GLAAD has joined with CBS to prepare a public service announcement (PSA) which will air during the As the World Turns soap opera on May 9. The PSA features an actor who’s character on the soap is struggling to tell his parents that he his gay, along with the actress who plays his mother.
The spot urges viewers to take a stand against the discrimination and prejudice faced by gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, and directs them to GLAAD.org where they can find resources for parents, youth, families and friends.
Traditional Values Coalition spokesperson Andrea Lafferty is upset.
TVC is one of the most virulently anti-gay organizations and seldom even makes the pretence of “loving the sinner”. Lafferty, and her father Lou Sheldon, spend a significant portion of their time and effort in demonizing gay people and fighting against any rights or equality that gay people may seek to achieve. For example, a section of the TVC website is dedicated to providing “reporters, editors, and other opinion leaders with accurate information on the relationship between homosexuality and the molestation of children.”
As the PSA addresses anti-gay discrimination and prejudice, Lafferty is concerned about how it might reflect on her and other like her:
“The underlying message of GLAAD’s PSA is that anyone who opposes homosexual conduct is prejudiced or intolerant. This is propaganda, not accurate information.”
But Lafferty goes beyond her indignation at having her prejudice and intolerance criticized. She endorses the ex-gay movement.
The homosexual condition is not in-born or unchangeable. Thousands of ex-homosexuals can attest to this fact and their testimonies are well documented by Exodus International.
(Mrs. Lafferty may want to recheck her count of the testimonies. On the Exodus International website, there are testimonials from 25 ex-gay men, 17 ex-gay women, and 2 ex-gay youth. That’s 44, not “thousands” and some of those listed admit that they continue to have same-sex attraction.)
This alliance between TVC and Exodus may seem natural for those who support anti-gay political and religious goals. However, the ex-gay movement was founded on the idea that churches had evidenced so much hostility to those with same-sex attraction that an outreach was needed to understand SSA afflicted people and bring them to “wholeness”. It seems to me to be unlikely that any outreach to gay persons can be made while in partnership with an organization that makes the following claims:
Homosexuals seldom openly admit that they want to sexually assault children, but their literature and their actions tell another story.
The effort to push adult/child sex isn’t limited to these three homosexual activists. It is part of the overall homosexual movement.
GLSEN targets children for recruitment into the homosexual lifestyle as well as cross-dressing/sex change operations
Homosexual activists are now beginning to openly admit that they don’t want to marry just to have a normal home life. They want same-sex marriage as a way of destroying the concept of marriage altogether-and of introducing polygamy and polyamory (group sex) as “families.”
A person who assaults a homosexual will receive a stiffer penalty than a person who assaults a heterosexual for the same crime.
What this film [Brokeback Mountain] does not deal with is the dysfunctional nature and social consequences of the same-sex lifestyle. Homosexual behavior is no different than tobacco or alcohol abuse.
A dangerous Marxist/Leftist/Homosexual/Islamic coalition has formed – and we’d better be willing to fight it with everything in our power.
This sort of rhetoric is extreme and is readily recognized by any gay person as untrue. It is difficult to imagine how this sort of language would entice anyone who is gay to consider participating in an ex-gay ministry.
CLARIFICATION: It has been rightly pointed out that while TVC is now using the language of Exodus, there has not been a formal public association with TVC on Exodus’ part.
However, Exodus claims on its website that it “has challenged those who respond to homosexuals with ignorance and fear”. And while it would seem difficult to find an organization that has responded more to homosexuals with ignorance and fear than TVC, we are unable to locate any instance in which Exodus has challenged them.
TVC has allied itselves with Exodus. And until Exodus clarifies that they disavow the extremist and hateful positions of TVC, we have little to suggest that this show of support is not mutual.
If there ever was a way in which Exodus can repudiate the church’s messages of ignorance and fear, this would be it. We call on the leadership of Exodus to issue a statement repudiating TVC and their false, harmful, and hateful rhetoric.
Yes, I think we are all aware of what communist dictatorships and Islamic theocracies have done to aid homosexuals.
I get the part about TVC (mis)using Exodus data, but not signs of the inverse, or of collaboration between the two. Am I missing something?
I find only nominal mentions of TVC and Sheldon at the Exodus site, no signs of Sheldon, Lafferty, or TVC being presenters at recent Exodus national conferences. The folks doing the Exodus blog have mentioned the TVC in a couple dozen posts, a quick scan of which isn’t popping up examples of TVC being endorsed by Exodus, that I’m finding anyway.
And, I see a piece about Lou Sheldon insisting that ex-gays must be exorcised in order to achieve healing, a position for which I don’t know of any Exodus support.
I E,
It’s good I wasn’t sipping my coffee when I read your comment or it would be all over my key board.
From the article:
“Ex-homosexual groups, psychological groups like the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, and organizations like TVC are to be debunked, marginalized or ignored,” said Lafferty.
