I often say that no one lies more than the godly Christian crowd and the "professional Christian" class which makes a living spreading anti-gay lies and untruths. Among the most outrageous liars of this group are Tony Perkins, President of the hate group Family Research Council (Brian Brown of NOM and Bryan Fischer of the hate group American Family Association aren't fat behind in the lies and demagoguery). And sadly, all too often the media does little or nothing to challenge Perkins' dishonesty and batshitery. Today Perkins appeared on Fox News likely thinking he'd go unchallenged as happens so frequently. Fortunately, the other guest was Ted Olson, former Solicitor General of the United States and co-counsel in the Bostic v. Rainey marriage case out of Virginia, who would not allow Perkins' lies to go unchallenged. Adding to the fun, anchor Chris Wallace joined Olson in challenging Perkins. Perkins is a sleazy liar with document ties to white supremacy groups as an added measure of who despicable he is. One can only hope that in the future more of the professional Christian hate merchants will find themselves similarly challenged. The New Civil Rights Movement looks at the much deserved trashing Perkins experienced. Here are highlights:
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins just had a very bad visit on "Fox News Sunday." His center seat apparently was the designated hot seat. On the left was former Bush Solicitor General Ted Olson, one of the two attorneys who sought the demise of Prop 8 by bringing it all the way to the Supreme Court, then went on to win marriage equality in Virginia. On the right was Fox News anchor Chris Wallace.
Perkins might have expected a grand old time where he could spew his packaged talking points about poor persecuted Christian wedding cake vendors and victimized parents forced to find their children learning that gay people aren't the monsters their parents portray. But he was wrong.
Perkins tried to tell Olson his comparison of court decisions on same-sex marriage to court decisions on interracial marriage were wrong.
"Apples and oranges," Perkins insisted, "because we're talking about an arbitrary boundary created by man between the races. That doesn't exist in nature. There is a boundary between people of the same sex getting married. They can't procreate. They can't -- there's nothing in nature to say that's normal."
Except, of course, the hundreds of species in which homosexuality have been widely documented.
OLSON: What court after court after court has said, that allowing people of the same sex to marry the person that they love, to be part of the community and to be treated equally, does no damage to heterosexual marriage.
OLSON: And court after court after court has said children living in a same-sex relationship do as well or better than people in other communities. . . . The court heard evidence.
OLSON: Well, everyone who has ever talked about this says there's no heterosexual couple that is going to decide to get divorced or not to get married or not to raise children just because another couple next to them is treated equally and with respect and decency under our Constitution. That is why we have courts.
The same argument Mr. Perkins was making was made with respect to interracial marriages in 1967 -- 30 some states at one point prohibited interracial marriages.
And talk about the color of the skin? People were making the same arguments. Marriage is wrong between people of different races. We have to stop that.
When the Supreme Court finally acted, 16 states were still prohibiting interracial marriages.
As far as the marriage vendors, the people in the flower business or in the -- in the cake business or whatever it happens to be, we have a civil rights law that say if you're going to engage in commerce, you're not going to discriminate against people on the basis of their religion, sex or race. That's a simple solution to the problem.
If the media truly wants to be responsible, documented liars like Perkins will cease being asked to be guests on news programs and talk shows. As I have said before, the Christofascists need to become social pariahs and utterly unwelcome in decent polite society. Yes, they are free to believe what they want, but no one should give them a platform and no one should allow them to go unchallenged.
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