Tony Perkins, president of the
Christian conservative Family Research Council (FRC), insisted during
a TV appearance that gay marriage hurts Christians.
Perkins appeared opposite
constitutional lawyer Ted Olson on Fox News Sunday. Olson,
along with David Boies, successfully represented plaintiff couples in
cases challenging restrictive marriage bans in California and
Virginia.
(Related: David
Boies: Supreme Court will legalize gay marriage.)
The pair squared off on how the Supreme
Court will ultimately decide the issue, with Perkins suggesting that
a high court decision would not settle the debate.
“This is not how we reach broad
social consensus over major issues like this,” he
said. “I mean as evidenced by what's going to take place this
week: the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The
court said it was going to decide this issue in 1973, it has not. It
will not decide this issue if it imposes a one-size-fits-all scheme of
marriage on the American people.”
“The Supreme Court of the United
States, 15 times over the last 120 years, has said that marriage is a
fundamental right,” Olsen responded. “Never once in any of those
cases did it say it had to be between a man and woman. Fifteen times
it said it was a matter of privacy, liberty, association, dignity and
respect for the individual. That's what the constitution's all
about.”
When Olsen stated, “No harm
whatsoever has been done to heterosexual marriages as a result,”
Perkins responded, “That is not true.”
“Religious liberty has been placed on
a collision course with sexual license because of a handful of
unelected judges and lawyers. The American people have a right to
speak on this, they have, the court should respect the voice of the
people,” Perkins said.
The high court is expected to hear
arguments in April and deliver a ruling by June.