Conservative
Fox News commentator Bill
O'Reilly linked being gay to terrorism Wednesday while discussing
a gay-inclusive McDonald's campaign running in France.
The campaign titled Come As You Are
(Venez Commee Vous Etes) includes a gay television ad which
suggests a teenager is about to come out gay to his father over a
meal at McDonald's.
In the ad, the son sits in a booth
while looking at his class photo when his cellphone rings.
“I was just thinking about you,” he
says. “I was just looking at our class picture.”
“I miss you too,” he adds before
hanging up.
The son is joined by his father, who
comments on the class photo: “Too bad your class is all boys, you
could get all the girls.”
The son smiles thoughtfully at his
father, then, as the camera pulls away, the pair begin to converse.
Speaking with Fox News anchor
Jane Skinner, O'Reilly persisting in asking if the ad made her
hungry. Skinner eventually answered that she was always hungry for
McDonald's.
The campaign is “part of an
overreaching campaign called Come As You Are,” Skinner
explained. “So they show people in different walks of life. This
happens to be their gay-friendly ad.”
“OK,” O'Reilly responded. “Do
they have an al-Qaeda ad, you know, come as you are? You know?”
A McDonald's spokesperson said the
purpose of the campaign was to “show society the way it is today
without judging.”
“There's obviously no problem with
homosexuality in France today,” the spokesperson added.
France, however, recognizes gay and
lesbian couples with a union similar to a domestic partnership, not
marriage, and does not permit gay adoption.