Local LGBT group concerned about Jindal appointment

Matt Patterson, a board member of Capital City Alliance, which works “to improve the quality of life for LGBT people and their allies in greater Baton Rouge,” says the organization is concerned that Gov. Bobby Jindal has appointed Tony Perkins to the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement. The former Louisiana legislator heads the Family Research Council, which seeks to “advance faith, family and freedom in public policy and the culture from a Christian worldview.” The Southern Poverty Law Center in 2010 classified the FRC as a hate group, saying it has been “a font of anti-gay propaganda.” Given the recent local controversy in which the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office targeted gay men for arrest under an unconstitutional anti-sodomy law, Perkins’ possible influence on the law enforcement commission is worrisome, Patterson says. Sheriff Sid Gautreaux has apologized for the arrests, and has since met with CCA. “Tony Perkins is bad news for the LGBT community wherever he shows up,” Patterson says. “His record ought to disqualify him from anybody in government ever taking him seriously.” The appointment was announced in April, according to a press release forwarded by Jindal’s office, but attracted little notice until a report in former lawmaker Woody Jenkins’ Capital City News began making the rounds online. Perkins is a former police officer and has worked with the U.S. State Department’s Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program, Jindal’s office says, and is “a person having vital concern with law enforcement and the administration of criminal justice.” —David Jacobs