Sex columnist Dan Savage — who also founded the Obama-endorsed It Gets Better project for LGBT youth — spoke this past week about "queer kids" killing themselves and said that "every dead gay kid is a victory for the Family Research Council."
Savage made the comments at a speech at Winona State University, caught on tape and published by CampusReform.org, a group aimed at helping conservative activists in "the struggle against leftist bias and abuse on college campuses."
Savage was explaining why he believes the Family Research Council is labeled as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Here's what Savage said:
Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council — First of all, they tell, Tony Perkins tells parents whose kids come out to reject them. Tony Perkins tells the parents of queer kids to do what Tony Perkins damn well knows drives those kids to suicide — doubles their already quadruple rate of suicide. Why would someone who calls themselves a Christian do that? Because every dead gay kid is a victory for the Family Research Council. They argue that the gay lifestyle is sick and sinful and dangerous and they point to the suicide rate, and then they turn around and do everything in their power to make sure that suicide rate does not come down and to drive it up. Tony Perkins sits on a pile of dead gay kids every day when he goes to work — and he calls himself a Christian. I don’t understand how real Christians let that little fucker get away with that.
Perkins wasn't the only target of Savage's vitriol. Later on the video, he said:
We will always have ignorant dicks like Michele Bachmann and her fag husband.
In response to CampusReform.org's article, Savage — unsurprisingly — did not back down:
I'm Dan Savage and I approved -- and stand by -- this message: http://t.co/ZTMWCyzo
I'm Dan Savage and I approved -- and stand by -- this message: http://t.co/ZTMWCyzo-- Dan Savage