Christian conservative Bryan Fischer on
Friday criticized an upcoming The New Yorker cover
featuring Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie.
Next week's cover has the puppets
snuggling on a sofa in front of a black-and-white television
displaying an image of the nine Supreme Court justices seated in
front of a rainbow flag.
The artist Jack Hunter said of the
cover, titled “Moment of Joy,”: “It's amazing to witness how
attitudes on gay rights have evolved in my lifetime. … This is
great for our kids, a moment we can all celebrate.”
Fischer criticized the magazine's
editors, calling them “irresponsible” for putting Bert and Ernie
in a “homosexual clinch” on their cover.
“Ladies and gentlemen, they are
cuddling on a couch, this is a romantic interlude,” Fischer told
his Focal Point listeners.
After quoting statistics from a highly
discredited study on gay parenting by Mark Regnerus, Fischer
said: “This is grossly irresponsible for The New Yorker
to promote this, they really are promoting child endangerment and
they are promoting child abuse.” (The video is embedded on this
page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)
Regnerus' study concluded that children
raised by gay parents face greater negative outcomes. But only 2 of
the 3,000 subjects reported having parents in a same-sex relationship
for their entire childhood.