There’s some truth even on their web site, I see.
“A dangerous Marxist/Leftist/Homosexual/Islamic coalition has formed”
Oh, yes I want to attend these meetings.
(May I just say I find such soaps to be beyond annoying…)You’ll have to wait unto 9 May to see the As The World Turns (My Stomach) PSA, but GLAAD do have the General Hospital PSA online.Anyone see a problem with the message in the PSA? No? — didn’t think so.
I agree that the connections or parallels between TVC and Exodus could be clearer. However, at minimum, it is disturbing that Exodus has not objected to TVC’s smears against same-sex-attracted strugglers, TVC’s threats of exorcism, and TVC’s sweeping statements of bigotry against all SSA individuals whether they struggle against their attraction/orientation or not.
The web page that quotes TVC’s objections has this quote:
With this quote, Lafferty is committing defamation, or something close to it, against GLAAD.
GLAAD consists of people from diverse religious faiths. Unlike the ill-tempered shouters of TVC, the people at GLAAD don’t don megaphones and shout their faiths with angry and egotistical voices.
I suppose I could be charitable and say that Lafferty is just projecting her own religious bigotry against non-fundamentalists. But my guess is that Lafferty’s intent is more malicious than that.
The General Hospital PSA says simply that prejudice and discrimination are wrong.
GASP.
No doubt the ungodly father-daughter pair that runs TVC will disagree with the PSA. I’d like to know what Exodus has to say.
I care for my elderly mother (she’s 92) and she watches “As The World Turns” (she has since I remember back in the early 60s). About two months ago, she said to me, ‘I think that boy’s gay.’ ‘Yes mom, sure mom.’ Then two weeks or so ago I’m seeing to her needs and she’s watching the show and she shouts at me ‘see, SEE!’ Seems that they were serruptitiously talking the kid’s gayness over on the tube. I guess my 92 year-old mother’s gaydar is still good, she sutzed me out at a young age.
Yes… by all means we should do whatever we can to marginalize and ignore the TVC, FotF, AFA, LC, MA, etc… etc… etc…..
While I agree that Exodus does not appear to be outwardly endorsing TVC, I really do wish they would do more to prevent virulent groups like this from using their organization to actively attack gay people.
They know their organization is being used as a pawn (at least by some), and they simply appear to stand by and watch. If helping gays turn to God was their goal, you would think they would look out more for the emotional well-being of gays rather than allowing them to be demonized in such ways.
The wording of the General Hospital PSA is:
“Every day people young and old face hatred, discrimination, and even violence because they’re gay. Prejudice and discrimination of any kind is wrong. Be an ally and a friend. To find out how, visit GLAAD.org.”
Anti-religious bigotry?
Illinois Family Institute Executive Director Peter LaBarbera has previously indicated he believes there is an “anti-religious heart” of the ‘gay’ activist movement. He’s also stated in the same press release:“…If ‘hate crimes’ and ‘sexual orientation’ laws progress in the United States as they have in Canada, one day these same homosexual activists could be filing discrimination lawsuits against churches merely for teaching that homosexuality is a sin.”Pastors need to wake up and understand that they cannot avoid preaching the truth about homosexuality and ‘gay marriage,’ because no movement in this country has the potential to criminalize Christianity as this one does.”He also stated:“Homosexual activists are just petrified of the truth getting out that nobody has to be ‘gay.'”So yes Timothy, one can see the ‘logic’ behind the concept that anti-discrinitory messages mentioning LGBT folk; apparently at least a few of the religious right leadership sincerely believe that LGBT activists are anti-Christian at the core, and the path for LGBT folk to become acceptable human beings is to become ex-gay and anti-gay — because then we’re not, in our hearts, against Christ, religious right Christians, and Christian rule of law.
Sorry, but it’s no secret here that I find LaBarbera’s rhetoric infuriating.
He and IFI see an anti-religious conspiracy behind everything that they disagree with, including the March of Dimes as of late (https://www.illinoisfamily.org/news/contentview.asp?c=32841).
They also indulge in gay-baiting whenever possible. As far as the Oak Park demonstration goes, yes, the Chicago-based group was more “in-your-face” than the local group. The local group did more to dialogue with the congregation, resulting in more meaningful dialogue.
However, the Oak Park (local) organization has had to deal with Calvary Memorial Church and their homophobic antics since our inception in 1989 and the fact that it was only one person that had to be carried out of the church is remarkable.
As a co-founder of the Oak Park Area Lesbian and Gay Association, I can state that we have worked from the beginning with churches and synagogues that were willing to dialogue with us (and they are many), and done so quite successfully, resulting in a level of integration of gays and lesbians into the community at large that is unparalleled in the Chicago area and the Midwest.
As for LaBarbera and IFI’s statements, Autumn, I would pay them all the due they’re worth, namely nada.