Topic: NewsBusters
In an Oct. 6 NewsBusters post, Tim Graham complains that the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association has highlighted how news stories about suicides of gay teens "have been blissfully free of 'crazy minister' interviews or the need to include someone from Focus on the Family or Family Research Council to provide a countering voice." Graham responds that the NLGJA "didn't make any attempt to define an example of a 'crazy minister,' but associating that mean-spirited stereotype immediately with Focus on the Family and the FRC implies that these are analogous to 'crazy minister' groups."
Graham offers no evidence that Focus on the Family and the FRC aren't crazy on the subject of homosexuality -- perhaps because there's plenty of evidence they are.
For the FRC, we need go no farther than to Bryan Fischer. For instance, he responded to the death of Tyler Clementi by claiming that it was Clementi's own shame at being gay that caused him to take his life. In the past few weeks alone, Fischer endorsed Rep. Jim DeMint's plan to ban gays from teaching, declared that "Homosexuals are defined by one characteristic and one characteristic only: they want to use the anal cavity for sex," and asserted that the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell would be a "victory ... for the forces of sexual deviancy." (Right Wing Watch has a handy archive of Fischer's lunacy.)
As for Focus on the Family, founder James Dobson has made clear his disdain for gays.
Are these people who really have anything non-crazy to contribute on the subject of gay teen suicides?
UPDATE: Bryan Fischer doesn't work for the FRC; he works for the American Family Association. Fortunately, the FRC's Peter Sprigg serves as a similarly homophobic replacement. (Thanks to reader C.C. for the heads-up.)
