[Blog/Commentary] [USA] Gay community - pay attention to Fox News

[Stephanie Stevens]

Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, USA


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
<http://equalitymatters.org/blog/201205220001> on Fox News by how its
resident "doctor," Keith Ablow, has demonized the gay community:

Ablow is notorious for peddling the false idea
<http://www.opposingviews.com/i/entertainment/keith-ablows-chaz-bono-comments-complete-nonsense>
that children might decide to identify as transgender if they see a
happy transgender person – like Dancing with the Stars’ Chaz Bono
<http://equalitymatters.org/blog/201109020012> – on television. He’s
also suggested that using pink nail polish
<http://equalitymatters.org/blog/201104120004> and having same-sex
parents <http://equalitymatters.org/factcheck/201110190006> might
similarly cause children to abandon their gender identity. He’s been
open about his belief that transgender people are suffering from
"psychotic delusions
<http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2011/05/18/177426/fox-news-transphobia-wipe/>
" 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:

- Homosexuality can be caused by environmental factors
<http://equalitymatters.org/blog/201108110010> , including a lack of
access to women
- Homosexuality can be caused by "unresolved issues
<http://equalitymatters.org/blog/201108110010> " with important
females in adolescence
- Homosexuality is a “lifestyle choice
<http://equalitymatters.org/blog/201108250010> ”

And last week, Ablow condemned
<http://equalitymatters.org/blog/201205170004> 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 <http://equalitymatters.org/blog/201205180002>
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 <http://holybulliesandheadlessmonsters.blogspot.com/2012/04/secret-religious-right-facebook-group.html>
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.


Posted by BlackTsunami at 5:10 AM


http://holybulliesandheadlessmonsters.blogspot.com/2012/05/gay-community-pay-attention-to-fox-news.html