Family Research Council President Debates CNN's Soledad O'Brien on Gays in the Boy Scouts: 'Doesn't Pass the Parent Test

CNN

The president of the conservative Family Research Council said Wednesday that lifting the long-standing ban on gays in the Boy Scouts doesn't "pass the parent test."

The Family Research Council and 41 other organizations ran an ad in USA Today this week warning the scouts it would be "a grave mistake" to overturn the ban and urging them to "stand firm for timeless values." The Boy Scouts announced Wednesday it had delayed a decision on whether to overturn the ban until May.

"Look, this doesn't pass the parent test," Perkins said on CNN. "You're going to let leaders come in who are attracted  to males."

"I'm a parent, OK, what's the parent test?" anchor Soledad O'Brien asked.

"I'm a parent, I have three daughters," Perkins said. "My heterosexual neighbor -- man, like him, good guy, got kids of his own -- but I'm not going to let him go camping with my girls. Why would I let a man who is attracted to other males go camping with my boys? It doesn't pass the parent test."

O'Brien pointed out that pedophiles have sex with children and asked, "Are you saying someone who's gay is a pedophile?"

"No, I never said that, you said that," Perkins said. "I'm saying they [the Scouts] are trying to create an environment that is protective of the children....there is a disproportionate number of male on boy pedophilia...but we've never said all homosexuals are pedophiles or all pedophiles are homosexual."

He said it comes down to having Scouts who would be "attracted to members of the same sex."

“Is that right, for Boy Scouts who are out wanting to learn the basic tenets of scouting to have to worry about whether or not the boy in the tent with them is attracted to them? Is that right?” Perkins asked. “I mean look, these folks that want to do — they are free to set up their own organization. Why do they want to come in and change an organization that’s been around for 100 years?”

“Because it’s discriminatory,” O’Brien replied.

She asked Perkins whether he worries if he's "on the wrong side of history on this?"

"No I don't," Perkins said.