Rosie O'Donnell on Thursday hit at Rick
Perry for airing an anti-gay ad in early caucus state Iowa.
In the ad titled Strong
and released on Monday, Perry says there is something wrong with
America when gay troops can serve openly in the military but children
cannot openly celebrate Christmas and accuses President Barack Obama
of waging a war on religion.
“You know, I'd like him to take a
look at the statistics about children who kill themselves because
they're gay and they're bullied,” O'Donnell, who is openly gay,
said on cabler HLN's The Joy Behar Show. “The bullying
starts right there with presidential candidates. It's wrong, it's
sinful and it's destroying the nation. It really is. Gay people are
part of the fabric of America; they've been part of every country and
every animal species and kingdom. People have to wake up and get
with the program. This is not the 1950s. So Rick Perry, shame on
you.”
Behar added: “Shame on him. Shame on
Michele Bachmann and that ludicrous notion of pray the gay away.”
Parodies
of the ad have overtaken the Internet.