SOURCE: CNN

CNN's Brooke Baldwin asked a great question of guest Tony Perkins.

BALDWIN: "Have you ever been to the home of a same-sex couple, Tony?"

The Family Research Council president's predictable answer: "No." He, a man who dedicates an inordinate amount of time and energy towards robbing countless same-sex couples' homes of peace of mind has never been privy to what his target actually looks like. By his own admission.

CNN and Baldwin are to be applauded for this question, and for putting Tony on the record on this deeply personal issue. I really do believe we have reached a tipping point, thanks in large part of projects like the GLAAD Commentator Accountability Project. Anti-equality pundits know that those of us who value LGBT Americans are connecting dots both publicly and behind the scenes, and that we are not going to stand for the unfair debating structure that has plagued the media for far too long.

But then, in a followup question, Baldwin highlights the work that still needs to be done in terms of what needs to be done to inform the American public.

BALDWIN: "Why do homosexuals bother you so much?"

Tony's sidestep answer: That they don't bother him. Tony said, quite plainly: "We don't have any dislike for homosexuals." Presumably by "we," he means FRC.

For LGBT Americans who heard Tony say this, the eye rolls and groans were nothing short of instinctual. The truth is that there is no single organization working in the United States that more fully expresses contempt for LGBT Americans and their rights than the Family Research Council. And to be perfectly frank, there is no single human being working in the "culture war" today who has recorded more undeniable animus towards LGBT people than Mr. Tony Perkins.

Let's glance at Tony's CAP profile for just some of what Tony, on his own time and volition, has said about us:

- Says about gay people: “They are intolerant. They are hateful. They are vile. They are spiteful...pawns of the enemy.” (See 0:43 mark.)

- Says many gays have an "emptiness within them" (:55) because they are "operating outside of nature" (1:09)

- Says that gay young people “have a higher propensity to depression or suicide because of that internal conflict; homosexuals may recognize intuitively that their same-sex attractions are abnormal.”

- Despite what health experts have said, insists that pedophilia is “a homosexual problem.”

- The Family Research Council has distributed a pamphlet that erroneously depicts gay men and lesbians as physically and mentally ill pedophiles who can be cured.

- The Family Research Council has distributed a pamphlet that begins by likening the logic behind same-sex marriage to the logic behind man-horse marriage (complete with horse graphic)

- Compares gay people to terrorists (at 0:31 mark): “[B]ack in the 80s and early 90s, I worked with the State Department in anti-terrorism and we trained about 50 different countries in defending against terrorism, and it’s, at its base, what terrorism is, it's a strike against the general populace simply to spread fear and intimidation so that they can disrupt and destabilize the system of government. That's what the homosexuals are doing here to the legal system.”

- “The truth is that we cannot redefine marriage without opening the door to all manner of moral and social evil.”

- Called the It Gets Better project "disgusting," claiming it tells children "that it's okay to be immoral" and constitutes a "concerted effort to persuade kids that homosexuality is okay and actually to recruit them into that lifestyle."

- Claims "blood of young marines" is on hands of legislators who voted to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell.

- Claims "people know intuitively that [homosexuality] is morally wrong"

- Says "it's a fact" that homosexuality leads to "eternal damnation"

- Linked Secret Service prositiution scandal directly to open service: "[O]ver the weekend we saw the news of the President’s Secret Service detail in Colombia and the issue of them hiring prostitutes and now the White House is outraged about that. Actually in a meeting this morning my staff asked, ‘why should the President be upset’? It was actually legal; it was legal there to do that, so why should we be upset? Well, the fact is we intuitively know it’s wrong, there’s a moral law against that. The same is true for what the President has done to the military enforcing open homosexuality in our military. You can change the law but you can’t change the moral law that’s behind it. You can change the positive law, the law that is created by man, but you can’t change the moral law, it’s wrong. So what you have is you have a total breakdown and you can’t pick and choose. Morality is not a smorgasbord; you can’t pick what you want. I think you’re absolutely right, this is a fundamental issue going forward because if we say ‘let them do what we want,’ what’s next? You cannot maintain moral order if you are willing to allow a few things to slide."
Tony Perkins [GLAAD CAP]

And again, that's just some of Tony's hyperbole, most of it culled from the past two or three years. We could, quite literally, assemble twenty pages or so dedicated to just Tony's slights alone; hundreds of pages if extending it out to all of FRC.

Tony and other FRC staffers are not booked on CNN *despite* this kind of engagement. In fact, this is the *very* thing that Tony has done to build the kind of national profile that lands one on a producer's booking list! I've already talked today about how FRC is unduly focused on LGBT issues. This anti-LGBT rhetoric is the very reason why Tony is enough of a known entity to sit in the pundit chair. He has said and done this stuff for a paycheck and access. It's more than newsworthy.

So the next phase for anchors who are increasingly tough on the idea that condemning LGBT humans is enough of credential to make a policy expert is to start holding them accountable, during the appearance, for the very thing that landed the pundit on-air to begin with! Those of us who fight this fight have shorthanded the work there. All we are asking is for news outlets to tell the public the kinds of things that people like Tony have been saying about us so readily when on less mainstream outlets.

Personally, I think it'd be a great followup for Brooke Baldwin to pursue!

