CNN's Carol Costello said on Monday that she'll wear a 'gay gestapo' badge proudly.

The 51-year-old Costello was given the label last week by Bryan Fischer of the Christian conservative group American Family Association (AFA). Fischer fired back at Costello after she abruptly cut him off her program over his anti-gay rhetoric.

The segment was a discussion of the AFA's objection to the Southern Poverty Law Center's (SPLC) 11th annual Mix It Up at Lunch Day. The October 30th event encourages schoolchildren to eat lunch with someone they normally might not, in an attempt to break up social cliques.

In an e-mail to members, the AFA called the project “a nationwide push to promote the homosexual lifestyle in public schools.”

“You know it's interesting to me that they are doing this on October 30, the day before Halloween,” Fischer said in the CNN segment. “And what this program is, it's like poison Halloween candy. Somebody takes a candy bar, injects it with cyanide. The label looks fine, it looks innocuous, it looks fine. It's not until you internalized it that you realize how toxic it is. And we want parents to be aware that any program that comes from the Southern Poverty Law Center is going to be toxic to their student's moral health.”

On his AFA-sponsored radio show, Focal Point, Fischer blasted Costello's actions.

Costello “showed you what the gay gestapo looks like in action,” Fischer told his audience. “Because she cut my water off just as soon as I started to talk about the health risks of homosexual behavior. But Carol Costello, the gay gestapo, the Nazis in the gay gestapo, they do not want to hear the truth about the homosexual behavior because what they're about is promoting this lifestyle – not promoting diversity, but promoting pervert-sity.”

“Well Mr. Fischer,” Costello responded on her program on Monday, “if that's the definition of the gay gestapo, then I'm a proud card-carrying member.”

Costello went on to discuss the positive impact of the program with a representative of the SPLC. (The video is embedded on this page. Visit our video library for more videos.)