Last month, shortly after President Obama announced his support for marriage equality, Sen. Rand Paul spoke at an Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition event where he joked that he “wasn’t sure that [Obama’s] views on marriage could get any gayer.”
A few days later, the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins was asked about the remark on “Face the Nation” where he mildly rebuked Paul, saying “I don’t think this is something we should joke about. We are talking about individuals who feel very strongly one way or the other, and I think we should be civil, respectful, allowing all sides to have the debate.”
Perkins’ criticism of Paul has, in turn, angered Peter LaBarbera who told Sandy Rios last week that “we need to be praising Republicans who speak out on homosexual marriage and the gay agenda, we shouldn’t be chastising them”:
This makes me sad, Sandy. I like Tony Perkins, I like the work he does at Family Research Council but the Left started criticizing Rand Paul for joking about gays and then Tony Perkins was asked about it on “Face The Nation,” I think [by] Bob Schieffer,” and he criticized Rand Paul and said this is not a joking matter and I just have to disagree you. You just played the tape; Rand Paul didn’t do anything wrong. The President’s positions on homosexual marriage have been almost comical; he was for homosexual marriage before he was against it now he’s for it again. So, and Rand Paul obviously spoke with compassion, he said this is not about hating people so it really troubled me to see Tony Perkins cave in to the liberal media and criticize Rand Paul when, you’re absolutely right, we need to be praising Republicans who speak out on homosexual marriage and the gay agenda, we shouldn’t be chastising them.
