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Egads, just in time to battle the Matthew Sheppard Act and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act: American Family Association‘s (AFA’s) Speechless: Silencing the Christians 
“interesting” infomercial is back on the air in California and North Carolina. From Andy Marra at the glaadBLOG:
Back in February,we blogged about partnering with LGBT community members and leaders in several local markets who were responding to an anti-gay infomercial titled Speechless: Silencing the Christians, which was produced by the American Family Association. Local expressions of concern led stations in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Columbus, Ohio to either decline to air the infomercial or postpone airing it indefinitely.Just this week GLAAD has received three more reports of constituents spotting the anti-gay paid program on their local affiliates. One person saw it in West Hollywood, California on Independent Cable Channel, KDOC on Sunday, June 21, where it aired from 7 to 8 p.m. Another GLAAD constituent alerted us that the infomercial aired on WJZY the CW Channel 46 in Charlotte, North Carolina on Saturday, June 20 from 9 to 10 p.m.
And we heard from other GLAAD constituents that the program aired on KMPH Fox 26 in Fresno, California on Sunday, June 21 (Special thank you to these twitter users for the heads up on Fresno: Gayrainarmy, k8cch14 and jace78).
GLAAD’s Senior Director of Media Programs Rashad Robinson wrote this in a Huffington Post piece about this issue last February entitled As Seen on TV:
The infomercial was created and financed by the anti-gay American Family Association and features interviews with anti-gay activists who make a series of predictable, breathless, fear-mongering claims about LGBT people and equality.As you would expect, the video is propaganda, pure and simple — manufactured to perpetuate a climate of hostility toward our community and to create a culture where lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are less safe, less secure, and where our families are put in harm’s way.
The glaadBLOG post Anti-Gay Infomercial Resurfaces in North Carolina and California 
has a “take action” component if this infomercial should show up in a television market near you.
I guess the AFA thought they could silently reenter this anti-gay infomercial onto the airways again without anyone noticing. Well, they were wrong.
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Related:
* ‘Victimized’ AFA launches anti-gay ‘Silencing Christians’ web site and video
* The American Family Association’s fascination with fraudulent documentaries
* Exposing the moral bankruptcy of the unraveling professional ‘family values’ crowd
Full copy of the breathlessly anti-LGBT video included below the fold, for those of you who are interested in watching this “interesting” video.
9 Comments
Silence Might be GoldenSilencing Christians? If only! The rightwingers used to jibe that “the love that dare not speak its name” won’t shut up. Well, I wish Christianists would take a vow of silence for a year or two and stop whining about how they, the majority, are oppressed by the evil, all-powerful, malicious and maleficent minority.
AFA, etc.Richard Cohen, of the Southern Poverty Law Center, has coined a very useful term: the “hate movement”, to describe what is, for me at least, the coagulation of fear and anger which is the result of 1) the election of a black POTUS, 2) the dramatic increase in visibility and power of Latino people, 3) the increased visibility and power of us queers, 4) a powerful liberal movement and the disgrace/collapse of the GOP (Senator Ensign’s debacle being the latest failure), and 5) economic catastrophe. Fear-mongering Christianist efforts like the “Speechless” ad become part of this stew. My ongoing fear is the alibi for violence, a sense of entitlement to violence that this accumulation feeds.
I have no idea why the SPLC has not listed the AFA as a hate groupMassResistance is so classed, as is the “Traditional Values” Coalition: read SPLC’s active anti-gay hate groups list of 2008. Why the AFA is not on the list, I don’t know.
WJZYI emailed the station the night they were showing it, but got no response. My friend called the station on monday and spoke to some sales exec. She wsa told that they did produce the program (duh) but that they simply told an airtime slot, and that if the LGBT community wanted to host a counter point then they are welcome to buy airtime.
I emailed them again yesterday asking them if they would sell airtime to a group that would run a program that said that people of color were dangerous had a secret agenda and that their basic civil rights were a threat to white people, and if not why did they feel that this program ws appropriate. If I don’t hear back from them today I will be calling them first thing tomorrow morning.
MALEFICENT???She’s WAAAAY too cool to be associated with the fundies!
For that matter, she’d probably transform into a dragon and roast them all to a crisp.
“Now shall you deal with me, oh fundies….and all the powers of HELL!”
Well doneI also suggest letters to the editor, and calling up the PR departments of product companies that advertise in that time slot. How do they feel having their products associated with hate propaganda that endorses violence towards law-abiding Americans and their children?
KDOC was bought by Bert Ellis and Anaheim Ducks ownerin 2007. It is independent and not an affiliate.
One of the original owners of the station was anti gay Pat Boone. It was home to consevative talk show hosts Wally George and Rev Gene (I can’t remember his name but he always had blonde girls around).
My guess is management knows exactly what they are showing.
Sent them an email complain non the less.
Freedom of religion = Freedom from religionTalk about selective interpretation. Freedom of religion does unfortunately mean that the evangelicals are free to hate and to express that hate, but it also provides the rest of us with protection from having those beliefs (or public policy based on them) forced upon us.
Same shit, Different dayI wonder if they realize that the Nazis would have gotten along marvelously with them. Nah! They’d have to have half a thought in their heads for that, and they don’t. They’re unthinking, unreasoning, blind Jesus-bots. They haven’t read the Bible they claim to spout their hate from, all they do is listen to what their preacher tells them they should think/do/say because if they don’t they’ll burn in hell for all eternity.
These are the same sort of people, that had they been born in a Muslim country, they’d be fundamentalist there too, the anti-Semitic bastards shouting “Death to America”. Well, they do have half of that down here. Most of them hate Jews too. A fundie is a fundie, no matter where they live or which doctrine they espouse.
You know, for Christianity being espoused as a “loving” religion, there sure is a lot of hate in it’s followers. And they’re just mad because this law will mean that they won’t be able to get off lightly if they beat some kid up because he’s gay or Jewish, and that scares them. Because deep down inside, they believe they should have the right to kill gays, Jews, non-Christians, etc. because their “holy” book says that that’s what “god” wants.