Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Gay community - pay attention to Fox News

I've mentioned this slightly and now I am making a full post about it because I feel that it is an important issue.

The gay community needs to keep an eye out for Fox News.

The claim that Fox News is "fair and balanced" is the biggest joke out there, period. The network pushes conservative propaganda even to the point that reporters show their bias by arguing with guests they don't agree with and conducting one-sided interviews with folks whose issues they do agree with.

How Fox News has tried to consistently undermine President Obama will be a widely discussed issue in classrooms for years to come

But the gay community should be forewarned that Fox News also has a negative eye cast upon us.

The blog Equality Matters casts a spotlight on Fox News by how its resident "doctor," Keith Ablow, has demonized the gay community:

Ablow is notorious for peddling the false idea that children might decide to identify as transgender if they see a happy transgender person – like Dancing with the Stars’ Chaz Bono – on television. He’s also suggested that using pink nail polish and having same-sex parents might similarly cause children to abandon their gender identity. He’s been open about his belief that transgender people are suffering from "psychotic delusions" and should be encouraged, through therapy, to identify as their biological sex.
Ablow has also voiced his support for the claim that homosexuality is a product of environmental factors and, as a result, can be changed or reversed. In the past year alone, Ablow has argued that:
And last week, Ablow condemned the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for declassifying Ego-Dystonic Homosexuality (EDH) as a mental illness in 1987. EDH, which was the diagnosis given to people who were distressed by their same-sex attractions, continues to play an important role in the pseudoscientific research produced by modern “ex-gay” groups today.

Ablow has also attacked same-sex parenting by falsely claiming that there is no data to determine the psychological effects to children. Equality Matters points out just how wrong he is.

I might point out that Ablow was a member of Truth4Time, the secret anti-gay Facebook group whose plans to disrupt the gay community was made public earlier this year.

But Ablow is just one problem that the gay community could potentially see with Fox News. As I said before, reporters on the network sometimes conduct extremely soft interviews with media figures.

Imagine Maggie Gallagher of the National Organization for Marriage or Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council being allowed to spout lies about the gay community, not only unchallenged but also helped along by a person who is supposed to ask them questions designed to get to the bottom of the issue, but instead elects to aid and abet their propaganda.

It's a scary thought indeed. And we need to ask ourselves how close it is to becoming a reality.


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2 comments:

Wyocowboy said...

I thought there were more women than men? so how can there be a shortage of women? sick sick sick sick! the under the crazies of the GOP read the book "The Republican Brain..." and we could learn a little about ourselves as well...

truthspew said...

Well, Perkins and Gallagher are given privilege at MSNBC and CNN too.

I just once want to see someone question their bona fides on a TV show. The reality is, their arguments lose all potency when it is exposed that religious animus is at the core.