Rick Perry has said he supports the Boy
Scouts' right to discriminate against gays.
Perry made his remarks during a
wide-ranging interview with the Des
Moines Register's editorial board. The paper is expected to
endorse a GOP candidate next week.
The 61-year-old Perry was asked to
expand on what he meant in his charge that President Barack Obama has
waged a war on religion, a claim which he made in a widely-parodied
video released last week in Iowa titled Strong.
In the 30-second video, the Texas
governor says there is something wrong with America when gay troops
can serve openly in the military but children cannot openly celebrate
Christmas
Perry, who earned the rank of Eagle
Scout, referenced his 2008 book On My Honor: Why The American
Values Of The Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For in answering the
question.
“The Supreme Court should not be
making legislative decisions. Telling Americans how to live.
Whether it's about prayer in school. Whether you can celebrate
Christmas. Those are decisions that should be left to the states or
to the individuals.”
“His [Obama's] Justice Department who
is defending this ministerial exception. I think that is a direct
attack on our people of faith and churches, basically saying that you
cannot discriminate, if you will, someone who doesn't believe what
you believe in hiring and firing of ministers and other staff.”
“It's like Boy Scouts,” Perry said.
My book “gets into the issue of
whether or not scouting should be able to restrict an openly gay
scout master. Very private sector organization. That should be
their call. And you have them spending substantial amounts of money
defending lawsuits that have said look you have to … and … those
are my beliefs.”
(Related: Rick
Perry heckled over anti-gay ad during Ames appearance.)