The Post's New Low

Oct 14th, 2010
by F. Grey Parker

Tony Perkins - Anti-Gay Activist

One has to wonder what the editorial staff at the Washington Post has been thinking over the last year or so. They've given a regular forum to torture advocate Marc Thiessen. Recently, Dinesh D'Souza was granted space to regurgitate his lunacy about our country being "ruled" by some African-rooted revenge fantasy. Now, in the wake of a rash of suicides amongst young gay Americans, they've made sure to give equal time to radical anti-gay activist Tony Perkins.


Jarret Barrios fires back in the WaPo's "On faith" section:


"We called the Post out for their decision to let Perkins do this. The Post told us, via Twitter: "we're working to cover both sides. Earlier, we hosted Dan Savage of It Gets Better in a live chat."

Yes, you read that right. "Both sides."

The Washington Post - one of the most respected news sources in our country's history - is telling a nation full of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender children, that their lives are up for debate."

Frankly, Barrios is too easy on them. Giving Perkins a forum in this discussion is like giving an Op-Ed to the Klan during a debate over interracial marriage.

Perkins wrote:

"Some homosexuals may recognize intuitively that their same-sex attractions are abnormal--yet they have been told by the homosexual movement, and their allies in the media and the educational establishment, that they are "born gay" and can never change. This--and not society's disapproval--may create a sense of despair that can lead to suicide."

This kind of thinking should stay in the hate-pamphlets where it belongs. What is the Post trying to achieve? Are they seeking the same divide between reality and fantasy that we see within the Wall Street Journal's reportage and editorial divisions, respectively? Is it that they really don't care how outlandish a piece is that appears under their masthead as long as it get's "hits?"

Barrios sums it up:

"Technically, the Post is correct when it says it is covering "both sides" of the scourge of anti-gay bullying.

But one of those sides belongs to the bully himself."