Yesterday, Tony Perkins told Mike Huckabee he and the Family Research Council are “pursuing everything possible†against activist Dan Savage, “because he is out of control.†That certainly sounds like legal action, and Dan Savage agreed.
Perkins and Huckabee were discussing Savage’s address last week at Winona State University, during which Savage said, “every dead gay kid is a victory for the Family Research Council.â€
Of course, Savage is standing by his remarks — and rightly so. Last night, in “Is Tony Perkins Threatening to Sue Me?,” Savage wrote:
“I realize that this isn’t how you think the world is supposed to work, Tony. You believe—and you’re old enough to remember a time when—people like you were free to say vile and disgusting things about people like me without anyone objecting. Certainly people like me weren’t allowed to call people like you out. You still believe you should be free to lie about me and other LGBT people with absolutely impunity—we’re all pedophiles and terrorists and Satanists—and that we should have to shut up and take it because… well, I’m not sure why you think we’re not allowed to respond when you lie about us.
“Maybe that’s something we could get to the bottom of during the depositions.”
Savage also responded to Perkins comment that he “has issues”:
Yes, Tony, I have issues.
I have issues with people who would deny me and other LGBT people our full civil equality for no legitimate reason. I have particular issues with high-profile haters who encourage parents to reject their LGBT kids, doubling their already quadrupled risk for suicide. I have issues with people who say that LGBT people are “pawns of the devil.” I have issues with people who compare LGBT people to terrorists. I have issues with people who falsely link homosexuality and pedophilia. I have issues with people who suggest that a law calling for the execution of gay people merely “upholds moral conduct.”
But having issues with you, Tony, isn’t quite the same thing as “having issues.” Please make a note of it.
The best outcome here is the Family Research Council and the American Family Association get together and Sue Dan Savage and especially the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Savage is absolutely right.
Force a court to hear all the evil, vile, lies the Family Research Council and the American Family Association — and all their employees — say publicly about gay people.
What has always been frustrating in this “debate” about gay people is you can’t sue someone for lying about a group of people. It’s not slander or libel until it’s focused on an individual person or organization.
But a lawsuit challenging what Dan Savage says about the Family Research Council, coupled with one challenging what the Southern Poverty Law Center says about anti-gay hate groups would make life very, very uncomfortable for these merchants of hate, and might just put them out of business.
And I think Dan Savage might just be the person to get the ball rolling.