Queer Quote: FRC Now Explicitly Virulently Homophobic

The Family Research Council is an infamous hate group, and has been involved in every fight to thwart the progress of the LGBT community's long march towards equal treatment under the law and full citizenship for the last 30 years. Its President, the odious Tony Perkins, is a frequent guest on television talk shows, a renowned heterosexual supremacist and vicious homophobe.

Recently, FRC has been trying to peddle a "kindler, gentler" flavor of homo hatred. However, Jeremy Hooper of Good-As-You has noticed that they have updated their website with a new position statement on homosexuality. It appears as if they have noticed that they are rapidly losing the kulturkampf on LGBT civil rights and have this has caused them to step back from moderation and instead veer right into unvarnished opposition and extremism.

I quote their statement below in its entirety as today's"Queer Quote":

Family Research Council believes that homosexual conduct is harmful to the persons who engage in it and to society at large, and can never be affirmed.  

It is by definition unnatural, and as such is associated with negative physical and psychological health effects.  

While the origins of same-sex attractions may be complex, there is no convincing evidence that a homosexual identity is ever something genetic or inborn.  

We oppose the vigorous efforts of homosexual activists to demand that homosexuality be accepted as equivalent to heterosexuality in law, in the media, and in schools.  

Attempts to join two men or two women in "marriage" constitute a radical redefinition and falsification of the institution, and FRC supports state and federal constitutional amendments to prevent such redefinition by courts or legislatures.  

Sympathy must be extended to those who struggle with unwanted same-sex attractions, and every effort should be made to assist such persons to overcome those attractions, as many already have.

I have separated the individual sentences to highlight the individual thoughts expressed and to make the hatred clear. To my eyes, the most prominent aspect of the statement is the falsity and lack of evidential rigor in the claims made and feelings expressed. Note that it begins with the unsubstantiated claim that "Homosexual conduct is harmful to the persons who engage in it and to society at large" and  it says that it "can never be affirmed." Really? What proof is there that homosexual conduct is harmful? We do know that not affirming people's inherent sexual orientation is harmful (according to the American Psychological Association). Why can "[homosexuality] never be affirmed"? Is it because it is "unnatural"? Says who? What evidence is there to support this claim?

I really don't have the time to deconstruct the entire statement. In some sense it is a good sign that the FRC is "taking the hoods off" and coming clean about their absolute opposition to any and all public policy changes which affirm the notion that homosexuality and heterosexuality are equivalent sexual orientations.

I do hope that in the future when producers book Tony Perkins on television shows that they acknowledge that they are giving publicity to someone whose views are so far out of the main stream of the public's beliefs and feelings about LGBT civil rights.

Hat/tip to LGBT Think Progress