Ann Coulter's comments on “reparative”
therapy and openly gay troops have been labeled “clownish” by gay
GOP group Log Cabin Republicans.
In an appearance last Wednesday on
cabler HLN's The Joy Behar Show to promote her latest book
Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America, the
49-year-old conservative celebrity said she wanted America to shut up
about gay marriage, believed some gay people can alter their
sexuality and suggested gay troops are not fit to serve.
“The only reason I might be happy is
maybe they will shut up about it,” she told host Joy Behar with a
chortle. “OK, the media capital of the world has gay marriage, can
we move on now?”
“I not only want 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' for
the military, I want 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' for all of society.
Just give me a week where we're not talking about gays.”
In response to Behar's assertion that
people cannot “pray away the gay,” Coulter said: “There are
some people … maybe they weren't really gay to begin with, maybe
they were molested as children. There are people that go that way.”
She later added that she wanted
“heterosexual men … the same sort of men who can be firemen”
serving in the military. (The video is embedded in the right panel
of this page.)
“Ann Coulter is not a serious part of
the conservative movement,” R. Clarke Cooper, executive director of
Log Cabin Republicans, said in a statement. “Her remarks endorsing
the widely outdated and profoundly harmful idea of 'reparative
therapy,' alleging that one can 'pray the gay away,' are not only
demeaning to gays and lesbians, but are offensive to all people of
faith.”
“While her position on [open gay
military service] is off base, it is exacerbated by her claim that
the armed forces should bring back 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' a failed
policy which impedes military readiness.”
“Servicemembers who put their lives
on the line deserve respect, not such clownish behavior,” he added.
(Related: Ann
Coulter refuses to talk about her personal life.)