Family Research Council makes BIG mistake in cherry-picking my words

Dear  Family Research Council,

I was rather touched when I found out that you devoted a column on your site to me. I was really touched by you mentioning me in the headline - Homosexual Activist: “Hate Group” Charge Doesn’t Require “Hate."

I was floored by the acknowledgement of my work to unmask your lies when you said the following:

One homosexual blogger (and regular critic of FRC) did a detailed critique of the FRC Issue Brief.

But what I was especially honored by was the way you cherry-picked a sentence out of my post to take my words out of context.

After all, you have spent so many years distorting and cherry-picking other work that if you hadn't done the same to me, I would have felt left out. I am honored to now be in the company of such luminaries as Robert Garafalo.

Remember him? In 1998,  you distorted his work to make a false claim about supposed negative behaviors amongst gay youth. When told of his complaint, a former employee of yours, Robert Knight, called Garafalo a "thrall of political correctness."

I wouldn't be bringing that up except for the fact that over a decade later, you all are still distorting his work in a piece which continues to be on the FRC site (Getting It Straight, pg. 88).

But I digress. The sentence you cherry-picked from my work - “Now whether or not FRC hates gays is irrelevant.” - was in answer to an annoying ramble your writer went on, spouting the usual talking points on how the Family Research Council does not hate the gay community, but apparently you hate the supposedly negative behavior of homosexuality and that your attacks on the gay community is out of love.

I have one question.

How is it that you assessed that homosexuality is a so-called negative behavior? No one on your staff has ever done any studies on the matter. To my knowledge, there are no researchers, scientists, or physicians of any type on the FRC staff. All you employ are spokes models, scandal-plagued retirees and ethically-challenged pastors.

On what ground do you stand on to claim that there is a link between homosexuality and pedophilia when the American Psychological Association, the National Association of Social Workers, the American Academy of Child Psychiatrists and the Child Welfare League of America, all say that the homosexuality and pedophilia are not linked?

How is it can you call homosexuality a dangerous lifestyle when medical professionals have pointed out that it is the homophobia which gays have to deal with which causes things like drug abuse and depression (and that is something you should know because more than once, you have cherry-picked work from these sources).

But again, I digress. Let's talk about hatred. My point in that post which you so incredibly got inaccurate was in the long run, your motivation for lying and demonizing the gay is more irrelevant than the fact that you offer very little defense of your lies.

Your cherry-picking of my words was semantic gymnastics designed  to cause undue preoccupation of the word "hate" in the eyes of the lazy media and ignorant masses who follow you.

The issue is not why does the Family Research Council demonize the gay community. The issue is the fact that the Family Council demonizes the gay community in the first place.

Now there are some who will cite the Klan as a justification to not decry you as a hate group. But these folks are concentrating so much on burning crosses and violent acts that they ignore the motivation behind  these acts, i.e. the words. The claims that African-American people are shifty, that black men want to rape white women, that African-Americans are naturally inferior.

These words and claims exploit fear and motivate negative and sometimes violent actions against their targets.

Let me paraphrase the late activist Mel Boozer when I say that I have been called the "n-word" and I have been called the "f-word." I have been physically threatened because for being black and for being gay. Part of me ruminated over the hatred of the person making the offense.

And then another part of me ruminated over who taught that person to hate so much. Those expressing hatred to me didn't learn those words by themselves nor did they learn to express the hatred behind those words so vividly.

Someone gave those people an excuse to hate.

That's where you come in, Family Research Council. You give people an excuse to hate gay people. And in that manner, you are worse than the Klan.

The United States for the most part know where the Klan stands. That organization has no credibility. But you, Family Research Council, you have so much more credibility.

You are welcomed in halls of Congress and in the media as policy experts. Please do not think that it is because you have any expertise. It's simply because of the facade you push.  The facade that you stand up for "traditional values." It's a facade that has served you well in the fact that very few have actually taken a detailed look at how you undertake your campaign against the gay community. Because of this, you have gotten away with a lot of stuff.

Your spokespeople like Peter Sprigg cling to their Bibles with one hand while they write cherry-picked anti-gay science with the other. And your leader, Tony Perkins, says nice speeches which include words like "family," "morality," and "values" while sneaking phrases like "gay terrorists" in between and unnoticed by those who are enamoured with his jingoistic Christian fakery.

Yes, your motivation is irrelevant in comparison to the damage that you do.

You defend countries like South Africa who persecute gays through a practice called "corrective rape."

You  give aid and comfort to every foolish individual looking for an excuse to hide their fear of the gay community behind a Christian veneer and a belief that their gay family, friends, and neighbors are the dreaded other.

And worst of all, you make every gay child exposed to your lies hate themselves even to the point of contemplating suicide.
The fact that you deliberately lie about the gay community is enough to deem you a hate group. What your lies cause others to behave is merely icing on the cake.

But remember that cake left out goes stale  and all of the sweet icing in the world can't cover that taste.

So, Family Research Council, you need to ask yourself something.

Just how long will it be before some enterprising journalist or researcher digs deep past your sugary coating and exposes you for the stale cake you are pushing?

Related post:

16 reasons why the Family Research Council is a hate group