For at least six years, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins lied to the public about Ken Mehlman, the gay chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Mehlman’s homosexuality was well-known among Republicans, and he was outed to the general public by blogger Mike Rogers in 2004.
Perkins wasn’t alone in covering up Mehlman’s homosexuality, of course; CNN edited its news coverage to cover up Mehlman’s orientation.
Perkins danced around his own organization’s half-decade of lies this week, when he declared that he was “saddened” that Mehlman is now being honest. Instead of apologizing for the deception, Perkins
- criticizes Mehlman for having “chosen to identify himself”
- makes the unsupported and unsupportable claims that sexual honesty harms society and that safer sex has “negative physical and mental health consequences”
- scapegoats Mehlman’s resistance to the GOP’s worst antigay hatemongers for the GOP’s war- and economy-related election losses in 2006 and 2008
- lies about the percentage of the population that is gay, lesbian, or bisexual, offering an absurd estimate of “two percent” that is not exclusively heterosexual
Perkins concludes that it would be foolish for the GOP to adopt policies reflecting fiscal and social responsibility, policies that support real families, “thereby alienating the majority of conservative voters.”
