Longtime gay-rights opponent Tony Perks named to U.S. relig eedom panel

Contents:

• LONGTIME GAY-RIGHTS OPPONENT TONY PERKS NAMED TO U.S. RELIG EEDOM PANEL
• A MAN WHO SAYS GOD PUNISH GAYS WH NATURAL DISASTERS HAD HIS HOME DTROYED THE FLOOD
• 18 ANTI-GAY GROUPS AND THEIR PROPAGANDA
• TONY PERKS BLAMED GAY PEOPLE FOR GOD'S WRATH. HIS HOE WAS SWEPT AWAY
• BARNEY FRANK SKEWERS TONY PERKS OVER 'ABSURD' ANTI-GAY CLAIMS
• 10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED

LONGTIME GAY-RIGHTS OPPONENT TONY PERKS NAMED TO U.S. RELIG EEDOM PANEL

And the more than 30 exampl listed are a parison of same-sex marriage to a marriage between “a man and his horse”; the labelg of the “It Gets Better” project, a popular iative signed to help LGBTQ young people pe wh bullyg and margalizatn, “disgtg” and a “ncerted effort” to rec kids to the gay “liftyle”; and claimg the “blood” of “young mar” would be on the hands of lawmakers who vote repeal the ary’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a nonprof civil rights advocy anizatn, signated the Fay Rearch Council, where Perks has served as print sce 2003, as an “anti-LGBT hate group” 2010. ”On that same page, FRC appears to support the wily discreded practice of “gay nversn therapy”: “Sympathy mt be extend to those who stggle wh unwanted same-sex attractns, and every effort should be ma to assist such persons to overe those attractns, as many already have. In 2010, FRC senr fellow for policy studi Peter Sprigg appeared on Hardball wh Chris Matthews where he voiced support for the crimalizatn of homosexual nduct, statg that, “I thk there would be a place for crimal sanctns agast homosexual behavr.

A MAN WHO SAYS GOD PUNISH GAYS WH NATURAL DISASTERS HAD HIS HOME DTROYED THE FLOOD

After all, they allowed Perks to play a cisive role craftg the Republin Party platform last month, cludg a fun ltle provisn that advoted for sendg LGBT people to gay nversn therapy—a thoroughly bunked and possibly stctive method of "treatment. The book mak a seri of claims that virtually no ser historian agre wh: that Hler was gay, that “the Nazi Party was entirely ntrolled by aristic homosexuals, ” and that gays were pecially selected for the SS bee of their nate btaly. Takg a page om the anti-gay fabulist Stt Lively (see Abidg Tth Mistri, above), Fischer claimed a blog post last May 27 that “[h]omosexualy gave Adolph Hler, and homosexuals the ary gave the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war mache and 6 ln ad Jews.

A one-time reporter for the nservative Washgton Tim, LaBarbera has been an energetic mpaigner agast “the radil homosexual agenda” sce at least 1993, when he lnched The Lambda Report, which claimed to do first-hand reportg to expose s gay enemi. DeMar has modified that dictum slightly the past, sayg that homosexuals wouldn’t all be executed unr a “renstcted” ernment, but that he did believe that the ocsnal executn of “sodom” would serve society well bee “the law that requir the ath penalty for homosexual acts effectively driv the perversn of homosexualy unrground, back to the closet.

It has lled the ia of allowg gays to serve openly the ary “evil”; opposed hate crim legislatn (which many relig-right groups falsely assert would make easy to send pastors to prison for nmng homosexualy); and raged agast a judge’s overturng of California’s Proposn 8, which had validated same-sex marriag. Although is somewhat benign by parison, the CADC has an advisory board that clus some of the untry’s most hard-le anti-gay activists: Lou Sheldon, head of the Tradnal Valu Coaln (see below); Donald Wildmon, the founr of the Amerin Fay Associatn (above); and O’Neal Dozier, a pastor who wrote his 2008 book that “[h]omosexualy not only spreads disease and ntraliz God’s mand, ” but also “stroys fai. ” Last year, CWA acced the Gay, Lbian, and Straight Edutn Network (GLSEN), a group that works to stop anti-gay bullyg schools, of g that missn as a ver to promote homosexualy schools, addg that “teachg stunts om a young age that the homosexual liftyle is perfectly natural … will [e them to] velop to adults who are sensized to the harmful, immoral realy of sexual viance.

18 ANTI-GAY GROUPS AND THEIR PROPAGANDA

In 2002, before jog CRM, Knight wrote that gay marriage “entic children to experiment wh homosexualy” and that acceptg homosexualy leads to “a loss of stabily muni, wh a rise crime, sexually transmted diseas and other social pathologi. Both Dailey and Sprigg have phed false accatns lkg gay men to pedophilia: Sprigg has wrten that most men who engage same-sex child moltatn “intify themselv as homosexual or bisexual, ” and Dailey and Sprigg voted an entire chapter of their 2004 book Gettg It Straight to siar material. In a 1999 publitn (Homosexual Behavr and Pedophilia) that has sce disappeared om s webse, the FRC claimed that “one of the primary goals of the homosexual rights movement is to abolish all age of nsent laws and to eventually regnize pedophil as the ‘prophets’ of a new sexual orr, ” acrdg to unrefuted rearch by AMERICAblog.

