Earlier today, Floyd Lee Corkins pleaded guilty to several counts relating to when he opened fire at the Family Research Council, injuring a guard before he was subdued. FRC’s Tony Perkins used that news to reiterate his belief that by labeling groups like his as “hate groups,” the Southern Poverty Law Center gave Corkins a “license” for violence:

PERKINS: The day after Floyd Corkins came into the FRC headquarters and opened fire wounding one of our team members, I stated that while Corkins was responsible for the shooting, he had been given a license to perpetrate this act of violence by groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center which has systematically and recklessly labeled every organization with which they disagree as a “hate group.”

Today both assertions were validated in court as Corkins plead guilty to multiple criminal charges, including terrorism. The Southern Poverty Law Center can no longer say that it is not a source for those bent on committing acts of violence.  Only by ending its hate-labeling practices will the SPLC send a message that it no longer wishes to be a source for those who would commit acts of violence that are only designed to intimidate and silence Christians and others who support natural marriage and traditional morality.

Once again, I call on the SPLC to put an immediate stop to its practice of labeling organizations that oppose their promotion of homosexuality. Whether the SPLC continues to demonize those who hold to biblical morality or not, the Family Research Council will remain unequivocally committed to our mission of advancing faith, family and freedom.

Perkins’ accusation is just as “outrageous” now as it was back in August. The SPLC is simply identifying “hate” as “hate.” Contrary to Perkins’ implication, hate crimes based on sexual orientation increased in 2011 despite the fact that the overall number of hate crimes declined. Of course, he never takes responsibility for the rhetoric FRC puts forth everyday, such as this morning when he reminded the world that he believes gay men are pedophiles, despite claiming to say the opposite. In September, just moments after once again painting FRC as a victim to the SPLC, Perkins then compared homosexuality to drug abuse. It’s not hard to draw a connection between that kind of hateful rhetoric and the ongoing harassment of the LGBT community, but FRC’s “mission of advancing faith, family, and freedom” is not particularly concerned with reality.

CNN’s Soledad O’Brien challenged the conservative opposition to keeping gays scouts and leaders out of the Boy Scouts on Wednesday morning, comparing the organization’s ban to past restrictions on African Americans and women.

The group has come under pressure from corporate sponsors to expand its policy of excluding gays and lesbians from the ranks and prominent right-wing activists like Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Rick Santorum, and Rick Perry have come to its defense, arguing that excluding gays is part of the organization’s “core values” and essential for raising boys into men.

O’Brien disputed these claims during an interview with Perkins, pointing out that “core values” and moral codes evolve over time. “I remember when I was in school,” she said. “If you were a teacher and you were pregnant, you were removed from the classroom. It was considered morally inappropriate to have a pregnant woman in the classroom. Blacks in the military was morally problematic.” “How come this doesn’t fall into the same kind of guidelines?” O’Brien asked.

Perkins responded by arguing that unlike the immutable characteristic of race or gender, gay people can change their sexual orientation to become straight and insisted that allowing them into the Boy Scouts would lead to inappropriate sexual relationships and increase instances of pedophilia:

PERKINS: We’re talking about comparing immutable characteristics with characteristics that are not immutable. First, the Boy Scouts have had a long history of struggling with an issue of protecting the boys. Last fall they were forced by the court to release about 15,000 pages that identified 1,900 predators within the Boy Scouts. [...]

O’BRIEN: Are you saying that someone who is gay is a pedophile, Sir?

PERKINS: No, I never said that. You said that. I didn’t.

O’BRIEN: I’m asking the question. You are saying that you would be worried about –

PERKINS: They are trying to create an environment that is protective of children. This doesn’t make it more protective. There is a disproportionate number of male on boy — when we get on pedophilia, male on boy is a higher incident rate of that. We never said all homosexuals are pedophiles. that’s not what we’re saying.

Watch it:

In 2000, the Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts — a private and traditionally religious organization — did not have to include gay and lesbian scout masters since it undermined its core value. In response to growing public pressure and plummeting membership rates, the group is considering instituting a local option, that will allow local chapters to admit gays, but could undermine its legal argument.

The Boy Scouts’ approach to admitting gays could “mirror the leave-it-to-the-locals tack the organization once took in deciding how to tackle the issue of desegregating its Scout troops.” Throughout the 20th century, the national leadership “gave wide discretion to councils to set their own racial policies,” permitting chapters in the South to run segregated groups or prohibit blacks. The last last council did not integrate until 1974.

