Contact: Wayne Besen, Executive Director
Phone: 917-691-5118
E-mail: wbesen@truthwinsout.org
Contact: John Becker, Director of Communications & Development
Phone: 920-265-6023
E-mail: john@truthwinsout.org
Truth Wins Out Calls on Networks to Reject Reality Show Featuring Anti-Gay Televangelist Joel Osteen
A Show With Homophobic Preacher is ‘Not TV’s Best,’ Says TWO
BURLINGTON, Vt – Truth Wins Out strongly urged all broadcast and cable networks today to pass on a proposed reality television show featuring televangelist Joel Osteen, who preaches at a Houston megachurch. Osteen has made a number of demeaning comments about LGBT people over the years and is most notorious for saying ”I don’t believe homosexuality is God’s best.”
“We strongly urge all television networks to act responsibly and soundly reject giving a platform to an anti-gay preacher like Joel Osteen,” said Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “A show featuring someone who dehumanizes LGBT people is clearly not TV’s best.”
Mark Burnett, best known as the man behind Survivor, Celebrity Apprentice, and Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?, has already agreed to partner with Osteen as the show’s producer, and is currently pitching it to television networks.
“Many religious leaders have Osteen’s charisma, without the anti-gay rhetoric,” said John Becker, TWO’s Director of Communications and Development. “Instead of glamorizing and lionizing religion-based bigotry, the networks should offer a show to a more tolerant and inclusive preacher.”
Joel Osteen and his wife Victoria are co-pastors of Lakewood Church, which is the largest congregation in the nation. Each episode of their reality show would feature the Osteens and several hundred church members flying to different parts of the country on miniature mission trips. Don Iloff, an Osteen family spokesman, explained: “We do these projects without the cameras rolling. But Jesus said, ‘Let your light shine. Don’t hide it under a bushel.’”
“With his huge multimedia empire of bestselling books, podcasts, and televised religious services, Joel Osteen is hardly ‘hiding under a bushel,’” said TWO’s Becker. “Further amplification of his already booming voice would be a slap in the face to LGBT people and is completely unacceptable.”
Truth Wins Out is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to create a world where LGBT individuals can live openly, honestly and true to themselves. TWO fights anti-LGBT religious extremism, monitors anti-LGBT organizations, documents their lies and exposes their leaders. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.
It’s truly terrible, a television show that features the message that gays aren’t going to hell, and actually are normal people. That really interferes with the Religious Right’s wishes to remake society according to their own imaginary beliefs about reality. It’s Matt Philbin of the Culture and Media Institute, talking to a lady with CBN News! The Glee part starts around 1:20, and he says that the problem with Glee is that the show is marketed as a “fun romp” but that the “romp” is in the bedroom!
Give it up, losers. It’s one of the most popular shows on television for a reason.
Michele Bachmann has been a huge headache for the LGBT community — but it is nothing compared to the migraines she suffers which were described by former aides in London’s Telegraph newspaper as “debilitating.”
“When she gets them, frankly, she can’t function at all. It’s not like a little thing with a couple Advils. It’s bad,” said one adviser.
Mrs Bachmann reportedly blamed the headaches on uncomfortable high-heel shoes, but those who have worked alongside her cited stress, a busy schedule and any sort of setback as possible triggers.
“The migraines are so bad and so intense, she carries and takes all sorts of pills – prevention pills, pills during the migraine, pills after the migraine, to keep them under control. She has to take these pills wherever she goes.”
Bachmann denied the severity of the headaches, very much like her husband Marcus denied his clinic practices reparative therapy to “cure” LGBT people. It’s difficult to believe anything this slippery couple says.
The Telegraph went on to discuss, a recording is widely circulating on the internet of a prayer she is said to have delivered in 2006 at a ministry run by Bradlee Dean, a controversial preacher who has called for gay people to be locked up
Predicting “we are in the last days” and declaring “the harvest is at hand”, an apparent allusion to the belief that God will take saved Christians from the Earth and leave non-believers behind to face never-ending torment.
“The day is at hand, Lord, when your return will come nigh. Nothing is more important than bringing sheep into the fold, than bringing life into the new kingdom,” she prayed.
The newspaper also discussed the effect of the clinic scandal:
A Christian counseling clinic run by Mr Bachmann has provided an unwelcome distraction for his wife’s campaign, after claims that it deployed controversial “reparative therapy” that tries to “cure” homosexuality. The therapy has been denounced by the American Psychological Association and others.
“Getting her elected depends on portraying her as mainstream when we have revealed she is extreme,” said Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out, a gay activist group who sent an undercover researcher into therapy Bachmann & Associates.
A series of polls have shown that a majority of Americans now tolerate homosexuality and growing numbers approve of gay marriage.
“The world is changing and the idea that there is something wrong with being homosexual or that you can pray away the gay is seen as something radical,” he said.
