Social conservative Bryan Fischer
claims ABC's Dancing with the Stars is exploiting Chaz Bono
for ratings and profit.
Author-activist Bono is the child of
gay icon Cher and the late entertainer-politician Sonny Bono.
Bono, 42, is a transgender man, a fact
that has created a firestorm of protest from groups opposed to gay
rights. The AFA-sponsored group One Million Moms is leading the call
for a boycott of the show and its advertisers over its casting.
(Conservatives
are also fuming at the inclusion of openly gay fashion expert Carson
Kressley.)
During Monday's edition of the
AFA-sponsored radio show Focal Point, host Bryan Fischer added
fuel to the fire, calling Bono a “mentally disturbed individual.”
“[T]he issue here is ultimately about
ABC, not Chaz Bono. ABC executives are unashamedly preying on her
mental illness, cannibalizing her psychologically disturbed soul for
ratings, and profiting handsomely in the process. This is immoral,
uncaring, greedy and just plain wrong,” Fischer said.
“ABC is helping to forge the chains
that will imprison Chaz Bono for the rest of her life in a dark
dungeon of confusion and despair.”
“The is not a proud moment for ABC,”
he added. “And every advertiser who spends money to promote such
sexual abnormality should be embarrassed even to be connected to this
charade.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)
Bono responded to his detractors last
week during an appearance on ABC's Good Morning America.
“I'm going to be dancing,” Bono
said. “I'm not up there talking about anything other than
dancing. People who don't have gender dysphoria aren't going to
catch it by watching me dance on television.”