Conservatives did not take kindly to Monday’s news that the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) will consider lifting its national ban on gay scouts and scout leaders next week. Unsurprisingly, they immediately began drawing correlations between homosexuality and pedophilia.

The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins called the potential move “devastating” and suggested it would undercut the “well-being of the Scouts.” The Liberty Counsel’s Matt Barber ranted on Twitter that “No caring father will leave his son in the Boy Scouts if they cave on perversion.” And outdoing his peers at the other anti-gay hate groups, the American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer penned a lengthy screed claiming that Jerry Sandusky, the Penn State University football coach convicted of child molestation, is “the new poster boy for Scouting“:

If the Scouts do not reverse themselves, we will soon be reading the kind of horror stories about Scouting that we have read about in the Catholic Church. Homosexual pedophiles already seek to infiltrate scouting because it provides a target rich environment for their twisted desires. Abolishing the sexual orientation standard will turn every Boy Scout in America into vulnerable prey for the sexually deviant.

And while the Church had resources that enabled it to weather the storm, the Scouts do not. The Scouts as an organization will wither and die, winding up as a dessicated shell of its former self if it exists at all.

There are three serious flaws with this argument. First, and most importantly, there is absolutely nothing that links a same-sex orientation to the disorder of pedophilia. And because sexual orientation is such an unreliable predictor for pedophilia, the BSA has significantly struggled to protect scouts from sexual abuse even with a ban on openly gay scout leaders, so if that’s its purpose, it’s not working anyway. Lastly, this argument only addresses the policy’s impact on gay male scout leaders; lesbian women like Jen Tyrrell who support the organization and the many scouts who may be coming out don’t factor in at all.

News stories like this reveal the raw candor of what those who oppose LGBT equality actually believe. Perkins, Barber, Fischer, and others are all servants to decades-old defamatory myths that bear no reflection on reality.

The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins was not pleased that President Obama used his inaugural speech Monday to compare the Stonewall riots to Selma and Seneca Falls. On his radio show yesterday, Perkins poorly described Stonewall as “homosexuals… pushing back for special rights,” and went on to claim that gays never have their civil rights violated:

PERKINS: Seneca Falls was a woman’s suffrage movement, giving women the right to vote. Selma, obviously, a push to ensure that African Americans — black American in this country had full voting rights and civil rights. Stonewall, many people may not be aware of, was a move of New York of homosexuals that were pushing back for special rights. To tie all those together, there is not a single person in this country today that is gay or lesbian that are denied the rights to vote, the right to work, or doing anything else.

What they’re seeking, and it’s a little disingenuous ’cause he doesn’t say it, but it’s code what he’s saying here. He’s going to push to give them the right to redefine marriage. They have every right that you and I have today. This President has a very loaded agenda.

Listen to it:

Perkins was right that Stonewall wasn’t about voting, but it was about another fundamental right: the freedom of assembly. Back in the 1960s, the LGBT community was regularly denied service in bars, and when they did find safe places to gather (like the Stonewall Inn), the police would regularly raid those bars and load the gay patrons into paddy wagons. The riots that ensued in June of 1969 were a response to police brutality from a community who simply wanted to enjoy a drink in a space where they didn’t have to hide their identities. There is nothing “special” about such an expectation in a free society.

Just like in the response from the National Organization for Marriage, Perkins claims that gays and lesbians have equality under the law, specifically mentioning “the right to work.” Of course, as noted in the earlier post, gays and lesbians can be fired from their jobs just for being gay and lesbian in 29 states — 34 states for people who are transgender. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a bill to create national protections for LGBT employees, has floundered in Congress for decades and notably, the Family Research Council opposes it!

It seems that conservatives are attempting to arbitrarily declare equality won on behalf of LGBT people, despite the obvious evidence to the contrary. This “already treated equally” argument is designed to reserve marriage as a privilege just for heterosexual people, as well as protect the so-called “religious freedom” to flagrantly discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Perkins, Brian Brown, and the other pundits who have used this line in reaction to the President’s speech demonstrate that they have absolutely no comprehension of the discrimination, harassment, and inequality experienced by LGBT people every day, let alone compassion on their behalf.

Jeremy Hooper uncovered a sermon delivered last July by the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins. In it, he makes the most odious comparison, juxtaposing gay soldiers marching in a pride parade to the Aurora shooting and pedophiles kidnapping children:

PERKINS: I believe we see a generation rising that proclaims neither a dedication to our nation or Almighty God. I mean, just look at some of the headlines that took place this week:

The most tragic mass shooting in the history of our nation at the opening event of the latest Batman movie.

