PRI Host Apologizes for Anti-Gay Comments

The usual suspects at Christianist organizations have quickly jumped on the Penn State sex abuse scandal to allege that such sexual abuse is the fault of LGBT individuals as a class. Making matters worse, Warren Olney (pictured at right) - the host of To The Point - used the sad episode to play to the Christianist claims and allowed blatantly anti-gay Jerry Cox, head of the Family Council, to present anti-gay parenting argument. One would have thought that anyone with a shred of credibility in the mainstream media would have known better than to give any anti-gay activist a pulpit. Yet once again, the MSM has given credibility to quacks and frauds who when stripped of all the bullshit have ZERO expertise and ZERO legitimate credentials. Thankfully, Olney has now issued an apology. I hope that others in the MSM have been paying attention and will cease allowing religious extremists to spread lies and disinformation. Queerty looks at Olney's apology and here are some highlights:

To The Point host Warren Olney has issued a much better apology that reads in part:

We reported that Penn State’s former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was allowed to care for foster children even though authorities knew he was suspected of child abuse… [while] gay and lesbian couples are often prohibited from both fostering and adopting, even though they can provide loving homes… people thought that, by discussing both topics in one show, we had equated the two. . . . . There is no connection between pedophilia and homosexuality, and we never intended to say or imply there is. But our failure to make that crucial distinction explicit was a serious oversight. We regret it, and we apologize.

GLAAD points out that the show has still not explained why they let an anti-gay activist spout false and inaccurate information on the show with no push back from Olney.

Sometimes even a respected journalist can have his head up his ass: Warren Olney, the award-winning host of the current-events show, To The Point, angered gay and gay-friendly listeners on Friday by segueing from the ongoing Penn State child-abuse scandal to a panel discussion on LGBT parenting—one that included the president of the anti-gay Family Council spewing lies about gay families.

Given a mike and an audience, Cox started in with his group’s line of bigoted misinformaton: “Our position is that if the state is going to take children into custody, it ought to put children in the best homes possible… What does the research and common sense show? You’re going to put them in a home with a loving mother and father.”

Except the research doesn’t show that at all. As GLAAD points out, according to the American Psychological Association: “There is no scientific basis for concluding that lesbian mothers or gay fathers are unfit parents on the basis of sexual orientation. On the contrary, results of research suggest that lesbian and gay parents are as likely as heterosexual parents to provide supportive and healthy environments for their children.”

The bottom line is that the media needs to immediately cease having bigots like Cox - or Tony Perkins, Maggie Gallagher, Catholic bishops, etc. - appear any any context where they are permitted to spew RELIGIOUS based belief rather than true medical/mental health/scientific facts. We in the LGBT community need to slam individuals like Olney every time they give hate merchants and bigots a platform from which to lie and peddle disinformation.