Glaad is Targeting 36 Commentators That Appear on the Media Talking Trash About LGTB

Jim Daly. (Andy Cross, Denver Post file photo)

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation today targeted 36 conservative commentators it considers anti-gay and inappropriate interview subjects for media unless journalists provide additional "perspective on (their) opinions."

The GLAAD Commentator Accountability Project launched today, the website states, "aims to educate the media about the extreme rhetoric of over three dozen activists who are often given a platform to speak in opposition to LGBT people and the issues that affect their lives.”

Among those GLAAD lists as activists are several affiliated with Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, including President and CEO Jim Daly, education analyst Candi Cushman and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins.

The GLAAD site said it encourages individuals to alert the alliance "when the anti-LGBT activists appear on local or national news."

"Hate is not an expert opinion," said GLAAD spokesman Herndon Graddick.

The GLAAD site further states: "We will show that the commentators who are most often asked to opine on issues like marriage equality or non-discrimination protections do not accurately represent the 'other side' of those issues. They represent nothing but extreme animus towards the entire LGBT community."

Focus on the Family spokesman Gary Schneeberger called GLAAD's Commentator Accountability Project an attempt "to stifle freedom of speech and freedom of religion by trying to intimidate the media.”

"What Focus on the Family's analysts and experts bring to the national discussion in their media appearances are reasoned, passionate and compassionate insights that help families make sense of, and make their mark in, the world around them," Schneeberger said in an e-mail to the Post. "Our views on issues like same-sex marriage and the sanctity of human life are mainstream Christian positions — and in most cases, majority Christian positions."

Other names on GLAAD's watch list are: Gary Bauer, David Barton, Brian Brown, Matt Barber, Michael Brown, Alan Chambers, Brian Camenker, Chuck Colson, Bill Donohue, Bob Emrich, Lou Engle, Joseph Farah, Bryan Fischer, Maggie Gallagher, Jim Garlow, Robert George, Ken Hutcherson, Harry Jackson, Peter LaBarbera, Scott Lively, Albert Mohler, Kevin McCullough, Jennifer Roback Morse, Penny Nance, Christopher Plante, Glenn Stanton, Mat Staver, Peter Sprigg, Rick Scarborough, Frank Turek, Bob Vander Plaats, Don Wildmon and Tim Wildmon.

Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 oredraper@denverpost.com 

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