Anti-LGBTQ leader says she isn't homophobic because she has a gay son

Kay Coles James

Kay Coles James is the president of the Heritage Foundation. According to Media Matters, this organization has a long history of anti-LGBTQ lobbying:

The group has railed against LGBTQ equality for decades, including by supporting discrimination against LGBTQ people under religious exemptions, supporting the Boy Scouts of America’s ban on LGBTQ scoutmasters, and opposing marriage equality. Just this year, the group has hosted five anti-trans panels that pushed misinformation about trans people in an attempt to sway public discourse about trans-inclusive policies like the Equality Act. Furthermore, Heritage employs several extreme anti-LGBTQ figures, including Ryan T. Anderson.

Media Matters also pointed out that James also served as vice president of the Family Research Council, an SPLC-designated hate group due to its constant attempt to undermine and denigrate the LGBTQ community via junk science, cherry-picked science, and out-and-out lies. Recently FRC accused PBS of attempting to targeting children simply because a children's show on the network, Arthur, showed a same-sex wedding. Days before that, the organization falsely implied that transgender children are predators out to harm other children in school bathrooms.

James was recently embroiled in a controversy involving Google. The company invited her to be a member of its Artificial Intelligence ethics board. However, her inclusion was protested so venomously by Google employees and other people that the company ended up disbanding the board. James was interviewed earlier this month by Shannon Bream of Fox News because of the Google controversy. She claimed that she wasn't homophobic because she has a gay son.

Homophobe? I don't think so. You know, I, I, I've never talked about it publicly, but I have a gay son whom I love beyond all measure. And he and his community have welcomed me, have helped me grow, have helped me to understand. There’s no hatred there. That’s my child you are talking about.

One has to ask what growth and understanding is she talking about, particularly when viewing tweets she has sent against the Equality Act.

The page James links to spins all sorts of lies and horror stories about what could happen (but of course won't) if the Equality Act becomes law. The prediction of mayhem if a pro-LGBTQ law is passed is an old, but effective talking point of the anti-LGBTQ industry. But as it pertains to James, for someone who claims to have been welcomed and embraced by the LGBTQ community, she seems to be tone deaf as to the problems we face when it comes to discrimination. It's even worse when one sees how she is passing along information designed to undermine efforts to combat this discrimination.

And the situation gets more alarming when one sees how the Heritage Foundation is approaching LGBTQ issues under James's leadership:

Now some people may make the excuse that I'm attacking James personally or attacking her religion. Some will even say that I am trying to intimidate her into silence or that I am intolerant of her point of view.

Don't even start that with me. James voluntarily gave the information about her son and in light of her standing as a public figure in the political and conservative world, a spotlight needs to be shined and points need to be made. Her situation is an unusual juxtaposition which should not be ignored.

How can someone who claims that the LGBTQ community "embraced her, helped her grow, and helped her to understand" continue to undermine and eradicate that community's rights? James says LGBTQ community enriched her mind, but if so why has she made a career of aligning herself with groups who not only are trying to do away with our equality, but also our humanity and dignity.

James says she loves her gay son and I have no reason to doubt her on that. She should be commended. She should also remember that other gay sons have mothers, as do other members of the LGBTQ community. And I know they love their children as much as she loves her son.

Unfortunately there are others who don't and much of it has to do with the information James is putting out. The appeal to religious entitlement, the lies, the anecdotal horror stories all geared to give people on her side of the spectrum a win go a long way with convincing other mothers to reject and even abandon their LGBTQ children. While she embraces her child with love, James creates situations which would cause other mothers cast their LGBTQ children aside while probably deceiving themselves that their actions are from love.

James would do well to remember that before she grabs her next paycheck.