Conservatives can never accept the simple explanation for anything. For instance, they don’t tend to do well with the reality that television is geared toward certain audiences because those audiences are the most common audiences for, ahem, television, and also there’s a whole advertising component involved, as well. No, instead it is a liberal Hollywood conspiracy to hurt wingnuts’ fee fees. Enter Ben Shapiro, a freshly-picked wingnut who somehow managed to make it through Harvard Law. Those are always the best wingnuts — the ones who have been exposed to the reality of gay people and whatnot, and yet still cling to their bitterness and bigotry. Benjamin has a new book out called My Teevee Is Making Fun of Me, Mom!Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How The Left Took Over Your TV and he’s doing interviews with friendly wingnut organizations in order to tell his story of shame and victimization at the hands of Ross and Rachel. He interviewed lots of people for this book, by using “liberal code words” to fool them!
Believe it or not, it was as simple as that. People in Hollywood love talking about themselves for the most part, and many were very generous with their time. I approached them and told them exactly who I was: my name, my latest book, my Harvard Law credentials, and what this book was about. I also told them I was profiling the biggest names in Hollywood over the last 50 years. I assume that many of them bought into that last part – people in Hollywood aren’t exactly known for their humility. They must have assumed that with a name like Shapiro and a Harvard Law credential, there was no need to Google; I would have to be a leftist. When I spoke with them, I used certain liberal code words – “social justice,” “tolerance,” “diversity.” And they spoke freely with me, with permission to tape.
Right, and he had to do that because
Everyone knows that people in Hollywood despise traditional conservatives. They think we’re morons, bigots, and Neanderthals.
Okay, so first of all? The kid admits in the interview that his parents actually work in the industry, so for him to be portraying himself as some “outsider tradishnul conservative” seems to be a talking appoint to appeal to morons, bigots and Neanderthals. Cynical, Benjamin, cynical.
Anyway, he whines a bit about his writing being rejected in Hollywood [again due to a conspiracy against conservatives and not possibly because he's not that good], and then gets to the really good part, about the gargantuan conspiracy of primetime television, which is to make fun of conservatives:
Unlike MSNBC, though, the liberal content we see on primetime television and in daytime soaps is typically hidden in plot and character. That makes it far more manipulative and dangerous. It makes the political personal. We don’t want to oppose the politics of those we like, and television characters are like friends. They don’t bug us openly about politics, they just happen to have abortions, bear children out of wedlock, engage in gay marriage, preach about environmentalism, hate Rush Limbaugh, and make fun of religious people.
Uh huh. First of all? Abortion is not seen on television hardly at all. Secondly, bearing children out of wedlock is definitely not a liberal value, as teen pregnancy rates are much, much higher in red, “tradishnul values” states. Perhaps the lack of sex education contributes to this? And, well, the second Rush Limbaugh stops being a mockery of himself, people will stop making fun of him. As for gay people on television, well, a couple of things about that:
1. Gay people actually exist! So to have us on television is simply a representation of that reality!
2. I’d probably concede that Hollywood is helping people understand gay people a little bit better, and it makes sense, since without gay people, there wouldn’t be a Hollywood. There wouldn’t be much in the way of artistic entertainment in general. Hell, even the Christian music industry is full of [closeted] gay people. So the fact that they’re starting to really portray us in a positive light, and the fact that entertainers are coming out of the closet more and more is a net positive, for everyone.
But Ben’s biggest problem isn’t with shows like Will & Grace, which was obviously super-lotsa-gay, but more with the more subversive shows like Friends:
The subtle ones are the ones that are the most problematic on a moral level. Look at Friends. Great show. Well-written. Well-acted. Funny. Bet you didn’t think it was political per se. But not only did the show feature a lesbian wedding during its first season, an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, and on-screen fights over condoms, the show promoted the substitution of friends for family as moral guides and sources of responsibility.
Uh huh. Oh, and also, he’s upset that the creator of the show cast Newt Gingrich’s half-sister [Newt, that paragon of moral virtue] as the preacher for the lesbian wedding, which you’ve got to admit, was pretty funny.
Anyway, so what is Ben’s solution? Well, first of all, you have to understand what the conspiracy is:
The biggest scam in American business history is that the 18-49 crowd is more valuable to advertisers than people of other ages. Hollywood has pushed this myth because they prefer to produce liberal programming – and young people like liberal programming.
Yes, because what advertisers REALLY want is the nursing home crowd. They go along with Hollywood’s fake demographics because Hollywood is JUST THAT POWERFUL. But anyway, now that you know the conspiracy, he asserts, I suppose with a straight face:
Conservatives must enter the culture war.
Yes! Because they totally aren’t already there, grubbing everything up with their over-represented paws! Um, let me check my history, but the very idea of a “culture war” was, indeed, created by The Right. I mean, bloody hell.
