Gay media watchdog GLAAD is calling on
a Fox affiliate station to apologize for airing a segment that
likened being gay to intravenous drug use.
KRIV-26, the Fox affiliate in Houston,
broadcast a segment last week titled Is TV Too Gay?
In the segment, producers targeted
Glee's recently aired anti-bullying episode.
The episode's most incendiary moment
came when gay student Kurt Hummel zips open his hoodie to reveal a
t-shirt that says “LIKES BOYS” before the cast sings Lady Gaga's
Born This Way.
Bryan Fischer of
the Christian conservative American Family Association (AFA) called
the show “product placement” in the segment.
“[A]dvertisers
purchase time on television programs because they know that what
people see on television influences their behavior and influences
their choices,” Fischer said. “We should not glamorize it [gay
relationships] anymore than we would glamorize intravenous drug use.”
(The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)
GLAAD criticized
the station's decision to air Fischer's anti-gay rhetoric.
“Brian Fischer is
an extremist with no qualifications to offer the discussion apart
from his bigotry,” the group said in a statement. “FOX Houston
gave Fischer a platform to broadcast his anti-gay rhetoric in the
nation's fourth largest city and the 10th largest media
market. And rather than challenge him, the host, Damali Keith,
contributed her own uninformed and anti-gay commentary.”
“Today a vast
majority of Americans support gay and lesbian youth, who still too
often face bullying and discrimination,” GLAAD President Jarred
Barrios said. “FOX Houston needs to send a clear message to young
viewers that it is okay to be who you are.”
The
group has launched a petition drive against the station.