U.S. Department of Education staffer Kevin Jennings -- the safe-schools chief that has been tarred with baseless homophobic smears by Fox News and much of the conservative media – spoke “freely on Tuesday about the attacks against him” to a “room of progressive interns finishing up a summer” in the nation's capital.

Metro Weekly's Chris Geidner reports:

During and after his speech, Jennings several times referenced the extensive attacks against him by Fox News – and the work of Media Matters for America to correct those false statements.

Calling them ''some of the most homophobic attacks we've ever seen in this country,'' Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron – whose group organized the event – said, ''Kevin fought back and won.''

After his speech, Jennings expanded on the reason why he didn't back down in the face of the criticism from the right.

''I, as the leading proponent of stopping bullying in America, I was not going to allow myself to be bullied out of a job,'' he said. ''There was no way. It was not going to happen.

''I've been preaching for 25 years that bullying is not okay. There was no way I could then say, 'Okay, well, I'll let you bully me.'''

Referencing President Theodore Roosevelt's ''in the arena'' speech in which the then-president told his audience to ''strive to do the deeds'' even if they wound up failing, Jennings told the interns, ''Do not be that cold or timid soul. Get in the arena.

''You won't win every time. You may find yourself like me with 1.1 million Google hits, most of which are negative – thanks to the Fox News Network – but get in there and fight.''

[...]

As to responding, however, first he said, ''It's very important to get the truth out.'' Speaking of the organization that spent significant time countering the claims made against him, Jennings noted, ''Media Matters is a brilliant organization that does a great job debunking the lies that are put out.''