Normalizing Hate

Media Matters is a non-profit advocacy group that researches, monitors, and reports on right-wing misinformation that makes its way into American mass media. As part of their mission, they host an active news feed on their website that highlights media transgressions of all sorts.

They ran an interesting article on Friday (link here) titled "Top Media Outlets Have Failed To Accurately Label Designated Anti-LGBTQ Hate Groups."

The piece notes, for instance, that in the span of two years, "The New York Times mentioned four anti-LGBTQ hate groups -- the Family Research Council, Liberty Counsel, the American Family Association, and Westboro Baptist Church --a total of 60 times and never clearly defined any of them as a current hate group."

For instance, that newspaper referred to LGBT-hating groups with anodyne descriptions like "conservative" or "religious conservative" or "christian" but never what they actually are.

One might wonder if prestigious newspapers like the Times would be so timid if such groups were advocating racial or religious discrimination.

While the Westboro Baptist Church is well known now as a small fringe group of nutty extremists, I think Media Matters is making a very good point when it comes to LGBT-hating groups like the Family Research Council, Liberty Counsel, and the American Family Association. They have such innocuous, wholesome names that their true agenda is hidden behind an apparent normalcy.

As a coda to this entry, it bears noting that Donald Trump has been repeatedly endorsed by the Family Research Council, Liberty Counsel, and the American Family Association. Not only has he not disavowed any association with these anti-LGBT hate groups, he has spoken at some of their events and hired from their staffs for his administration.

So that leaves us to ask: are those really the acts of a President who claims he's pro-LGBT?