Tony Perkins is the President of the Family Research Council, AKA one of the biggest players in the anti-marriage equality game. In a recent CNN interview, he confessed that he had never been inside the home of a gay couple before. How shocking, surprising, and totally unexpected of a complete homophobe! How weird that he has never actually interacted with gay people ever.
Jennifer Chrisler, Executive Director of the Family Equality Council, saw an opportunity not to make fun of Perkins (at least not publicly), but instead to “soften hearts.” She wrote Perkins a letter and invited him into her home, where she lives with her wife and two kids, for dinner.
Chrisler, who is expecting a third child soon, wants Perkins to realize that gay people are great cooks full of laughs and good times. After all, hasn’t he ever seen My Drunk Kitchen? Chrisler, however, was clearly neither drunk nor attempting to make quesadillas when she invited Perkins into her home.
I watched with interest your appearance on CNN Thursday and I was struck by your steadfast opposition to full equality for the 1 million lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender parents who are raising 2 million children in our country today. It is especially concerning given your lack of meaningful and personal interaction with those families.
I, like you, am a parent. Like you, my spouse and I have shared many years together committed to our family, our community, and to making the world a better place. I imagine we share many of the same joys and struggles in doing the important work of raising our children and contributing meaningfully to our community. We attend church regularly and our children attend Sunday school weekly. We love our children intensely and feel a deep desire to protect and nurture them as they continue along their journey to adulthood. We are also anxiously awaiting the arrival of our third child, due in August, and have worked since his conception to ensure his health and welfare. This is the face of the one million families you have taken no time to get to know.
Perkins, surprisingly, accepted the invitation saying he and his wife would love to attend once they can find a good date.
This feels like one of those icebreaker questions gone bad. You know, kind of like, “who would you invite to a dinner party if you could choose eight people — DEAD OR ALIVE,” or “what stuff would you do to better the movement that actually makes you want to punch someone in the face.” Hopefully Perkins isn’t using scheduling as an excuse, and actually intends to show up. Also, hopefully it ends up being adorable. Something tells me that dinner involving lesbian moms and their children couldn’t actually be anything else.
