Who’s Really Hateful in the
Dr. Laura Controversy

by Bill Barnwell

For years conservatives and devout religious individuals have been lectured and scorned by the media and cultural elite for their supposed intolerance and hatred. No group has been more vicious in the war against those who adhere to traditional values than the collective gay rights movement. According to this crowd, conservative Christians, Orthodox Jews, Muslims, and other mean and nasty groups are said to be the epitome of hatred and ignorance, because they refuse to renounce their religious beliefs regarding homosexuality.

To question the moral superiority of homosexuality can only mean several things. One possibility is that you are a homophobe, that is, an individual who has an irrational fear of homosexuality and homosexuals, and/or fears that deep down inside, he or she may be gay. Another possibility is that one is just a hate-filled, mean-spirited bigot. These individuals (usually conservatives) have no motives whatsoever for their bigotry except that they were filled with hate at a very young age and whose only hope to be educated out of such intolerance is to be bombarded with sensitivity training.

The number one virtue of the gay rights organizations is tolerance. The word tolerance takes on a whole new meaning when tossed out by liberals. To be tolerant no longer means to be polite and respectful in personal dealings with individuals and ideas you don t agree with. To be tolerant now means that one must embrace, love, and accept all liberal ideas and lifestyles.

The battle cry of these liberal groups is Celebrate Diversity! Anyone who has spent one week in a public university or politically correct corporation has had this phrase shoved down his throat a million times. What is quite interesting is that the only celebration is of liberal ideas and orthodoxy. Those heretics who do not accept our progressive society s beliefs on feminism, forced integration, abortion, and homosexuality are to be eternally driven out of the liberal Eden and subject to a lifetime of ridicule and disdain for their sins.

The latest Satan to come under heavy fire from these tolerant souls is Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Dr. Laura hosts a popular radio talk show and is not shy to express her religious views on controversial social issues. While hosting her show she has made the very grave mistake of expressing her opinion that homosexuality is abnormal. Dr. Laura has even dared to suggest that homosexuals can turn from their lifestyle. She is now poised to host a TV talk show, but the Tolerance Czars are determined to make sure that the show never sees the light of day.

The attacks and smears on this woman from those who supposedly celebrate diversity and practice tolerance is astounding. Simple-minded folks like myself would just urge these individuals to change the channel when Dr. Laura's program comes on if they don t want to watch it. But the gay rights crowd has decided to take this battle to new levels of absurdity.

Already mass protests and boycotts have been threatened against her. Numerous sponsors, including Proctor and Gamble, have severed association with her future television show. Leaders of gay groups everywhere have been appearing on television warning against having such a bigot on television. The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council has wrote an opinion that Dr. Laura s views on homosexuality will lead to violence against gay people, even though the Council admits that she has never advocated such violence. Canadian radio stations will eventually be forced to censor any comments made by Dr. Laura that put homosexuality in a negative light. So much for tolerance and diversity.

To further illuminate the diversity fraud, read this excerpt from the Philadelphia Lesbian and Gay Task Force in response to CBS Pennsylvania refusing to drop Dr. Laura:

In sum, our position holds that Viacom/Paramount/CBS et al. must exercise social and moral responsibility, that it must place human life above profit, and that it must end its contract with "Dr. Laura". In tandem, KYW-TV (and all broadcasters) should meet their public interest obligation by creating and sustaining well-funded locally produced, news and public affairs programming that reflects and represents a wide diversity of voices, including progressive voices, in high viewership time periods.

It doesn t stop there. Ads have been placed in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times by a variety of left wing group s warning Ad time for ‘Dr. Laura’ is for sale. Here’s what you’re buying, followed by a string of politically incorrect quotes made by Schlessinger. One of the intolerant quotes attributed to Schlessinger in the ad is:

I think it’s downright criminal and immoral for any woman to decide – no matter how loving and how nurturing she is – that she is going to intentionally bring a child in the world with no father. It’s wrong...it’s like having a pet. How dare she suggest that a child deserves both a mother and a father! What has happened to our country when it is a verbal hate crime to defend the two-parent households?

Back when Pat Buchanan still talked about these issues, he made a heroic speech at the Republican 1992 convention (also labeled as hate-filled and extremist) and correctly labeled the battle between traditionalists and modernists as a Culture War. The venom thrown the way of Dr. Laura for simply using her free speech shows that the Culture War rages hotter than ever. It is also quite apparent who the real extremists and terrorists are in this battle.

When Dr. Laura says that homosexuality is wrong, she is branded as a hate-mongering bigot who has the potential to drive homophobes to murder gays. But when liberals put on plays mocking Jesus Christ as a lustful wimp or homosexual who has flings with his disciples, or when liberal pundits and politicians constantly denounce conservative Christians or other religious groups, they are fighters for human rights in a land founded on bigotry.

While the left is constantly bemoaning fascism from the right, they are the ones who try to censor. The left has created a contradictory doctrine where one can only hate the supposed hater, be intolerant of the supposed intolerant, and judge the supposedly judgmental.

While the left hails Larry Flynt as a hero to the cause of free speech and exposing hypocrisy, they have just proven themselves as the real advocates of censorship and the true hypocrites. The Human Rights Campaign and the People For the American Way can wail and whine about right wing extremism and Nazi bogeymen all they want. The truth of the matter is that the greatest intolerance is and has always been on the left.

May 29, 2000

Bill Barnwell is a freelance journalist and co-editor in chief of www.thepotatoe.com

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