Anti-gay Rhetoric
of the American Family Association
Barbie Leach
April 24, 2014
About the AFA
• Formed in 1977 by Donald Wildmon
• On frontlines of America’s culture war
• Culture based on biblical truth best serves the well-being of
our nation and our families
• Personal transformation through the Gospel of Jesus Christ is
the greatest agent of biblical change in any culture
http://www.afa.net/Detail.aspx?id=31
Outreach
“AFA websites average over 6 million unique visitors and 44
million hits per year. AFA uses all these means to communicate
an outspoken, resolute, Christian voice throughout America.”
Outreach
• American Family Radio
• 125 stations in 33 states
• Affiliates in 7 states
• American Family Online
• “Protect everyone in the family from Internet content that will come
between you and God or you and your family.
• One News Now
• 1,200 broadcast , print and news affiliates in 45 states and 11
countries
• Present news stories from biblical perspective
• American Family Journal
• Online and print publications
• AFA Center for Law & Policy
• Staffed by 6 full-time attorneys
• Network of 400 affiliate attorneys
Mouthpieces
• Ed Vitagliano
• News editor of AFA Journal
• Columnist for AFA Journal
• Bryan Fischer
• Director of issue analysis for government and public policy
at the AFA
• Host of AFR’s Focal Point program
• Buster Wilson
• Former general manager of AFR
• Former host of AFR’s AFA Today program
Hate Speech and Fear Mongering
• “In corporations where they work, some Christians who refuse
to acquiesce to the reigning pro-gay environment are
reprimanded or fired.” Ed Vitagliano, AFA
• “But what Ezekiel 16 teaches us is this: By the time a culture
accepts idolatry, abortion and homosexuality, it is already ripe
for the devastation wrought by God’s wrath.” Ed Vitagliano, AFA
• Fight against homosexuality “battle of our time.” Bryan Fischer, AFA
• Exposing children to a gay-friendly church will "destroy them
in body and soul and spirit." Bryan Fischer, AFA
Hate Speech and Fear Mongering
• “America's future is gonna be determined by one thing, and
one thing only, and that is whether the forces of light or
darkness will prevail in the battle for special rights" based on
"sexually deviant behavior.“ Bryan Fischer, AFA
• "Once the man-woman threshold is crossed for
marriage...then there is simply no logical place to stop in the
kind of sexual relationships you will support, you will embrace
as a culture. We were exactly right when we said polygamy
was the next domino to fall. And after this, the next domino to
fall is going to be pedophilia.“ Bryan Fischer, AFA
Hate Speech and Fear Mongering
• "Under homosexual activists' political agenda, our children
would face a future in which traditional marriage and families
have been legally devalued, while state government— despite
the severe threat it poses to personal and public health— not
only legally endorses but uses our tax dollars to subsidize
deadly homosexual behavior.“ Gary Glenn, Director of AFA Michigan
• "Now the Bush Administration is opening its arms to
homosexual activists who have been working diligently to
overthrow the traditional views of Western Civilization
regarding human sexuality, marriage and family… AFA would
never support the policies of a political party which embraced
the homosexual movement. Period."Don Wildmon, AFA
Hate Speech and Fear Mongering
• God might have sent Hurricane Isaac to New Orleans
punishment to the city for hosting Southern Decadence. Buster
Wilson
• San Francisco may experience so many devastation
earthquakes because of its large homosexual population and
tolerance. Buster Wilson
• “They are Nazis. Do not be under any illusions about what
homosexual activists will do with your freedoms and your
religion if they have the opportunity. They’ll do the same thing
to you that the Nazis did to their opponents in Nazi Germany.”
Bryan Fischer, AFA
Nazism
Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition
Na·zi noun \ˈnät-sē, ˈnat-\
: a member of a German political party that controlled Germany
from 1933 to 1945 under Adolf Hitler
: an evil person who wants to use power to control and harm
other people especially because of their race, religion, etc.
Nazis?
REALLY?
Hate Crime Prevention
• In 2009, the passage of a new law—the first significant
expansion of federal criminal civil rights law since the mid1990s—gave the federal government the authority to
prosecute violent hate crimes, including violence and
attempted violence directed at the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and
transgender community, to the fullest extent of its
jurisdiction. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate
Crimes Prevention Act also provides funding and technical
assistance to state, local, and tribal jurisdictions to help them
to more effectively investigate, prosecute, and prevent hate
crimes.
• Goal is to battle racial and social injustice.
• Maintain a hate map of active hate groups in the U.S.
• Have listed AFA as a hate group since November 2010 for the
"propagation of known falsehoods" and the use of
"demonizing propaganda" against LGBT people.
• Define hate crimes as: Can include criminal acts, marches,
rallies, speeches, meetings, leafleting or publishing. Websites
appearing to be merely the work of a single individual, rather
than the publication of a group, are not included on map.
http://www.splcenter.org/what-we-do
The FBI’s Role
As part of its responsibility to uphold the civil rights of the
American people, the FBI takes a number of steps to combat the
problem of hate crimes
Hate Crimes Working Groups
The majority of the FBI’s field offices participate in local Hate
Crime Working Groups. These Working Groups combine
community and law enforcement resources to develop strategies
to address local hate crime problems.
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/civilrights/hate_crimes/overview
Public Outreach
The FBI has forged partnerships nationally and locally with many
civil rights organizations to establish rapport, share information,
address concerns, and cooperate in solving problems. These
groups include such organizations as the NAACP, the Southern
Poverty Law Center, the Anti-Defamation League, the National
Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, the National
Organization for Women, the Human Rights Campaign, and the
National Disability Rights Network.
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/civilrights/hate_crimes/overview
Mea Culpa
Latin for “through my fault”
We’re sorry we made you get a
divorce and we’re sorry we
cause earthquakes, hurricanes,
toronados and floods. Our bad.