30, 2010, bate on MSNBC’s “Hardball wh Chris Matthews” between Perks and the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mark Potok, Perks fend FRC’s associatn of gay men wh pedophilia, sayg: “If you look at the Amerin College of Pediatricians, they say the rearch is overwhelmg that homosexualy pos a danger to children. ” AMERICAblog also reported that then-FRC official Yvette Cantu, an terview published on Amerins for Tth About Homosexualy’s webse, said, “If they [gays and lbians] had children, what would happen when they were too by havg their sex parti? Started 1987 by psychologist Pl Cameron, the Fay Rearch Instute (FRI) has bee the anti-gay movement’s ma source for what Cameron claims is “cuttg-edge rearch” — but is, fact, pletely discreded junk science phed out by a man who has been nmned by three profsnal anizatns.

In 1985, the Amerin Soclogil Associatn adopted a rolutn sayg Cameron “has nsistently misterpreted and misreprented soclogil rearch on sexualy” and “repeatedly mpaigned for the abrogatn of the civil rights of lbians and gay men”; the followg year, the same group formally nmned Cameron for that misreprentatn of rearch.

TONY PERKS BLAMED GAY PEOPLE FOR GOD'S WRATH. HIS HOE WAS SWEPT AWAY

In 2006, then-Executive Director Peter LaBarbera (see Amerins for Tth About Homosexualy, above), told a relig-right gatherg hosted by Visn Ameri that homosexualy was "disgtg" and mand the closg down of all "homosexual tablishments.

Matt Barber, formerly wh Concerned Women for Ameri and Amerins for Tth About Homosexualy (see above for both), joed Liberty Counsel as director of cultural affairs (also beg Liberty Universy’s associate an for reer and profsnal velopment). A year earlier, Barber had argued that given “medil evince about the dangers of homosexualy, ” should be nsired “crimally reckls for tors to teach children that homosexual nduct is a normal, safe and perfectly acceptable alternative. Camenker, who has long foced on the purported “homosexual agenda” the schools and equently claimed gays are dangero to kids, has repeatedly ced discreded claims om anizatns like the Natnal Associatn for Rearch and Therapy of Homosexualy that lk homosexualy and pedophilia.

Former Prbyterian mister Lou Sheldon has been warng Amerins about the “gay threat” sce 1980, when he found the Tradnal Valu Coaln (TVC), which also is ncerned wh abortn and natnal secury and tak on liberal activists on a range of issu. ” Wh regard to LGBT teen suicis, TVC, unr the headle “Homosexual Urban Legends, ” claims that “[t]he ld, hard fact is that teens who are stgglg wh homosexual feelgs are more likely to be sexually molted by a homosexual school unselor or teacher than to m suici over their feelgs of spair. The TVC also mak assertns on s webse about disproportnate homosexual pedophilia and attacks the ia that people are born gay and the claim that gays want the right to marry for the same reasons that heterosexuals do — the TVC suggts the real purpose of marriage equaly is to stroy the ncept of marriage and ultimately replace altogether wh group sex and polygamy.

BARNEY FRANK SKEWERS TONY PERKS OVER 'ABSURD' ANTI-GAY CLAIMS

By moral y, they typilly mean abortn or proment evangelil who’s a fan of this le of thkg is Tony Perks, the head of the rabidly anti-gay Fay Rearch a 2015 terview wh Msianic Jewish pastor Jonathan Cahn, Perks agreed that Hurrine Joaqu, a vastatg storm that h the Bahamas last year, was “a sign of God’s wrath”, punishment for abortn and for the legalizatn of same-sex marriage. He also believ “the homosexual muny” is engaged behavr “that will stroy our natn” a member of that “homosexual muny” who has endured this rhetoric for his entire adult life, I mt adm I found difficult to not raise an eyebrow at the mental image of Tony Perks paddlg a noe after his hoe was swept away the flood that’s currently affectg Louisiana.

I’ve been out of the closet long enough that Perks’ words don’t affect me anymore, but I remember what was like to read them when I first me out ral Oklahoma, before same-sex marriage was legalized and before I had other gay people supportg me.

His historic endorsement me ls than 24 hours after North Carola voters overwhelmgly passed a nstutnal amendment banng gay marriage, and forced Obama's GOP rival Mt Romney to re-clare his own opposn to gay marriage -- a stance that's popular wh the Republin Party's right-wg, but is creasgly out of step wh the Amerin public. The report ntend that allowg gay men and lbians to serve openly would unrme morale and disciple and ge on the relig eedom of ary chaplas, who would be forced to accept homosexualy and would no longer be permted to exprs their relig beliefs about .

10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED

“Homosexual activist groups like GLSEN [Gay, Lbian and Straight Edutn Network] … are explog the tragedi to ph their agenda of mandg not only tolerance of homosexual dividuals, but active affirmatn of homosexual nduct and their efforts to refe the fay.