Yesterday for the first time in the history of our nation’s military, men and women in uniform marched in a gay pride parade in San Diego, California.

Children are being snatched off our streets almost daily, taken from their parents and their families by perverted individuals pursuing their own interests and desires.

I ask you this morning, “Are we a nation under God or are on the verge being a nation gone under?”

Listen to it:

Here is a picture of those servicemembers marching in the San Diego LGBT Pride Parade in uniform:

Here is an image of the 12 individuals murdered in the Aurora, Colorado shooting:

Not only does Tony Perkins believe these two incidents are equally as tragic, he preaches to others that they should feel the same way. It’s this kind of demonization of gays and lesbians that prompts the Southern Poverty Law Center to designate the Family Research Council as a hate group. Just one month after Perkins delivered this sermon, FRC was unfortunately targeted by a gunman who wounded a security guard but luckily did not kill anyone.  At that time FRC blamed the SPLC for granting a “license” for violence with its “hate group” label. Of course, when the FBI’s latest hate crime statistics showed that the number of incidents targeting a person’s sexual orientation went up even though the incidents targeting other groups went down, FRC had no comment.

A chorus of right-wing leaders Thursday decried the withdrawal of Pastor Louie Giglio from President Obama’s second inauguration ceremony, suggesting a left-wing conspiracy to force him off of the program. His withdrawal came a day after ThinkProgress exclusively reported that in the 1990s, Giglio had given a lengthy sermon in which he advocated for dangerous “ex-gay” therapy for gay and lesbian people, referenced a biblical passage often interpreted to require gay people be executed, and impelled Christians to “firmly respond to the aggressive agenda” and prevent the “homosexual lifestyle” from becoming accepted in society.

Their outraged comments included:

• “[T]he administration’s inclusivity only goes so far. It’s not inclusive of those who disagree with them.” [Richard Land, Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission]
• “This president appears determined to stir division and create two Americas: One America that holds to a biblical view of sexuality and another that offers tolerance so long as you embrace its redefined view of sexuality.” [Tony Perkins, Family Research Council]
• “It is the ultimate hypocrisy for the Obama administration to pretend it supports diversity and yet denounces anyone who dares to disagree with its radical homosexual agenda. Rev. Giglio’s comments about homosexuality from more than a decade ago were not hateful but represent the historical teachings of the world’s three major religions. Apparently the Obama administration’s definition of tolerance is only broad enough to include its own views.” [Robert Jeffress, First Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas]
• “The intolerant Left claims another scalp.” [Kirsten Powers, Fox News political analyst]
• “Louis Giglio, a popular orthodox evangelical pastor whose views are mainstream Christian cannot pray the Inaugural benediction.” [Erick Erickson, RedState]
• “The bully bigots at Big Gay win huge victory for fascistic intolerance.” [Bryan Fischer, American Family Association radio host]

Watch Fischer’s rant on his radio show:

These critics seem not to understand that respecting different opinions does not require giving a platform and a microphone to those whose promote discrimination and division. Though Pastor Giglio is completely free to believe as he chooses and to preach the harmful message of “pray away the gay” therapy, a public ceremony like the presidential inauguration is not the place for him to do so.

The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins has launched a new daily radio show on American Family Association radio, and Jeremy Hooper is tracking it closely. On the second episode Tuesday, Perkins addressed a listener’s question about nondiscrimination protections, asserting that the existing protections for people of faith are fine, but creating protections for LGBT people would be problematic:

PERKINS: Actually, religion is a protected class, So right now under existing law, you can’t use that as a component to discriminate against individuals. [...]

This administration — the Obama administration — wants to push the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. What is that? It sounds nice. But it is actually providing special protections to people — employment protections and benefits — based upon their sexual behavior. So let’s say an employer at a day care, an elementary school, or a church does not want to hire someone who is openly engaged in homosexual behavior. They would be forced to either defend themselves in their decision or could suffer legal consequences as a result.

Listen to it:

As Hooper points out, Perkins is peddling a significant double standard. He voices no objection to the protections his Christian faith already enjoys, yet claims that protections for LGBT people would be “special” and violate Christians so-called “religious freedom.” As conservatives do, he only referred to “homosexual behavior,” erasing gays and lesbians and framing their identities as a choice. But not only are same-sex orientations (or non-conforming gender identities, which ENDA also would protect) not chosen, but religious beliefs are. So if Perkins argument is that people should not be protected based on their lifestyle choices, by his own logic religion should not be a protected class.

