WATCH: Activist Says Family Dinner Might Soften Antigay Leader's Attitude

Jennifer Chrisler tells CNN's Brooke Baldwin that she asked Tony Perkins to dinner in hopes of softening his heart.

Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.

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Trudy Ring

May 28 2012 5:03 PM EST

November 17 2015 5:28 AM EST

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Jennifer Chrisler, head of the Family Equality Council, told CNN's Brooke Baldwin today that antigay leader Tony Perkins might "open his heart" if he accepts her invitation to dinner with her family.

Chrisler extended the invitation after Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, discussed his opposition to same-sex marriage and denounced gay parents in an interview with Baldwin last week, and Baldwin challenged him to justify his views, asking him among other things if he had ever been to the home of a same-sex married couple.

Baldwin noted that Perkins, queried by CNN, told the network today that he and his wife "will be glad to respond when we receive the invitation to find a time that works." Chrisler isn't holding her breath, but she thinks spending time with her family, which includes her same-sex spouse and 10-year-old twin boys, would do Perkins some good. "I don't think that I'll change his mind, buy I do think that we might be able to open his heart a little bit," she told Baldwin.

Watch the interview here.