Tony Perkins, the Christian hate group leader who just got appointed to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) for reasons that make no sense, thinks that being transgender is equivalent to people claiming to be animals.
During an episode of his Washington Watch show this week, Perkins got a phone call from someone who said being transgender was like saying you’re a cat.
Instead of giving the proper response, “What the hell are you talking about?,” Perkins accepted the analogy and took it even further:
“If you are a male — genetically you are a male, biologically you’re a male — and you say, ‘Well, I’m not a male. I’m a female.’ I mean, what’s to keep you from saying you’re an animal?” Perkins said.
…
“Think about this for a minute. Someone says, ‘Well look, I’m a bird-man, alright? I’m a bird-man and I’m going to jump off this building and fly.’ Do you have a responsibility to stop that person from jumping off that building? I mean, you know that they don’t have feathers and they can’t fly, but you would hurt their feelings if you said, ‘No wait, Fred, you’re not a bird-man. You’re a man but you’re not a bird and you can’t fly.’ But out of respect for not hurting his feelings, you go ahead and let him jump, and that was the end of Fred,” he said.
I shouldn’t have to say this in 2018, but being trans doesn’t mean someone just magically claims to be someone else. No one would claim to be a bird because that’s not how anything works. And not harassing people who are trans doesn’t mean they’re doing to die. If anything, it’s the opposite. Evangelicals like Perkins are pushing many trans people to suicide by making their lives miserable.
But what else would you expect from white evangelical leaders? They oppose LGBTQ rights in large part because they don’t understand LGBTQ people. We hear it every time they bring up the topic. And they have no desire to fix their ignorance.
I guess that makes them dodo birds.
May their faith meet the same fate.
(via Right Wing Watch)