Family Research Council leads fight against opponents of anti-gay bullying
1 hour and 26 minutes ago — 10 Comments

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins recently suggested that gay youths who committed suicide after being bullied were actually responding to their "despair" after being told by gay-rights groups that "they are 'born gay' and can never change." The FRC has long sought to minimize anti-gay bullying and attacked those who seek to stop it.

Perkins blamed GLBT rights groups like GLSEN -- which opposes anti-gay bullying -- for recent gay youth suicides. In an October 11 column published at The Washington Post's On Faith blog, Perkins attacked the Gay, Straight, and Lesbian Education Network (GLSEN), an organization that "strives to assure that each member of every school community is valued and respected regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression" and seeks to prevent anti-gay bullying in schools. Perkins claimed that because "mental health problems are higher among those who 'come out of the closet' at an earlier age," the group's "approach" of "encourag[ing] teens to 'come out' when younger and younger" is "likely exacerbating the very problem they claim they want to solve." He continued:

Some homosexuals may recognize intuitively that their same-sex attractions are abnormal -- yet they have been told by the homosexual movement, and their allies in the media and the educational establishment, that they are "born gay" and can never change. This -- and not society's disapproval -- may create a sense of despair that can lead to suicide.

Perkins attacked "homosexual activist groups like" GLSEN for "exploiting these tragedies." In his column, Perkins wrote that "[s]ome homosexual activist groups lay blame" for the suicides "at the feet of conservative Christians who teach that homosexual conduct is wrong," and commented that "homosexual activist groups like GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) are exploiting these tragedies to push their agenda of demanding not only tolerance of homosexual individuals, but active affirmation of homosexual conduct and their efforts to redefine the family."
FRC leading charge against Jennings, head of anti-bullying Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools

Jennings, who leads government's anti-bullying activities, is a long-time advocate against anti-gay bullying in schools.