WASHINGTON — Tony Perkins, president of the anti-gay hate group Family Research Council, has accepted — somewhat — an invitation to dinner in the home of a married, same-sex couple and their family.
The invitation, from Jennifer Chrisler, Executive Director of the Family Equality Council, a group that advocates for LGBT families, came in response to Perkin’s appearance on CNN last week in which he said he had never been to the home of a gay couple.
In a letter sent to Perkins on Friday, Chrisler wrote, “I was struck by your steadfast opposition to full equality for the 1 million lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender parents who are raising 2 million children in our country today. It is especially concerning given your lack of meaningful and personal interaction with those families.”
I, like you, am a parent. Like you, my spouse and I have shared many years together committed to our family, our community, and to making the world a better place. I imagine we share many of the same joys and struggles in doing the important work of raising our children and contributing meaningfully to our community.
We attend church regularly and our children attend Sunday school weekly. We love our children intensely and feel a deep desire to protect and nurture them as they continue along their journey to adulthood. We are also anxiously awaiting the arrival of our third child, due in August, and have worked since his conception to ensure his health and welfare. This is the face of the one million families you have taken no time to get to know.
I think if you could spend meaningful time with any of us, you would find we share many of the same values that you have worked to teach your own children.
So it is with that in mind that I come to you with this sincere offer. I would like to extend an open invitation for you and your family to visit my home and have dinner with my spouse and children with the full hope that you will witness the love that exists in our families. While I recognize it may not change your mind, I hope that it might soften your heart. As Christians, I think we can both agree that ours is not to judge and that we must live by the golden rule. I open my table to you and invite you to get to know me and my family.
Even if nothing comes of the experience, at least you can say you spent time with our families and knew us and still deny us our equality. But I know you will find that our families have much in common and share the same hopes and dreams for our children.
– Jennifer Chrisler
Perkins, in a curiously worded statement sent to CNN on Monday, responded to the invitation, saying, “My wife and I will be glad to respond when we receive the invitation to find a time that works.”
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I wouldn’t have that lying sack of shit in my home.
ohhh arsenic and old lace! will it be a murder mystery dinner?
Love will out <3
Oh please! I wouldn’t allow that hateful bastard within 100 feet of my front door let alone anyone in my family.
I think it’s great that they are opening their door to someone that they disagree with. We need less hate in here, hating someone who lives in a hateful little world of their own needs to be shown some love and respect. It’s how we win people over and change minds. Hopefully they have a lovely dinner and get to have a meaningful discussion and maybe he will walk away with a different view and opinion. :)
Kill ‘em with kindness.
I admire them. It takes a whole lot of courage to invite someone who spouts that kind of vitriol into your home. I won’t be surprised if they don’t go.
although i do not believe in the practice, Jennifer Chrisler and Cheryl Jacques probably should seek an exorcism on their poor house after or it will surely reek of hate for years.
I can see it all now: he’s going to waltz in there and be insulting as always, try to shove his version of the bible down their throats, and these people are going to go out of their way to show this prick kindness. I truly admire them and hope the dinner goes smashingly.
Bet he doesnt show up . or if he does he wont have any manners .
show them love yes . show him respect NO!
While my cynicism is on full blast, I applaud Ms. Chrisler for taking the high road and reacting to hateful bigotry with love. She is courageous for not letting prejudice harden her heart.
Ariel tPerlins doesn’t deserve air much less respect
wait for him to enter and jump his ass!
Michael, I don’t agree with the man or how he lives or what he believes. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to insist on a mob of angry gays going after him. If a lesbian couple would like to invite him into their home for dinner to let him get to know a lesbian couple, then I applaud them. Most people wouldn’t have it in them to allow such a hateful person within arm’s length without wanting to bash their brains in. But that’s what makes this woman better than most people. Just because you don’t like someone doesn’t mean you shouldn’t treat them with respect, he hasn’t gone and killed anyone(as far as I know), he’s just a hateful piece of shit, but he has admitted that he has never spent time around gays, sometimes that’s all it takes, getting to know the sort of person you hate for no reason, and then losing that reason to hate them.