Dan Savage is under attack again, this time for saying that “every dead gay kid is a victory for the Family Research Council,†while speaking at Winona State University (WSU) on Thursday, September 27. Savage, whose remarks earlier this year brought attacks from the Religious Right, also said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins “tells the parents of queer kids to do what Tony Perkins damn well knows drives those kids to suicide.”
The Family Research Council is listed among the Southern Poverty Law Center’s active anti-gay hate groups.
“Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council. First of all, they tell, Tony Perkins tells parents whose kids come out to reject them,” Savage, who also poked fun at the Catholic Church during his speech, told the audience. “Tony Perkins tells the parents of queer kids to do what Tony Perkins damn well knows drives those kids to suicide — doubles their already quadruple rate of suicide. Why would someone who calls themselves a Christian do that? Because every dead gay kid is a victory for the Family Research Council. They argue that the gay lifestyle is sick and sinful and dangerous and they point to the suicide rate, and then they turn around and do everything in their power to make sure that suicide rate does not come down and to drive it up. Tony Perkins sits on a pile of dead gay kids every day when he goes to work — and he calls himself a Christian. I don’t understand how real Christians let that little fucker get away with that.”
Savage later added, “We will always have ignorant dicks like Michele Bachmann and her fag husband.”
The video was the basis of an article by the anti-gay so-called “non-partisan” CampusReform.org, created and funded by Morton Blackwell‘s “non-partisan” Leadership Institute. Blackwell is perhaps best known for his offensive 2004 behavior at the RNC, when he “passed out purple heart bandages,” mocking John Kerry’s military service. Even Karl Rove found the act to be “inappropriate.”
Camus Reform’s website says it is “designed to provide conservative activists with the resources, networking capabilities, and skills they need to revolutionize the struggle against leftist bias and abuse on college campuses.”
Chris Geidner at BuzzFeed notes:
In response to CampusReform.org’s article, Savage — unsurprisingly — did not back down:
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