The American Family Association fights against every gay rights protection under the sun. They also attack anyone who even somewhat supports gay people, using the most hurtful of words and tactics. Like, for instance, back in 2005 when the group's Randy Sharp accused Walgreens of supporting the Gay Games so that the pharmacy could "increase sales by helping drive events that result in the need for the company's drugs." Or like when they boycott a soup company for simply advertising in a gay news magazine, and then encourage their followers to stop supporting that same corporation's educational programs simply because of the business' free market decision to reach out to serve their gay customers. And you can completely forget out gays in entertainment, as any hint of same-sex affection in TV or film is met with unhinged rage.
We could go on and on with examples; but the bottom line: The AFA does not even begin to use a "live and let live" attitude" when it comes to LGBT people. It's more like a "live like we want you to live, or else we'll make your existence as hard as we possibly can!" mindset.
Alright, now listen to this. This is how the AFA's Tim Wildmon described the AFA's gay stance on a recent edition of Mat Staver and Matt Barber's "Liberty Live" talk show.
Oh those poor "attacked" evangelicals. Basically they can say and do whatever they want against us, just as long as they shroud those attacks (no quotes necessary) in "love the sinner, hate the sin" sound bites. And when we object, we are not standing up for ourselves. No, no -- we are big, bad, bully "name-callers" who are destroying everything good and holy.
Ugh, spare me the anti-fairy fairy tale. The truth is that if there is any group on the American landscape who purposely and deliberately meddles in our lives, it is the AFA! What we want is to not have to give one iota of thought to their organizational existence. What they want is to browbeat every aspect of society into either going solely hetero or going out of business/ off the air/ out of the church/ out of the public eye/ out of the civil marriage license line/ out of the front of the bus. Their entire functional existence revolves around being America's anti-gay school marm!
Seriously, Tim Wildmon: Your organization's mask went down before Reagan even left office, so you can just stop with the "we're not anti-gay" stuff. In fact, judging by how few Americans are now buying it, that line seems to be one of your few true boycott successes.
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