Earlier this month, Catholic Cardinal Francis George of Chicago raised more than a few eyebrows for comparing the the gay rights movement to the Klu Klux Klan. George made the comments after organizers of the city’s gay pride parade briefly considered rerouting the event past Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.

And while the parade’s representatives have since “reached an agreement with the church and moved the parade start time to noon to accommodate services,” George — who initially backed off his incendiary comparison — is doubling down on his remarks in a written statement:

“The Chicago Gay Pride Parade has been organized and attended for many years without interfering with the worship of God in a Catholic church,” George wrote. “When the 2012 Parade organizers announced a time and route change this year, it was apparent that the Parade would interfere with divine worship in a Catholic parish on the new route. When the pastor’s request for reconsideration of the plans was ignored, the organizers invited an obvious comparison to other groups who have historically attempted to stifle the religious freedom of the Catholic Church. One such organization is the Ku Klux Klan which, well into the 1940′s, paraded through American cities not only to interfere with Catholic worship but also to demonstrate that Catholics stand outside of the American consensus. It is not a precedent anyone should want to emulate.

“It is terribly wrong and sinful that gays and lesbians have been harassed and subjected to psychological and even physical harm. These tragedies can be addressed, however, without disturbing the organized and orderly public worship of God in a country that claims to be free. I am grateful that all parties concerned resolved this problem by moving the Parade’s start time so as not to conflict with the celebration of Mass that Sunday.”

Change.org has formed a petition calling for George’s resignation and Equally Blessed, an umbrella group of pro-LGBT rights Catholic organizations, said the Cardinal “has demeaned and demonized LGBT people in a manner unworthy of his office.” Truth Wins Out is also taking out a full page ad in this Sunday’s Chicago Tribune calling on George to step down.

During his presidential campaign, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) has had difficulty recalling how many justices sit on the Supreme Court and remembering their names, so perhaps it’s not surprising that today, he forgot a landmark case involving his administration.

At a town hall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Perry appeared to draw a blank when asked about Lawrence v. Texas, a landmark 2003 Supreme Court case that threw out Texas’ anti-sodomy laws. Perry was elected governor of Texas in 2000. “I wish I could tell you I knew every Supreme Court case. I don’t, I’m not even going to try,” he responded, calling it a “gotcha question.” “I’m not a lawyer,” he added. Watch it, via TPM:

Texas’s “Homosexual Conduct” law, which Lawrence overturned, “made it a crime for two people of the same sex to have oral or anal sex, even though those sex acts were legal in Texas for people to engage in with persons of a different sex.”

As TPM’s Pema Levy notes, Perry defended the law in 2002 when the high court took up the case, saying, “I think our law is appropriate that we have on the books.” When his state lost, he called the justices “nine oligarchs in robes.”

Perry attacked the decision in his 2010 book and even ran on a platform of opposing “the legalization of sodomy” during his 2010 reelection bid.

Ron Paul has developed a “live and let live” approach to same-sex marriage and gay rights on the campaign trail, but his efforts to attract Evangelical voters ahead of the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses have revealed, a darker social conservative side to the libertarian Republican from Texas. For instance, earlier this week, the Paul campaign touted the endorsement of Reverend Phillip Kayser, pastor of Dominion Covenant Church in Omaha, Nebraska, for the “enlightening statements he makes on how Ron Paul’s approach to government is consistent with Christian beliefs.” Kayser has previously argued that the Bible justifies capital punishment against gay people — and still stands by this belief:

“Difficulty in implementing Biblical law does not make non-Biblical penology just,” he argued. “But as we have seen, while many homosexuals would be executed, the threat of capital punishment can be restorative. Biblical law would recognize as a matter of justice that even if this law could be enforced today, homosexuals could not be prosecuted for something that was done before.”

Reached by phone, Kayser confirmed to TPM that he believed in reinstating Biblical punishments for homosexuals — including the death penalty — even if he didn’t see much hope for it happening anytime soon. While he said he and Paul disagree on gay rights, noting that Paul recently voted for repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, he supported the campaign because he believed Paul’s federalist take on the Constitution would allow states more latitude to implement fundamentalist law. Especially since under Kayser’s own interpretation of the Constitution there is no separation of Church and State.

Paul has since stripped the press release announcing Kaiser’s endorsement from its site, but Kaiser is not the only anti-gay supporter to join the campaign. Mike Heath, formerly of the Maine Family Policy Council and American Family Association, came on board earlier this month to run church outreach. Heath has suggested that gay marriage was to blame for Maine’s “endless rain and gloom,” writing, “Our leaders allowed a cloud of error to hide the light of reason, and then the rain began.” In 2004, he embarked on a witch hunt against gay members of the Maine legislature, asking supporters, to “e-mail us tips, rumors, speculation and facts” regarding the sexual orientation of the state’s political leaders.”

Paul’s old newsletters from the late 1980s and 1990s have described HIV/AIDS as a gay disease and Paul himself refused to use the bathroom in the the house of a gay supporter. As longtime Paul aide Eric Dondero has revealed, Paul is “personally uncomfortable around homosexuals, no different from a lot of older folks of his era.”