Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily has been on quite the anti-gay tear of late, and it's not just Joseph Farah complaing that Rick Perry doesn't hate gays enough.
WND has reliably freaked out over the California law requiring the teaching of the contributions of gays and lesbians, repeatedly calling it "'gay' indoctrination" (yes, WND still insists on putting "gay" in scare quotes) and giving anti-gay activists plenty of space to vent their rage. A July 26 article by Bob Unruh is a typical example. Many of the WND articles on the California law, like this one, include this boilerplate attack on Harvey Milk:
In honoring Milk, schools are advocating for the acceptance of what Milk sought: the entire homosexual, bisexual and cross-dressing agenda; a refusal to acknowledge sexually transmitted diseases spread by the behavior; his behavior as "a sexual predator of teenage boys, most of them runaways with drug problems"; advocacy for multiple sexual relationships at one time; and "lying to get ahead"; according to SaveCalifornia.com, a leading statewide pro-family organization promoting moral virtues for the common good.
Funny, we don't recall WND similarly claiming that honoring the Founding Fathers means acceptance of personal behavior like owning slaves. And Unruh's depiction of SaveCalifornia.comis laughably benign; it's a rabidly anti-gay group that pushes typical right-wing gay-bashing attitudes on homosexuality.
A July 26 WND article by Daniel Carl claims that "An Air Force staff sergeant with more than 12 years of military service reports he may be medically discharged for failing to support the indoctrination" -- there's that word again -- "planned under President Obama's push to create an atmosphere of openly homosexual behavior in the military ranks." WND keeps up its usual biased language, claiming that repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell is "promotion of homosexuals in the military," baselessly claiming that it is "viewed widely as a payoff to homosexuals who supported him during the 2008 election."
WND couldn't help but let its hate show in a July 26 article by Drew Zahn with the headline slur "Hope and change 2011: Now homo and change." This particular freakout is over the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network receiving federal money to create a pilot program of "safe spaces" for gay students in schools. Zahn absurdly portrays "critics" as claiming that "the program's aim is more about 'fast-tracking' students into the homosexual lifestyle." Zahn made no apparent effort to contact GLSEN for a response to the criticism.
WND followed that up with a July 31 column by the rabidly anti-gay Linda Harvey, who portrayed the "safe spaces" as "an unobstructed road into the 'gay' lifestyle," bizarrely adding, "What's next, off-setting the national debt by selling our children into prostitution?"
In the midst of this anti-gay freakout, WND ran a reader poll question: "Are America's political and cultural institutions now promoting homosexuality?" Given that WND's editorial policy has indoctrinated its readers into believing that anything that does not condemn homosexuality "promotes" it, it's not surprising that nearly everyone answers yes, with the chief answer being, "Yes, and America will pay a dear price for rejecting her core, founding values."
Putting the cherry of paranoia on WND's gay-bashing is a July 30 article by Unruh claiming that 'The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has begun watching a blog posted by a Christian who was forced to flee Brazil because of the conflict between that nation's pro-homosexual 'hate crimes' agenda and his advocacy for traditional marriage." Neither WND nor the blogger seem not to have considered the possibility that a DHS employee is actually a fan of the blogger's hateful rantings, which are largely cut-and-paste articles from other sources and are about on part with WND's own anti-gay agenda.
It's less about the level of the gay-bashing rhetoric than it is about the innate paranoia of the blogger and WND. Remember, WND can't stop lying to its readers about the nature of President Obama's reference to a "national civilian security force." WND seems to believe that feeding paranoia keeps it in business, so it must do all it can to keep the freakout level up, and this blogger is a useful tool to that effect.