But I hate the idea of little Ben Shapiro running around with bushy eyebrows and hurt feelings, so I propose that America should get a true, primetime drama series about a typical American conservative family. I haven’t come up with a title yet, but here’s the premise:
Bill and Suzy are just a normal, Evangelical conservative family in, I dunno, let’s say Minnesota. Bill is an elder at the church and Suzy home-schools the kids. After everybody is asleep at night, Bill sneaks down to his study and looks at gay porn and posts ads on gay dating sites for illicit meet-ups in public parks. He does not use face pics. Suzy misses the intimacy she used to have with her husband, but she finds solace in her children, and also pharmaceuticals. Lots and lots of pharmaceuticals. Joey is their sixteen year old son. When his parents catch him in Season 2 locked in his room secretly watching “It Gets Better” videos on his iPhone, they send him to a gay re-education camp, where he is molested by his counselor. Their seventeen year old daughter Margaret becomes a major plot point in Season 3 when she, armed with absolutely no real, useful knowledge on sex besides “a true lady saves her flower,” becomes pregnant by the similarly uneducated Mark, who lives down the street and goes to the same church. Ashamed that their daughter is now “one of those girls,” they spirit her away to a neighboring town so that they may quietly have the pregnancy “taken care of,” so that they don’t have to feel the scorn of their church friends. They would go to the abortion clinic in their town, but they would be recognized, because they protest there every Saturday. In Season 4, Joey attempts suicide, worried that he’s never going to get out of the hell that is his fundamentalist existence, and in Season 5, Suzy, fed up and desperate, begins having an affair with Maria, another similarly situated housewife.
Does this sound good? If you’re a Hollywood producer and you think this has potential, get in touch with me, because I really want to see a normal, typical conservative family on teevee. My straight brother and I will write it. I think it has real potential!
The other day, I wrote about an awful segment on Fox’s Houston affiliate, in which the newscaster, Damali Keith, hosted hate group lackey Bryan Fischer and gay activist Ray Hill to debate the question, “Is TV too gay?” It was a truly terrible segment, as Keith asked ridiculous leading questions suggesting that the gayness of the characters on Glee was comparable to “product placement,” and suggesting that people should be concerned by the show’s early time slot. Lots of other people have taken notice since then. Mary Elizabeth Williams has an entertaining piece at Salon which cuts right to the heart of what terrible journalism this was:
During the segment, which aired after last week’s Lady Gaga-themed “Born This Way” episode, host Damali Keith kicked off by comparing the show’s gay themes to “product placement” — you know, the kind that leaves “everyone in the theater thirsty for that particular brand.” Yes, that’s how it happens, America. One day your teenage son is banging the head cheerleader. The next, he hears a few bars of Chris Colfer’s seductive warbling, and wham! Suddenly he’s “thirsty” for that particular “brand.” Of penis. Homosexuality – it’s exactly like walking past a Cinnabon.
It’s funny, because that’s actually sort of what Religious Right wingnuts believe. The fact that it’s ridiculously stupid just makes it more attractive for them.
Williams sums the whole issue up here:
You can’t unring the stupid bell, and both Keith and Fischer’s ignorant remarks have already been given the undeserved legitimacy of a platform. But as “Glee” and its ilk continue – not always successfully or convincingly, but at least always with sensitivity and consistency – to explore the issues facing gay and questioning youth and their communities, it remains crucial to keep sending the message to broadcasters to stop booking bigots.
[...]
[T]he punditsphere has got to step up and try a little harder, to say that crackpots don’t deserve airtime. Because idiocy and intolerance are neither fair nor balanced.
Hear, hear! This is what we’ve saying for a long time now, and what the media WILL finally figure out someday. Despite the crowing of bigots, there are not two sides to these issues! Science has spoken, and continues to speak as scientists learn more. Mental health associations have spoken. Child welfare experts have spoken. Every single credible expert in every relevant field is on our side of this battle, encouraging full inclusion and acceptance for LGBT people. There is no debate anymore, for this is too much correct information out there. Media outlets don’t address issues of interest to black people by asking the Ku Klux Klan for their opinion. It’s high time they stop asking the Klan’s anti-gay equivalent to weigh in on matters of interest to LGBT people, and society at large.
Williams points out that Fox Houston originally agreed to apologize when GLAAD called them out, but that they have gone back on that promise. Sign the petition at change.org to demand that apology.
“This is Ryan Murphy’s (creator of “Glee”) latest depraved initiative to promote his gay agenda,” Dan Gainor, vice president for Business and Culture at Media Research Center, told ABC News.
