowed to adopt children.

During a discussion about President Barack Obama's recent "evolution" on marriage equality, psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow wandered off topic to tell Fox Business host Lou Dobbs that there was "some psychology in the background of this issue" that had to do with children being adopted by same sex couples.

"Children in same sex households, unless the donor of sperm or ova -- eggs -- is known, which is unusual, unless that's the case, these kids don't know their biological parents," the Fox News "expert" pointed out. "Now, we don't know the psychological impact of that at all and we need the data, we really do."

"We are making public policy, as you suggest here, on the adoption of children without an understanding of the psychological impact that effect will have on their conduct and behavior," Dobbs agreed. "And we seem to be doing so as though we've been inspired on high to do so. It's really been remarkable the manifestation of our disregard for successive generations."

"And it's the opposite of inspiration on high, which suggests that you would empathize and care for others," Ablow replied. "This is narcissistic. I feel like it so I'm going to do it -- no matter what the science might show. And we need the data."

He added: "But the bottom line is, how did we decide that kids are just fine to grow up absent their biological parents? Because why? Because we love each other. Well, three people can love each other so polygamy has to be close behind. How can you have same sex marriage and not believe that three people can fall in love, which they absolutely can?"

While Ablow obviously has a low opinion of LGBT people (he compared a transgender reality star to an anorexic and heroin addict last year), his problem with adoption is not limited to same sex couples.

In February, the psychiatrist suggested that Media Matters founder David Brock was "dangerous" because he "is an adopted boy."

"He’s a dangerous man, because having followers and waging war," Ablow explained to Fox News host Steve Doocy. "This is an adopted boy who needs to plumb the depths of his psyche. He was adopted. Many adopted children are tremendously well-adjusted, but for some reason, this man feels he’s unloved and unloveable, shunted to the side, and that’s the antidote he feels: unlimited power."

According to the American Psychological Association, "there is no evidence to suggest that lesbian women or gay men are unfit to be parents or that psychosocial development among children of lesbian women or gay men is compromised."

But Ablow has also accused American Psychological Association of being "infected" by "manipulations of the truth on a scale never before known."

(h/t: Media Matters)

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I'm not sure what's gotten into Chris Matthews' drinking water lately, but we're seeing him be a bit harsher with Republicans who come on his show and just try to spew their talking points unchallenged. Matthews and Rep. Barney Frank grilled right wing bigot Tony Perkins last week over his stance on homosexuality and gay marriage, and this Monday, Matthews got a bit tougher with Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers with her playing the role as GOP apologist for her party's continued attacks on women than we saw during his last interview with her.

He challenged her support of the Republican version of the Violence Against Women Act and it was nice to see him end an interview by telling her that her views are going to be pretty hard to swallow with the voters in her district, instead of praising her as one of the new, "great leaders" in her party as he did when she was blaming Democrats for creating "all this war on women stuff" during his interview with her a couple of months ago.

Matthews' other guest was Rep. Gwen Moore, who we posted about here, who is a sponsor of the Democrats' version of the bill, and who laid out very plainly why there should be protections extended to same sex couples, Native Americans and immigrants no matter what their legal status as long as they're cooperating with authorities. I think Moore made a pretty compelling case for why the law should be extended to all of these groups during this segment.

McMorris Rodgers on the other hand, kept attempting to take the debate back to the fact that there are no federal laws legalizing same-sex couples. I was happy to hear Matthews' response to that which was a similar one I might have made myself if asked and basically summed up with this statement when McMorris Rodgers tried to call those protections "a side issue."

MATTHEWS: Well, they`re not side issues if you`re getting beat up by your partner. That`s not a side issue, it`s your life.

Thank you Chris Matthews. I was happy to see him take her on and call her out for the fact that they don't want to protect women against violence because heaven forbid those protections might include groups they want to discriminate against. The GOP has entrenched itself to the point where they are so anti-gay rights and anti-immigrant that they'd rather tank an entire bill that protects women than heaven forbid vote for something which includes those groups and protections for any of them as well. And that in spite of, as Rep. Moore noted, the fact that those recommendations for those protections were made by those in law enforcement, the DOJ and the FBI.

I find it sad and disheartening to listen to the likes of McMorris Rodgers make excuses for her party being on the wrong side of bigotry, sexism, hatred and allowing for violence to escape prosecution if you believe the person the act was committed against is a second class citizen.

I know I should not be surprised by the fact that we've got women willing to make embarrassments of our sex by being willing to vote for issues that harm women as McMorris has done, but it doesn't make me any less disgusted with her ilk. She is doing as much damage to women making strides towards equal rights and protections under the law as hate monger Rush Limbaugh. She's actually worse, because she does it under the guise of pretending most women don't care if other women are abused and giving those claims credence in our corporate media.

Transcript below the fold.

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