Family Research Council Lobbied Congress on Resolution Denouncing Ugandan Anti-Gay Bill

Tony Perkins

/ Family Research Council

Yesterday, the blog Joe. My. God., working with a reporter from Gay City News, reported that the conservative Family Research Council spent $25,000 "to lobby Congress against approving a resolution denouncing Uganda's plan to execute homosexuals."

The site posted three screencaps from the Family Research Council's lobbying report; they suggest $25,000 was spent on lobbying what FRC described as "Res.1064Ugandan ResolutionPro-homosexual promotion."

Asked of the organization had indeed lobbied to kill the resolution, FRC provided Hotsheet with a statement calling claims that they had lobbied against the resolution inaccurate.

The Tony Perkins-led FRC said it did lobby on the bill, but not to kill it - rather to change the language it contained and "to remove sweeping and inaccurate assertions that homosexual conduct is internationally recognized as a fundamental human right."

"FRC did not lobby against or oppose passage of the congressional resolution," the group said. "FRC's efforts, at the request of Congressional offices, were limited to seeking changes in the language of proposed drafts of the resolution, in order to make it more factually accurate regarding the content of the Uganda bill."

"FRC does not support the Uganda bill, and does not support the death penalty for homosexuality - nor any other penalty which would have the effect of inhibiting compassionate pastoral, psychological, and medical care and treatment for those who experience same-sex attractions or who engage in homosexual conduct," the group adds.

The Ugandan bill, which was met with widespread condemnation, would have made some homosexual conduct punishable by death. (It now looks unlikely to become law.) The U.S. congressional resolution, a symbolic gesture, passed the Senate in April but has stalled in the House.

You can read the Senate version of the resolution here, and the House version here.

"The proposed Ugandan bill not only threatens human rights, it also reverses so many of the gains that Uganda has made in the fight against HIV/AIDS," said Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, upon his introduction of the resolution in February. "This issue has united leaders of different political and religious views in Uganda and worldwide in one common belief in the rights of all human beings regardless of sexual orientation."

[melbatom]

If you have not figured it out yet this dispute is a Muslim dispute. Appear as a **** in a Muslim State and good by! Make no mistake the Koran discredits this type of activity and promotes sevear punishment to those that practice it. That is not the way the Bible approachs the subject. It just declares you are in a position to be judged in the end. Meaning it is God's business. If you seek to contridict the Bible than the end is your problem and you CAN NOT force me to agree. You are always free to do what you want but the consequences also are yours when you contridict God's Laws.

[hakori]

Tony Perkins is evil. If there is a Hell, he'll be quite toasty in the afterlife, and it couldn't happen to a more deserving bigot. I wonder if good ole Tony is a self hating gay himself. It would certainly fit the recent pattern of anit-gay bigots who are then discovered to be gay themselves. I wonder what Fred Phelps is hiding in his closet...

[SJames6621]

Perkins is a racist. Hate is tranferable from victim to victim

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/picture-worth-thousand-memories

[kudo451]

Does the FRC really expect people to believe that they spent $25,000 to "spell check" a bill? Any chance they plan to put forth the details of the language they where actually looking to see changed and that they felt was worth the expense of the $25K it would cost. It just astounds me that this group continues to use 'Christian love' to justify their actions of expunging or invalidating homosexuality or the protection of homosexuals at any level of society as love. How do they not see that such an attitude is nothing more than hateful and anti-Christian.

[kudo451]

Does the FRC really expect people to believe that they spent $25,000 to "spell check" a bill? Any chance they plan to put forth the details of the language they where actually looking to see changed and that they felt was worth the expense of the $25K it would cost. It just astounds me that this group continues to use 'Christian love' to justify their actions of expunging or invalidating homosexuality or the protection of homosexuals at any level of society as love. How do they not see that such an attitude is nothing more than hateful and anti-Christian.

[VA_John]

I remember when this bill first made world news that these fear-mongers tried to distance themselves from it. It seems as none of the commandments they preach apply to them.

[Dgunner]

They are killing themselves at a rate so fast the UN Nations can't give help fastenough. This money and article are actually unnecessary ans a waste of time. I heard a officer say one time. :Thereis no such thing as predjudice in a foxhole and there is no God east of Kenya:. These people are killing themselves and out of compassion and wanting the rest of the world tries to stop what is a unstoppable force of human nature to conquer and be above one another in socialistic classes. Unfortunately the lack of social organization prevents any improvement to withstand a self destructive house divided .

[winchesterla]

Leave Africa alone. You guys are not there when they suffer the consequences of social and traditional breakdown caused by western interference. All we see is aids to ?africa? to belittle them as if they are not capable of managing their problem. Yet each time they want to manage their problem, there is interference. Stop this Gay evangelism of Africa. Africa will resist it!!

[VA_John]

I agree whole-heartedly - and I hope you support banning this bigot-lunatics from ever speaking on behalf the U.S. or Christians again. ever.

[marcoluxe]

Donors: it appears that FRC has all the money they need if they can spend 25k on lobbying for "correcting the facts" on a meaningless resolution aimed at Uganda. We all know their policy is never to deal with "facts" anyway.

[Stogiebear]

Perkins asserts that "FRC's efforts, at the request of Congressional offices, were limited to seeking changes in the language of proposed drafts of the resolution, in order to make it more factually accurate regarding the content of the Uganda bill."

I'm curious as to which Congressional offices he is accusing of contacting the FRC for help with factual accuracy and, if it turns out to be true, why Congressional offices are going to a religious organization for help on a human rights and foreign policy matter. Did we become a theocracy while I was out on lunch break today?

[harvest75]

If this were about any other group beside gay people, maybe the news media would call this bill what it is: genocide. Maybe the news media will at least now think twice about calling on Tony Perkins as a legitimate "countervoice" on gay issues, since the George Rekers scandal apparently wasn't enough proof that they are a scam outfit.
The FRC can spin it any way they want after the fact, it still adds up to $25,000 of donated money spent in support of genocide. And let's not forget that the Uganda bill was inspired by Right-wing Christian Americans like Scott Lively to begin with. His insane lies about gays causing the holocaust are what convinced Martin Ssempa to push the bill. Evangelicals are playing out their sick American culture war against gays on African soil, with human lives as the cost.