Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appointed Tony Perkins to U.S. Commission on International Freedom in May 2018 despite fierce backlash from civil rights groups and anyone who cares about freedom for people of color.
Now, Perkins has been tapped to chair the U.S. Commission on International Freedom. He was elected the leader of the commission on Monday, according to Right Wing Watch. The USCIRF is a bipartisan commission created in 1998 whose members are appointed by the president and congressional leaders.
The commission is supposed to review the facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom internationally and makes policy recommendations to the president, secretary of state and Congress.
Perkins’ history is dark, racist and homophobic, just to name a few, and he’s not scared of showing it. He is a former Louisiana state legislator with ties to the KKK who now leads the anti-LGBTQ hate group Family Research Council.
Perkins has said that Islam “is incompatible with the Constitution” and that “only 16 percent of Islam is a religion.” He’s also not above attacking his fellow Christians who dare to support equality.
Perkins has said that Christians who support legal equality for LGBTQ people don’t have the same legal protections as more conservative Christians. “True religious freedom” has to be “based on orthodox religious viewpoints,” he said.
Perkins has a long history of making nonsensical claims to demonize LGBTQ people, people who aren’t Christians, and their allies. He once claimed that musicals are nothing but “homosexual propaganda” and that ”Mike and Ike” were gay and “sexualizing candy.”
