Tony Perkins Defends Michigan Republican Dave Agema, Criticizes RNC for Pro-‘Gay’ Political Correctness

Are Republican Party elites on a suicide mission?

Michigan RNC Committeeman Dave Agema was charged by fellow Republicans with “hate” for raising the public health risks of the homosexual lifestyle.

This is an important piece by Family Research Council (FRC) President Tony Perkins, reprinted from his April 2 “Washington Watch” newsletter. Republican Party politicians (they’re not behaving like statesmen) are on a suicide mission if they think they can stab their most faithful constituents in the back on the homosexual agenda and still come away strong enough to beat the radically pro-“gay” Democrats. (A Democrat will usually beat a “Democrat-lite.”)

You are like me if you’re ready to yell at the TV or radio every time you hear a Republican or some libertarian-leaning pundit assert, with robot-like efficiency, that we need to be “focusing on the issues that really matter.” That’s code for the fiscal issues — rather than social issues like homosexual “marriage,” which I suppose, by extension, “don’t really matter” much to these Republicans.

Seems to me the moral disintegration of America and the preservation of marriage should be at the top of the list of issues that matter. Too bad we don’t have a STRONG pro-family, pro-life, God-fearing conservative party that could give both of our corrupt major parties a run for their money. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

P.S. While I (like Perkins) will not vouch for the accuracy of each of Agema’s citations (e.g., it was not NAMBLA but another pedophile group that invented the sick motto, “Sex before eight or it’s too late”), it is preposterous to assert that homosexuality is somehow above criticism. Even more absurd is the idea — repeated in this Daily Kos hit piece against FRC — of blaming the well-documented, highly disproportionate disease rates linked to homosexual sex (HIV, syphilis, hepatitis, etc.) on “the stress which comes from having to deal with homophobia and discrimination.” Right, it’s our fault….

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From Tony Perkins’ April 2 “Washington Watch”:

RNC Makes Values a Mute Point

“Wishful thinking.” That’s how MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough described the GOP’s supposed shift on same-sex “marriage.” During a segment on yesterday’s show, Scarborough tried to put the media’s spin into perspective. “This rush to marriage equality is–at least among the Republican base–a mirage.” Anyone who believes otherwise, he said, has a fundamental misunderstanding of the political realities in America:

“I wonder how many of these people [who] support it from Washington or New York, or from state capitals across the country, have ever campaigned in western Iowa, have ever campaigned in South Carolina in the Greenville-Spartanburg area, have ever campaigned across north Florida. … What [Republican presidential] candidate can win in western Iowa, can win in the Greenville-Spartanburg area, can win in north Florida if they come out and support gay marriage nationally?”

Unfortunately, it sounds like Joe Scarborough has a better handle on the Republican base than its own leadership. Instead of recognizing a consensus issue when they see it, the Republican National Committee (RNC) is trying to do the Left’s job: sow division in the party by retreating on key planks in the GOP platform. If the RNC wants to replicate the states’ success, it needs to reflect the states’ values. The GOP establishment wants to relegate social conservatives to minority status in the national party, when we’re the majority in most states. And they wonder why their candidates are losing elections!

When leaders like Republican National Committeeman Dave Agema so much as raise questions about the harms of homosexuality, the RNC throws them under the bus faster than you can say “political correctness.” Agema, a staunch Michigan conservative, is taking fire from his own party for a Facebook post that detailed the harms of homosexuality. And while people may not agree with everything in his column, they should agree on his freedom to call for a discussion. But under this new “inclusive” and “welcoming” RNC, simply raising awareness on certain social issues is off-limits. A group of GOP officials is calling on Agema to resign–including state party chairman Bobby Schostak, who claimed that statistics about the consequences of homosexual behavior (consequences which even the Left acknowledges!) are a “form of hate.”

While Agema’s research may be somewhat outdated, FRC’s “Top 10 Myths about Homosexuality” highlights a summary of recent data, which all point to the high rates of physical and mental illness associated with homosexuality. Several of these hazards are echoed by the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, which makes a point of posting the risks so that people can discuss them with their doctors. To his credit, Agema isn’t backing down. He insists that we shouldn’t cut off debate about a lifestyle with direct public policy implications.

He’s right. Anyone who’s read about the growing crisis of sexually transmitted infections in America understands that all forms of promiscuity–homosexual and otherwise–are having a major impact on public health. We can’t reverse those trends by burying our head in the sand and throwing money at the epidemic. Ignoring the deeper issues only perpetuates the problem and does a disservice to taxpayers who are literally paying the price for America’s sexual liberalism.

Of course, the irony is that while the RNC is busy self-censoring, the Republicans’ position on marriage isn’t what voters are complaining about. According to a new Gallup survey, only 3% of Republicans criticized the party’s platform on social issues. A far greater number–14 percent–thinks the GOP’s biggest problem is that it doesn’t stand up for its positions. A fact that conservatives like Dave Agema can certainly attest to.