I was on with Bill O’Reilly defending students at my alma matter George Washington University who are protesting the school’s Catholic center leader for saying that being gay is “unnatural and immoral” and counseling gay students to repress their desires and feel ashamed of themselves.
I argue the larger issue is the need for the Catholic Church to get with the times — and address the fact that a strong majority of lay Catholics are more pro-gay than the Church and this is causing many to flee from the faith, especially young people.
Here’s our exchange:
O’Reilly seemed a bit confused, claiming he supports the rights of the students to protest while at the same time calling them fascist. Later in the show, Bill criticized progressives for “incivility” in calling Margaret Thatcher a fascist. Anyway…
Here’s Mediaite’s coverage of our exchange.
Reacting to the faux outrage on the part of conservatives in America that by denouncing a reckless anti-Islam film, President Obama was somehow abandoning the value of free speech, I wrote the following for Salon:
A month ago, when an armed man attacked the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., conservatives blamed the fact that the organization had been labeled a “hate group” for inciting the attack. Never mind that the hate group label was intended to condemn the sort of violence that the Family Research Council’s extreme homophobic vitriol encourages. Tony Perkins, head of the FRC, said that groups that labeled his organization a hate group should be “held accountable for their reckless use of terminology.”
But now, when an offensive anti-Islam film promoted by a right-wing Christian preacher is clearly to blame for violent riots spreading thought the Middle East and appeared to have played a role in the death of a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, the far right in America is defending extremist rhetoric against Islam and attacking the Obama administration for condemning the inflammatory film.
I hope you’ll read the rest — and join me in marveling at the hypocrisy.
One of my heroes and mentors, Professor Derrick Bell, is being dragged through the mud because President Obama once introduced Prof. Bell at a rally 20 years ago and then they hugged.
Well, guess what! Sean Hannity and I have hugged and that certainly doesn’t mean I agree with everything Hannity has ever said.
Watch me stand up for free speech — and tell me what you think:
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