Family Research Council President Tony Perkins found himself in an awkward situation on Thursday when one CNN host insisted he explain why “homosexuals bother you so much.”

When Perkins agreed to appear on CNN to hype his press conference supporting the Defense of Marriage Act, he probably didn’t expect host Brooke Baldwin to make the conversation personal.

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“Everyone has the right to opine,” Baldwin told Perkins. “But my question is more on a personal level to you: Have you ever been to the home of a married, same sex couple?”

“I have not been to the home of a married, same sex couple, no,” Perkins admitted.

“If you were ever to do so and you were sitting across from them over dinner, how would you convince them that their life together — either two men, two women — hurts straight couples?” the CNN host wondered.

“That’s not how we make public policy,” Perkins replied. “Certainly there are some same sex couples that are probably great parents, but that’s not what the overwhelming amount of social science shows us. And we’ve got some great single moms that are doing great jobs and we applaud them and encouraged them, but we still know that the best environment for a child is with a mom and a dad.”

“I know you don’t want to answer the personal questions, but I’m going to try again,” Baldwin pressed. “Why do — you’ve never been to the home of a same sex couple — why do homosexuals bother you so much?”

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“They don’t bother me,” Perkins insisted. “I’m not going to be silent while they try to redefine marriage in this country, change policy, what my children are taught in schools and what religious organizations can do. I’m not going to be silent, nor are millions of other Christians across this country.”

“We don’t have a dislike for homosexuals,” he added. “They don’t have a right to redefine marriage for the rest of us, they don’t have a right to take away my religious freedom, they don’t have a right to step between me and what my child is taught. That’s what’s happening.”

Watch this video from CNN’s Newsroom, broadcast May 24, 2012.

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(h/t: Mediaite)