Of course, Perkins motivations are not rooted in logic, but in animus against LGBT people and an expectation that one group of people enjoy a superior status in society over another.

The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins never misses an opportunity to defame the LGBT community while painting conservative Christians as victims, and his latest exploit may signify a petty new low for the hate group. In his Washington Watch Daily Radio Commentary on Monday, Perkins defended the Salvation Army for being anti-gay and claimed that the LGBT community is selfish and only targets the organization because it’s Christian:

The Salvation Army does a lot for America, but don’t expect a ringing endorsement from homosexuals. Hello, I’m Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. Gay activists will be putting a little something in the red kettle this year-but it won’t be money. They’re asking people to drop in complaints instead because the Salvation Army has a biblical view of sexuality.

Despite decades of community service, activists say those kettles are pushing an anti-gay agenda. Nothing could be future from the truth says Major George Hood. You don’t have to be straight to get help from the Salvation Army, he explained. Not a single “policy, practice, or program” even asks about sexual orientation. “The very mission of the Salvation Army calls for meeting the needs of humans without discrimination.”

The truth is, homosexuals are only targeting the Salvation Army because it’s Christian. And they’d rather help their agenda than the needy. Do your part to help the Salvation Army-because far too many families are saved by their bells.

LGBT bloggers Bil Browning and John Aravosis have thoroughly cataloged the Salvation Army’s anti-gay record. Major Hood, Perkins’ ringing endorsement for LGBT-inclusion, defended the notion of discriminating against gay employees in 2001 because “it really begins to chew away at the theological fabric of who we are.” The Church has hidden its position statement on homosexuality, claiming it’s “Under Review,” but it previously believed the following:

Scripture forbids sexual intimacy between members of the same sex. The Salvation Army believes, therefore, that Christians whose sexual orientation is primary or exclusively same-sex are called upon to embrace celibacy as a way of life. There is no scriptural support for same sex unions as equal to, or as an alternative to, heterosexual marriage.

Seeking special protection to not hire gay employees and condemning gays to a life without love is hardly a good record “without discrimination.” That’s not to say the Salvation Army doesn’t accomplish good works, just like many other organizations that engage in charity but have anti-gay policies, like the Boy Scouts of America. But these are clearly groups that reinforce stigma against gay people and actively engage in discrimination, so it’s perfectly reasonable for LGBT activists to suggest supporting organizations that don’t instead. To suggest that this has anything to do with an attack on religion or an aversion to charity is a ghastly ad hominem attack against the LGBT community. It’s as absurd as suggesting that opposition to Chick-fil-A is based on hatred for fried chicken. What’s at stake is a basic level of respect for people’s lives, and it’s outlandish for Perkins to claim that groups (like his) who have none are somehow victims.

The Family Research Council has announced that it has suspended its contract with UPS, accusing the shipping company of “openly discriminating against the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).” UPS announced last month that it would no longer give charitable donations to organizations like BSA that discriminate against the LGBT community, in accordance with its own nondiscrimination policy. In a press release Tuesday, FRC argued that the Scouts’ policy is a “matter of security” to prevent child sex abuse:

The Scouts’ policy is also a matter of security. After hundreds of cases of child sex abuse plagued the organization, the Boy Scouts tried to create a membership criterion that reduces the risk to Scouts, and that protects the rights of their parents to be the first to discuss topics like sexual orientation with their children.

Tony Perkins then echoed this sentiment in his “Washington Update“:

Unfortunately, the company only reiterated its position that until the BSA puts a greater priority on the political agenda of LGBT activists than the protection of Scouts, they are not entitled to the same equality UPS claims to endorse. 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. As for their longstanding policy on homosexuality, the Boy Scouts are doing what every parent would want them to: putting children’s safety first.

After UPS first announced its policy change, FRC similarly argued that BSA was just protecting Scouts from pedophilia. There is nothing to substantiate FRC’s claim that gay people are somehow more likely to engage in child abuse, and it is because it insists on such a defamatory connection anyway that the Southern Poverty Law Center designates it as a “hate group.”

BSA has yet to explain why it stands by its discriminatory policy. Records released to the Oregon Supreme Court in October show that the organization grouped innocent gay volunteers along with those accused or convicted of child abuse or other “suspected moral problems.” UPS should be commended for not caving to FRC’s boycott threat and these offensive portrayals of the gay community.