CNN Also Gives Hate Group a Platform

In an earlier post I complained about CBS's Face the Nation giving a platform to  hate group leader Tony Perkins.  Sadly, CBS is not the only member of the mainstream media that continues to give legitimacy to those who do not deserve it and that blatantly fail to advise viewers and readers about the hate group status of Family Research Council.   While pursuing CNN's website I came across an opinion piece by Peter Sprigg of FRC while claims that the proposed enactment of employment non-discrimination protections for gays "threatens free markets."  Sprigg also trots out the standard canard that gay rights threaten religious liberty:

One concern about ENDA is its impact on religious liberty. ENDA would effectively forbid employers to consider sexual conduct in evaluating the character of their employees or applicants. Although ENDA contains a limited "religious exemption," there remain serious questions as to whether any exemption would be adequate to meet the concerns of people with religious and moral scruples against homosexual conduct.

Sprigg then goes on to claim that sexual orientation is a choice and not worthy of legal recognition as a protected class (demonstrating once again why promoting the "ex-gay myth" is so important to Christofascists):

[T]he question is who decides what is "relevant to job performance" -- the individual employer, or the government? The strong presumption should be in favor of the employer. Of course, federal law already interferes with private employment decisions with regard to a few specific characteristics. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars discrimination based on "race, color, national origin, sex, and religion." The first four of these are included largely because they are inborn, involuntary and immutable. While sexual attractions may be involuntary, neither sexual conduct nor transgender behavior meets any of these criteria.

Even secular employers have reason to worry about a possible increase in sexualization of the workplace.  .  .  .  .   The gender identity provisions, meanwhile, undermine the right of employers to impose reasonable dress and grooming standards, by forbidding employers to use the most fundamental standard of all -- that people be dressed and groomed in a way that is culturally appropriate for their biological sex.

ENDA prepares the way for a form of reverse discrimination -- against anyone who expresses disapproval of homosexual behavior. The more open homosexuals become, the more people with traditional values will be forced to conceal their views.

And as the above demonstrates, according to Sprigg, we gays are sexually promiscuous and disruptive by our very existence.    It's more of FRC's continued effort to stigmatize and slander gays - which is exactly why it earned a hate group designation.  Sprigg also demonstrates another phenomenon:  The Christofascist hate groups always love to give their spokesmen lofty titles with a goal of giving them much more credibility than they deserve.  In the case of Peter Sprigg, his title is "Senior Fellow for Policy Studies."  What are his true credentials?  Here's what we find on the FRC website: 

Sprigg is an ordained Baptist minister. Before coming to FRC, he served as pastor of Clifton Park Center Baptist Church in Clifton Park, N.Y. Mr. Sprigg previously served for ten years as a professional actor and unit leader in Covenant Players, an international Christian drama ministry. Prior to his career in ministry, Mr. Sprigg worked in the government and non-profit sectors . . . . Mr. Sprigg received the Master of Divinity degree cum laude from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (Mass.) .  .  .

In short, he is anything but an expert on free markets or interstate commerce.  His agenda is all about forcing extreme far right religious belief into the civil laws.  Moreover, he has a history of vicious anti-gay vitriol.  In February 2010, the Family Research Council's Senior Researcher for Policy Studies, Peter Sprigg, stated on NBC's Hardball that gay behavior should be outlawed and that "criminal sanctions against homosexual behavior" should be enforced. In May that same year, Sprigg publicly suggested that repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy would encourage molestation of heterosexual service members.   

Nowhere, of course does any of this important information appear to inform readers of what Sprigg's real agenda is and has been for many years: defaming and stigmatizing LGBT Americans.  For CNN to afford Sprigg an editorial spot is the height of irresponsibility, particularly when no disclaimer is made about Sprigg's horrifically anti-gay past, not to mention the failure to specify that FRC is a hate group.  If CNN wants to be seen as a serious news outlet and stop its ratings slide, it needs to stop acting like the National Inquirer by allowing hacks and hate merchants like Sprigg to have a platform at CNN.