Bryan Fischer, the virulently anti-gay mouthpiece of the American Family Association, has reportedly been stripped of his position as group’s official spokesperson and Director of Issues Analysis, but will retain his daily radio program, a forum from which he bashes the LGBT community on an almost daily basis.
Despite being related to comments Fischer has been making on his radio show for years, the firing seems to serve the purpose of providing political cover to some 60 members of the Republican National Committee who will enjoy an all-expenses-paid trip to Israel on AFA’s bill, as first reported by Rachel Maddow Wednesday night.
AFA President Tim Wildmon confirmed the sudden firing to MSNBC, describing Fischer now as “just a talk show host” who is no longer associated with the organization. He was apparently fired specifically over comments he has made over the years suggesting the Nazi Party was started by gay people, that Adolf Hitler recruited gays into his Army for their savagery, and that gay activists are modern-day Nazi Stormtroopers.
But Fischer’s “firing” likely means very little in terms of his repeated attacks on the LGBT community. Shortly after Maddow’s report, Fischer tweeted, “Don’t believe everything you hear! I’ll be on air same time tomorrow as always 1-3pm CT, on https://www.afr.net . Tune in!”
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Fischer will reportedly continue to produce his daily radio program for the AFA’s radio arm, American Family Radio.
If this is indeed the case, then the AFA has literally accomplished nothing with this stunt and has completely failed to distance itself from Fischer’s utterly despicable views. The primary venues though which Fischer has managed to spread his bigotry for the last six years have always been owned, operated, and funded by the American Family Association and that relationship appears to remain intact.
Stripping Fischer of his title as AFA spokesman in no way alleviates the AFA of its responsibility for Fischer’s toxic views given that the only reason Fischer even has a platform from which to spread those views is because AFA is providing it to him and paying him to spread them!
From the very start of Fischer’s time at AFA, the organization has pathetically attempted to have it both ways: providing the very microphone from which Fischer speaks while simultaneously claiming that it bears no responsibility for the message that he sends.
The AFA latest effort to rid itself of Fischer’s rancid reputation is little more than a rhetorical accounting trick aimed at creating the false impression that the organization has wiped Fischer’s bigotry off of its books.