Family Research Council lies, cherry-picks to defend Kirk Cameron

I've tried not to weigh in on the Kirk Cameron situation because I think that sometimes my lgbtq brothers and sisters get wrapped up in the words of a celebrity, or in this case, a has-been celebrity more than more important issues.

But to paraphrase Al Pacino in The Godfather Part III, they pulled me in.

The "they" in this case being the Family Research Council.

Cameron, former star of the television series Growing Pains and a devout Christian criticized marriage equality  last weekend during an interview with Piers Morgan. Cameron also called homosexuality "unnatural," "detrimental," and "destructive."

Since that time, the gay group GLAAD and several other celebrities have been commenting. As for me, I could care less. Cameron doesn't know me so his opinion of who I am doesn't matter to me.

But leave it to the Family Research Council to attempt to score some easy points by weighing in on the controversy. And guess whose side the organization came out on:

Where is the tolerance? You won't find any on display with homosexual activists who are determined to attack and silence anyone who dares to disagree or challenge their political or social agenda. Their latest target is actor Kirk Cameron. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is attacking Cameron for remarks he made in an interview with Piers Morgan last Friday, in which he said that the definition of marriage should be, "One man, one woman for life till death do you part." Cameron, a born-again Christian who starred in the movie Left Behind and the pro-marriage film Fireproof, also said he considers homosexuality to be "unnatural," "detrimental," and "destructive." Perhaps it's GLAAD, not the 1980s teen star, who's out of step, since a 2011 poll showed that 62% of Americans agree with the statement, "I believe marriage should be defined ONLY as a union between one man and one woman." Another 2011 poll found a substantial majority of Americans (56%) believe that "sex between two adults of the same gender" is "morally wrong." 

First of all, anyone labeling any group as "unnatural," "detrimental," and "destructive" shouldn't be surprised if some members of said group publicly raises hell over the labeling.  The outcome is no different than it would be had Cameron made negative comments about African-Americans or Jewish people.

People tend not to like it when folks who don't know them start making judgements on their lives. And people tend not to show "tolerance" to being labeled as evil.

As for FRC, the organization demonstrates its deception here. That first poll it talked about had a small number of participants - 1500 adults. And the poll was taken almost year ago ( May 16-19, 2011). And what's even worse, the poll was sponsored by the Alliance Defense Fund, an organization which isn't exactly pro-gay.

Now thesecond poll cited by FRC is even more interesting. It's by the Public Religion Research Institute. It was a poll taken in July of last year of 3,000 people. And here is something else interesting about the poll, which FRC omitted. While 56 percent of people asked in the poll did comment that they personally felt that sex between two members of the same gender was morally wrong (not that homosexuality was "unnatural," "detrimental," and "destructive"),  a majority of those asked  (29 percent) said that they actually favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to legally wed and a majority of those asked (41 percent) said that they favored laws protecting gays and lesbians against job discrimination. Lastly a majority of those asked (33 percent) said that they favored allowing gays and lesbians to adopt children.

So basically in order to defend Kirk Cameron, the Family Research Council relied on one biased poll, cherry-picked the results of another poll, and tried to make it seem that both polls reflected the opinions of the majority of Americans. To make matters worse, FRC tried to make it seem that those in the second poll agree with Cameron's assessment that homosexuality is "unnatural," "detrimental," and "destructive" when those words never even appeared in the poll.

To me, Cameron's opinion is irrelevant. However, FRC's deliberate attempt to defend him via deception says a lot about why the opposition to lgbtq equality has a complexity that very few outside the community sees.  When many outside the community hear of this issue, they probably see it as a simple issue of free speech. However thanks to FRC, a lot of us recognize the eagerness to demonize the lgbtq community and unashamedly lie in the name of God.

It's something we have become nauseatingly used to.