On Wednesday, we told you about Audrey Roloff, a woman prominently featured on TLC’s reality show Little People, Big World.
In that editorial, we referred to Audrey as “fervidly antigay” due to a blog post she’d written on Spirits Wander, a Roloff family-affiliated site.
Discussing her recently launched blog 50 Percent, which hopes to “encourage husbands and wives to give more than 50% to the spouse” and “inspire covenant marriages,” she wrote, “We are not claiming to be a resource for same-sex marriages. It’s not something we agree with.”
We are for opposite-sex marriages that are striving to give more than average to their marriages. To live out the covenant of marriage every day, and to center their marriage around Christ. That being said, know that our content is not written to same-sex marriages, so to say that we don’t offer advice for that side is accurate.”
Some of our readers weren’t altogether pleased with us labeling Audrey as “antigay” simply because she’s against same-sex marriage.
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“I think it’s rather overboard to label these kids as hateful,” said reader Grace Fuller.
They are only ‘anti-gay’ because they are not specifically ‘pro-gay.’ They have every right to believe that the only marriages they want to support are heterosexual, and meant for a higher purpose spiritually.”
We all have the right to disagree, but calling them names and attacking them is really petty. I won’t be watching their show or donating to anything they are affiliated with. Doesn’t make me ‘anti-straight.'”
Jen, another reader, was similarly nonplussed:
So now we’re condemning someone who simply is friends with the wife of an anti-gay minister? You can choose to be associated with someone yet not share the same beliefs. Many in our church congregation are against gay marriage, yet my husband and I believe that judgement is left to Christ and Christ alone, and we love everyone regardless — as that is what He commanded. I have fought for equality since before I can remember, and will never share the views of some in our church. It doesn’t make me a bigot simply to associate with them.
As a lifelong LGBTQI ally, I am not seeing the connection here. Is it sad that they do not support equality? Extremely. However, Audrey simply stated that their blog is geared toward heterosexual Christian marriages, and they don’t have any advice for gay/lesbian marriages as that is not their target audience. How is that “fervidly antigay”? They also have no control over what their followers write in comments, thus they are not bigots simply because their followers write bigoted remarks.
They aren’t taking anyone’s rights away, nor being hateful or vindictive or oppressing. They simply stated their beliefs in a courteous manner. The fight for equality seems to often overlook the rights of individuals to their own beliefs.”
So this begs the question: Is it unfair to brand a person “antigay” simply because they’re against same-sex marriage, or is that term too harsh in this context?
Weigh in in the comments section and let us know your thoughts.
