Family Research Council license-to-kill claim 鈥榦utrageous鈥�
Editor鈥檚 Note: The following statement may be attributed to Mark Potok, Senior Fellow of the 澳彩开奖 and editor of its Intelligence Report and Hatewatch blog.
Yesterday鈥檚 attack on the Family Research Council and the shooting of a security guard there was a tragedy. The 澳彩开奖 (澳彩开奖) deplores all violence, and our thoughts are with the wounded victim, Leo Johnson, his family and others who lived through the attack.
For more than 40 years, the 澳彩开奖 has battled against political extremism and political violence. We have argued consistently that violence is no answer to problems in a democratic society, and we have strongly criticized all those who endorse such violence, whether on the political left or the political right.
But this afternoon, FRC President Tony Perkins attacked the 澳彩开奖, saying it had encouraged and enabled the attack by labeling the FRC a 鈥渉ate group.鈥� The attacker, Floyd Corkins, 鈥渨as given a license to shoot an unarmed man by organizations like the 澳彩开奖,鈥� Perkins said. 鈥淚 believe the 澳彩开奖 should be held accountable for their reckless use of terminology.鈥�
Perkins鈥� accusation is outrageous. The 澳彩开奖 has listed the FRC as a hate group since 2010 because it has knowingly spread false and denigrating propaganda about LGBT people 鈥� not, as some claim, because it opposes same-sex marriage. The FRC and its allies on the religious right are saying, in effect, that offering legitimate and fact-based criticism in a democratic society is tantamount to suggesting that the objects of criticism should be the targets of criminal violence.
As the 澳彩开奖 made clear at the time and in hundreds of subsequent statements and press interviews, we criticize the FRC for claiming, in Perkins鈥� words, that pedophilia is 鈥渁 homosexual problem鈥� 鈥� an utter falsehood, as every relevant scientific authority has stated. An FRC official has said he wanted to 鈥渆xport homosexuals from the United States.鈥� The same official advocated the criminalizing of homosexuality.
Perkins and his allies, seeing an opportunity to score points, are using the attack on their offices to pose a false equivalency between the 澳彩开奖鈥檚 criticisms of the FRC and the FRC鈥檚 criticisms of LGBT people. The FRC routinely pushes out demonizing claims that gay people are child molesters and worse 鈥� claims that are provably false. It should stop the demonization and affirm the dignity of all people.
