I’ve come to the conclusion that the “former ad executive who found Jesus” Linda Harvey is the homophobic version of the Designing Women character Suzanne Sugarbaker, but light on the charm and extra heavy on the crazy.

The following comments she made last week about children and gay doctors more than illustrate my point:

Transcript:

How do you feel about open homosexuals tending to your child in a health care setting? Do you think these folks provide good role modeling at a time when your child is very vulnerable? I was thinking about this recently when I heard that Children’s Hospital in Columbus has a homosexual employees group called NCHARGE, which stands for Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s Advocates Representing Gay Employees. The meeting minutes of this groups reveal that they participated in last June’s gay pride parade, that they participated in a health expo on adolescent health this summer and that they’re concerned about same-sex partner benefits. They’re also planning to be identified with rainbow lapel pins.

But let’s say your eleven year-old has broken her leg rather badly and needs to be in the hospital a few days, which would you prefer: a nurse who’s proud of her lesbianism, who has rainbow identifiers on her work clothing, or a nurse who does not?

I would like to suggest that parents think long and hard about this. If you want your children to admire people who proclaim a homosexual lifestyle, they’re involvement with your child during a hospital stay is sure to be an influence. And let me be clear that folks involved in these behaviors can be certainly competent workers but they are tacking on to their workplace identity one that is highly offensive to many people and can be erroneously influential to children who won’t, or shouldn’t, see the whole picture of how this behavior really manifests itself.

Here’s what parents can do: select your pediatrician very carefully, first of all. There are a few homosexual doctors treating kids, there are far more nurses, LPNs, technicians and other health care workers in these lifestyles so you may want to consider writing a letter that you file with your pediatrician that should your child ever be hospitalized, you do not want your child to be treated or cared for by one of these members of the Children’s Hospital gay employees group except in the case of an emergency situation. But for routine in-hospital care where contact with your child would be required, your values should be respected.

Harvey confuses the hell out of me. A while back, she claimed that gay people don’t exist. So if there are no gay people, then there can be no gay doctors. And if there are no gay doctors, then parents are “worrying” needlessly, aren’t they?

I know you all want to say rude things about Harvey, but don’t. As for me, I’ve long stopped getting upset at Harvey’s comments.

I now look at her as our friend. Nay, she is one of our best allies in fighting the religious right.

You see, there are people like Tony Perkins, Brian Brown, Maggie Gallagher, and Peter Sprigg who formulate the deceptive idea gays are aggressive bullies and that we aren’t the targets of some folks attempting to push us back in the closet.

They come with junk science, half-baked anecdotes about “Christian victims of gay persecution,” and carefully phrased talking points designed to obscure the truth.

But Harvey lets her homophobic “freak flag fly.” Forget the talking points, Harvey just flat doesn’t like us and is not afraid to say it.

She is the true face of the religious right and thus the face we need to remind people of when they come with their phony stories of “bullying gays” or “religious persecution.”

Harvey voices what a lot of them actually think. As more Americans see and hear of  people like Harvey, they will get a correct indication of what the gay community has to deal with day after day after day.

So at least try to suppress your desires to call Harvey every name in the book. Try not to get too angry at her nonsensical claims.

Just let girlfriend do the work for us.