**MORE: Another perspective from my pal and colleague Aaron McQuade: GOOD JOURNALISM: CNN'S BALDWIN PUTS PERKINS' ANTI-GAY VIEWS IN CONTEXT [GLAAD]

It was announced today that the Maine Education Association (MEA), the union that represents public school teachers throughout the state, has endorsed the ballot question that would allow same-sex couples to marry. Mainers will vote on it in November.
MORE: Maine Education Association endorses equal marriage [Dirigo Blue]

For those who find the beach to coarse, start your Memorial Day weekend with good old fashion judgement/condemnation!

Me? I'll spend my time memorializing the civil/religious separation that seems to be ever-evaporating!

*NOTE: The "ex-gay" advocating speaker, Jesse Connors, is working from the same Liberty Univ. video I showed you earlier)

'God Is Working' Through New Evangelism Tool to Help Gays get to Heaven [RWW]

About an hour after this guy spoke, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R) addressed the room. Because that's still our America: a place where "curing" gay people is not a deal breaker for some far too many elected lawmakers.

NOM’s big cheese himself set the goal of turning in 200,000 Referendum 74 signatures on May 6th, one month before the deadline.

“I want the headline above the fold that says ‘R-74 gets 200,000 signatures a month early!’. I want to shut up our opponents. …Because our opponents – this is a battle, and our opponents need to be demoralized,” Chris Plante told a group of volunteers in March. Plante is a Rhode Island-based NOM employee sent to Washington to act as PMW’s deputy campaign director.

“I’ve been saying, on May 6th I’d love to put out a press release saying, the human part of me says ‘nah-nah-na-na-nah’, we got the signatures,” Plante told volunteers at a similar event in April. “Something to the effect of ‘Washington will not stand for messing with marriage’.”

It’s now three weeks later and not only has NOM-PMW failed to meet their goal of filing 200,000 signatures on May 6th, but it appears unlikely that they will even have 200,000 signatures to file by the June 6th deadline.
Preserve Marriage Washington Misses Own Referendum 74 Signature Goal [PHB]

I've been noting the encouragingly low uptick as well. For weeks now, the NOM/PMW team have been enthusiastically tweeting and Facebook this or that milestone, feigning thrills over whatever watermark they've achieved on a particular day. But every time, I'm kind of like, "Really? That's it?" Because the numbers are certainly more stagnant than we've seen both in other marriage states and in other Washington state campaigns.

Does this mean there is a lack of enthusiasm that will give us an easy win? No. A win is not inevitable in the state; ease is not even a question.

However, it is encouraging to know that Chris "gay parents use their kids like 'an accessory to put in my purse'" Plante was denied his chance to "nah-nah-na-na-nah" us. Gloating about (un)civil discrimination is so unbecoming.

What these folks, who don't spend as much time delving into the words and work of groups like FRC, don't understand is that anti-LGBT advocacy is not just a part of many of these groups' daily chores—in many cases, anti-LGBT advocacy is *the* key focus that consumes the majority of the group's time! FRC is probably the worst offender.

Latest case in point: FRC has just issued its latest round of "prayer targets." There are three listed targets. Of those targets? Two of them are directly centered on denouncing gay people, our peaceful military service, our marriages, our deserved protections, and our supposed fitness in God's eyes. Here's the first, wherein popular pundit Perkins equates benign acceptance of LGB soldiers as some sort of "attack":

Having served as a Marine, FRC President Tony Perkins said "This is a micro view of the macro problem that we've been warning would be a part of any same-sex "marriage" proposal. If the religious freedoms of our troops are disposable, then how could anyone believe that the administration won't broaden its attack to everyone who opposes homosexuality?" Urging conscience rights supporters to contact their Senators, Perkins said, "The American military is trying to resolve conflicts around the world. The last thing it needs is to be deployed in the President's war to legitimize homosexuality."

Pray that Americans with sons, daughters, and relatives in the military will come to their defense and demand that their Senators vote to release God-fearing chaplains to minister the Word of God without censorship. May our military chapels never be used to perform unions of or celebrate what God calls abominable (Dan 3:16-18; 6:7-10; Acts 5:19; 23:1; Rom 13:5; 1 Tim 1:5; 3:9; 4:2; 2 Tim 1:3; Tit 1:15; 1 Pt 2:19).
Prayer Targets [FRC]

Then there's this one, where FRC instructs followers to pray for FRC's goals of stopping every last LGBT rights gain:

Pray that FRC's Watchmen on the Wall Pastors Briefing and Bishop Jackson's Marriage Protection Summit will be powerfully used by the Holy Spirit to stir and equip pastors across America to prevent the Obama push to implement the homosexual agenda: repeal of DOMA, passage of ENDA and a complete silencing of all who plainly proclaim Biblical truth about homosexuality. May the Call2Fall and other prayer initiatives planned this summer and fall be used to help God's people lay hold of God's promise in 2 Chronicles 7:14 - the Healing of our Land (Jdg 20:11; 2 Ch 7:14; 26:16-21; Ps 133: all; Acts 4:23-31;5:18-20; 15:6).
Prayer Targets [FRC]

This two out of three breakdown is no anomaly—FRC's general organization makeup is at least 2/3 focused on LGBT matters. And even when that's not the key topic, the fight against LGBT rights tends to find its way into the program in ways both subtle and overt.

This is why so many of us are so focused on holding Tony Perkins accountable when he makes his many appearances on mainstream television outlets. It's not because *we* are obsessed with the gay thing—it's because he is!

SOURCE: 2012 Watchmen on the Walls Conference [FRC]