This is beautiful. As David Badash points out, Chris Matthews seems to have “evolved” on the subject of Tony Perkins’ extremism. This interview springboards from a recent, stupid statement from Tony Perkins suggesting that his own children wouldn’t likely ever be gay, due to the fact that Tony Perkins knows better than everyone else how to raise his children. Barney Frank retorts that it’s really not fair for Tony Perkins to put himself up on a pedestal above Dick and Lynne Cheney in the parenting department.

Perkins’ statement is silly on its face. If it wasn’t, there wouldn’t be so many gay adults with horror stories about their fundamentalist upbringings, and there wouldn’t be so many gay teens struggling with depression and suicidal tendencies because of the lack of support from their “Christian” families. Tony, you very well may have a gay child, and due to your beliefs, the only thing we can predict is that if you do, your child will grow up with a grievous sense of self-hatred, and it will be your fault and, I assume, your wife’s fault. Sorry.

The great thing, though, about this video, is that Chris Matthews acts as a journalist the entire time, pushing back and correcting Tony’s hateful crap. David Badash also points out that, at the end, Tony Perkins’ lies get downright disgusting, as he claims that there isn’t a surplus of children who need loving homes in this country. Wow, Tony. For somebody whose organization spends so much time screaming about blastocysts, one would think you’d give a damn about actual, breathing kids without parents. But you don’t. You care about your bigotry and your influence.

Repugnant.

It’s beautiful watching Tony squirm as he looks dumber and dumber over the course of fifteen minutes.