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| When facts and experts don't match up to the anti-LGBTQ beliefs of activists like Tony Perkins (first picture) and groups like the Family Research Council, they create "alternative facts" and phony experts such as Michelle Cretella (second picture) to channel their beliefs and ideas. And then count on the conservative media industry to amplify these "alternative facts" and phony experts while simultaneously drowning out true facts and experts. |
From Media Matters:
Extreme anti-LGBTQ group the Family Research Council (FRC) brought American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) Executive Director Michelle Cretella and ex-trans activist Walt Heyer to meet with members of Congress to advocate against the Equality Act within a day of the bill’s introduction on March 13. The bill would add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to existing civil rights nondiscrimination protections.
Extreme anti-LGBTQ groups and right-wing media have regularly and inaccurately portrayed ACPeds as a legitimate medical organization to add a veneer of credibility to the broader anti-trans agenda, even though the group is a small, right-wing organization that traffics in extreme anti-LGBTQ animus.
While there is limited information available on the substance of these congressional meetings, FRC’s public discussions with Cretella and Heyer around the time of the meetings pushed the debunked myth that trans-inclusive policies threaten the safety of women and girls and promoted an unvalidated hypothesis that transgender youth are coming out as a fad.
