This afternoon, Fox News’ Megan Kelly gave Rick Santorum the opportunity to explain why he doesn’t hate gay people. His bottom line? He has gay friends whose “decision” he respects.

But Santorum added that gay people must also respect his point of view. “You also have to respect me for feeling very differently for trying to take that orientation and then trying to project that agenda on to the American public that is consistent with that,” he said. Watch it:

Over the last several days, Santorum has suggested that same-sex marriage is responsible for the economic downturn and compared the institution to a napkins, water, and tea.

A new poll finds “a slim majority of Nebraskans statewide still oppose gay nuptials,” but overall, positions on all things gay appear to be softening, with strong majorities saying that they would “accept a gay grandson, embrace a lesbian friend and support allowing gay couples to adopt children.” The trend is certainly moving towards equality:

– 2000: 70 percent voted in favor of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, 30 percent opposed

– 2009 World-Herald Poll: 66 percent of Omahans favored legal recognition for gay couples — 34 percent supporting gay marriage, 32 percent favoring civil unions

– 2011 Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research poll: 51 percent opposed gay marriage, 42 percent favored it

In 1995 — then serving as Texas’ Agricultural Commissioner — Rick Perry bought stock in Movie Gallery, which until its bankruptcy in 2010, was the largest distributor of pornography in America, the second-largest video rental company behind Blockbuster and one of the few that rented pornography in its stores. According to tax records, Perry acquired the stock in April of 1995 and sold it just days later, earning less than $1,000 from the transaction:

To be fair, it’s unclear how much knowledge Perry had about these investments, and they were a very small part of his overall stock portfolio.

Interestingly, Movie Gallery had been the target of conservative activism from groups like the American Family Association, who launched “a national ad campaign to draw attention to Movie Gallery’s porn practices, and wrote the DoJ and state AG’s demanding, ‘DOJ and State Prosecutors throughout the country should begin immediate investigations to determine if the products and practices of Movie Gallery Video Stores violate Federal and State laws regarding distribution of obscene material.”

“Movie Gallery is one of America’s largest retailers of hard-​core sex videos,” AFA claimed. “Their attempt to acquire family friendly neighborhood Hollywood Video stores across the U.S. poses a serious threat to our communities!” But if this month’s Response rally is any indication, AFA isn’t holding Perry’s brief investment against him. After all, the Texas governor will have another opportunity to prove his conservative credentials if he signs the FAMiLY Leader’s pledge vowing to ban pornography.

The Southern Poverty Law Center designated the Family Research Council a hate group for its anti-gay rhetoric, and its latest fundraising mailer is chock full of it. Kyle Mantyla at PFAW’s Right Wing Watch shared the mailer he received, which attacks the Obama administration for participating in the “It Gets Better” anti-bullying campaign. In just a few short paragraphs, FRC president Tony Perkins refers to LGBT identities as “perversion,” “immoral,” and a “disgusting” “lifestyle” to “recruit” kids into (bolding is Perkins’):

The videos are titled “It Gets Better.” They are aimed at persuading kids that although they’ll face struggles and perhaps bullying for “coming out” as homosexual (or transgendered or some other perversion), life will get better. [...]

Can you imagine George Washington, Ronald Reagan, or any other president telling school children that it’s okay to be immoral and that they’ll eventually feel better about it?

It’s disgusting. And it’s part of a concerted effort to persuade kids that homosexuality is okay and actually to recruit them into that “lifestyle.”

While Perkins’ remarks are largely offensive, his outright claim that kids can be “recruited” into homosexuality is particularly disturbing. It is the same rhetoric that was used to support the Briggs Initiative in 1978 to suggest that gays are predatory. That groups like FRC are reverting back to these fear-baiting tactics reflects a clear escalation in pro-bullying anti-gay rhetoric among the religious right. FRC’s fellow hate group, MassResistance, regularly attacks the “It Gets Better” campaign, going so far as to send the message “It DOESN’T Get Better.” That is the “pro-family” message sent to young people by these tactics.

After Illinois enacted civil unions in June, at least three separate Catholic Charities halted their state adoption and foster care services rather than comply with the new law and place children in same-sex households. The charities also sued the state — which had ended its contracts with the agencies — for an emergency exemption from the law. Yesterday, Sangamon County circuit judge John Schmidt ruled against the organizations, finding that the state did not violate the property rights of the Catholic Charities when it ended its contracts:

“The fact that the Plaintiffs have contracted with the State to provide foster care and adoption services for over forty years does not vest the Plaintiffs with a protected property interest,” Schmidt wrote in the judgment. “The State may refuse to renew the Plaintfiffs’ contracts.”

The charities had claimed that the DCFS decision not to renew contracts was illegal under religious freedom protections and argued that they have a right to continue foster care work without compromising religious practice.

However, attorneys for the state argued that the charities had no right to contracts in the first place, and that it would be illegal for the state to offer contracts that violated civil union law. “The state has the freedom to set the limits of its contracts,” said Deborah Barnes, an attorney with the Office of the Attorney General. “It wasn’t arbitrary and capricious, the ending of this 40-year relationship… the legal landscape has changed.”

The agencies, however, insisted that the civil unions law “protects religious institutions that don’t recognize civil unions” and offered to “refer those couples elsewhere and only license married couples and single parents living alone.” The state responded that the exemption only applied to clergy “who don’t want to officiate at civil unions” and argued that the charities violated “state anti-discrimination laws that demand couples in civil unions be treated the same as married couples.” Judge Schmidt’s decision avoided the question of discrimination and instead focused on property rights.

Before the civil unions bill became law, the Illinois Attorney General was already investigating Catholic Charities of Springfield for allegedly violating the Illinois Human Rights Act and discriminating “against Illinois citizens based on race, marital states and sexual orientation.”