20/20 will air an investigation of gay conversion therapy organizations this Friday.
The investigation looks at the “cottage industry” of conversion therapy and their unscientific and often damaging techniques. From an advertisement for the report, the stance of 20/20 appears clear: conversion therapy does more harm than good.
Tune in to @ABC2020 on Friday. pic.twitter.com/1hFOv4JBqx
— Brian Ross Unit (@ABCInvestigates) March 5, 2017
ABC News’s website also ran an article entitled, “Gay conversion therapy advocates heartened by Republican electoral victories,” which pointed to Vice President Mike Pence’s previous support for conversion therapy.
The article involved an extensive interview with the Family Research Council’s Peter Sprigg, where he defends conversion therapy and says that the Trump Administration will roll back the Obama Administration’s “aggressive activism” on this front.
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“They certainly should not be outlawed. They certainly should not be prohibited by law… As a Christian, I believe that the Bible teaches that to choose to engage in homosexual conduct is a sin,” Sprigg told ABC News.
This is a sign of a big change in mainstream coverage of anti-LGBTQ extremists, who a decade ago were routinely referred to as simply advocates of “traditional values.”
Even contemporary coverage will often shy away from the Family Research Council’s and similar organization’s support for conversion therapy and portray their opposition to same-sex marriage as a mere difference of opinion on a policy issue.
The ABC news article also features video interviews with two conversion therapy survivors.
The 20/20 report will air this Friday on ABC at 10 p.m. Eastern.