The Fox show on Tuesday was centered around Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” – or what Glee club leader Will Schuester called the queen of self-love’s anthem to acceptance. The “assignment” this week for the New Directions students was accepting who they are – “the best and worst parts” – including their nose (Rachel), trouty mouth (Sam), slanted brown eyes (Tina), and homosexuality (Kurt, Santana, and Karofsky).
Yeah, what an “agenda.” Lots of gay kids in an extremely talented high school glee club has no bearing on reality whatsoever.
Calling McKinley High the “gayest high school in the history of mankind, Gainor told ABC, “This is clearly Ryan Murphy’s vision of what growing up should be, not most of America’s. It’s a high school most parents would not want to send their kids too.”
When he’s not busy telling kids to get off his lawn, Gainor should visit a public high school sometime, because gay kids are coming out younger and younger and it’s indeed becoming quite common for there to be lots of out gay kids, yes, in high school. So that’s the wingnut “Dan Gainor.” Let’s see how another wingnut is feeling about the television show featuring musical numbers and positive messages:
“We are not ‘slaves to our biology’ unless we choose to make ourselves so by believing it to be the case,” said Chuck Colson, a prominent evangelical and founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries, in an earlier commentary.
“[S]aying that biology is somehow normative is not the same thing as saying that is determinative. We are free to choose how we behave, both for good and for ill.”
Is the felon conceding that homosexuality is biological in origin? What’s that sound? Oh yes, the sound of fundamentalist wingnuts moving the goalposts, yet again. One more wingnut:
Lane Palmer of Dare 2 Share Ministries noted that the only way everyone was born was as fallen, sinful beings. Fortunately, that sinful life can be redeemed.
“Lady Gaga might sing about a sinful lifestyle being the design God had for her, but I promise you He (God) has something infinitely better for her, and you, and me,” he said.
Yes, please continue to make yourself feel better about your boring life by attempting to put yourself up on a morally superior pedestal over Lady GaGa. Tell yourself that your notion of a deity has better plans for, um, Lady GaGa, if only she would abandon her success to become a wingnut. That will work.
Maybe wingnuts should just stop watching the television.
I actually watched Glee last night. [Give me back my gay card.] I had seen it once before, and had enjoyed it, but I really don’t watch teevee very much, so I miss out on most of the Things I Should Be Watching. I was actually really impressed by how well they handle a variety of subjects, including the obvious existence of gay students in high school. Of course, no reality is the best reality for the Religious Right, so they’ve been whining about Glee ever since it debuted.
Last night, inspired by this week’s Glee, Fox’s Houston affiliate decided to debate the asinine question, “Is TV Too Gay?,” and in order that the debate be “fair and balanced,” they decided to bring none other than Bryan Fischer on to the program, the same Bryan Fischer who is almost single-handedly responsible for landing the American Family Association on the SPLC’s list of anti-gay hate groups. Fischer is just as extreme in his beliefs as the Westboro Baptist Church, but we can only surmise that his knees are too old to handle that sort of protest schedule. Fischer didn’t say anything new, because there’s no intellectual basis for his beliefs, and therefore no room for nuance or exploration. He just drooled some words about “glamorizing the homosexual lifestyle,” lied to the camera by suggesting that there is no such thing as safe gay sex, and threw out a few of his other greatest hits.
Luckily, Ray Hill, the gay activist on the other side, isn’t afraid to play the game and calls Fischer as a liar to his face. Enjoy:
My question, though, is this: what producer at Fox Houston made the absurd decision to bring on one of the world’s most unhinged anti-gay activists? Get with the program, sir or ma’am! You have The Googles at your disposal and you can easily find that Bryan Fischer lies as often as his mouth is open, and is motivated not only by anti-gay hatred, but by racism and all other sorts of bigotry. His views on Native Americans and black people come to mind. He is not “the other side” of the gay issue or any other issue. He is the moral equivalent of a head covered by a white sheet.
Next time, try to “do journalism” more responsibly.
CNN.com has a “Quick Vote” running at the bottom of their page today, which asks the following question: ”Is the surge in gay TV characters ‘bad for society’?”
Uh.
I dunno, CNN. Was the surge in black teevee characters during the run of The Cosby Show bad for society? And do you really want people’s responses on that?
Good god.
The poll is going in the right direction right now, but not enough, so for god’s sake, go Freep it.
Joel Osteen, one of America’s leading promoters of “prosperity theology” (money worship) told The View on Nov. 3 that LGBT people “are not God’s best.”
No, of course not. Rich people are.
Unfortunately, The View did little to challenge Osteen.
But with enemies as offensive as Osteen, who really needs friends?
BURLINGTON, Vt – Truth Wins Out strongly urged all broadcast and cable networks today to pass on a proposed reality television show featuring televangelist Joel Osteen, who preaches at a Houston megachurch. Osteen has made a number of demeaning comments about LGBT people over the years and is most notorious for saying ”I don’t believe homosexuality is God’s best.”
