American Family Association radio host Bryan Fischer is one of the religious right’s most controversial figures. While the evangelical ministry has been classified as an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Center, even they shy away from some of his blatantly bigoted remarks.
Fischer was fired as the group’s spokesperson after inflammatory comments, but still ended up hosting a radio show on the group’s airwaves and they continue to promote his inflammatory nonsense in their daily newsletter.
In a letter sent to LGBTQ Nation to complain about our description of Fischer as a mouthpiece for the organization after he told listeners the New Zealand shooter had to ‘take things into his own hands’ to stop Muslims, the hate group’s lawyer repeatedly tried to distance themselves from Fischer.
“Mr. Fischer’s comments cannot and should not be construed in any way as representative of the American Family Association’s position on any matter. They also took umbrage that he was described as the “current voice of the group’s radio program.”
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Related: Despite the ‘firing’ of Bryan Fischer, his attacks on the LGBT community to continue
“AFA operates three radio networks,” Abraham Hamilton III wrote, “with numerous programs and its various weblog pages. We require allegiance to the authority of scripture and to Orthodox Christian values. AFA employees, on-air personalities and writers enjoy a tremendous amount of freedom concerning the topics they discuss and how they handle them.”
But apparently attacking LGBTQ people, women, and Democrats are all part of “Orthodox Christian values” when it comes to the hate group’s legal team. And dismissing the problems facing immigrants and racial minorities must be exactly what Jesus wanted, despite his words about welcoming foreigners to the contrary.
“Virtually every social problem in America is blamed on whites who supposedly have privilege and power based purely on skin color,” Fischer opens in an op-ed for the AFA’s blog.
“I would submit the real problem today, in our culture and in our politics, is not, in fact, white privilege but homosexual privilege. Despite their constant claims to martyrdom and victimhood, homosexuals have an entire array of privileges and powers that are based exclusively on their private sexual preferences, and they are privileges and powers that normal people do not possess.”
“Homosexuals must be catered to by wedding vendors and be catered to in housing and employment, or those who refuse to cater to them will be demonized, vilified, and sued until they’re broke or out of business,” he continues. “Today homosexuals belong to the most pampered, protected, favored, privileged demographic in all of America.”
And how is he so certain? Out presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has been doing well in recent polling and if there’s one thing that’s sure to make a right wing religious extremist flip his lid, it’s someone else doing well.
“Homosexuality was once rightly known as ‘the love that dare not speak its name.’ Those days are long gone. Now it is not a career-killer but a resume enhancer. Due to the decaying morals of the Republic, we have now made it possible for a man to boldly sin his way right into the White House.”
The ‘Buttigieg bump’ would be impossible if he wasn’t a flamboyant homosexual,” he concludes. “The blunt truth is that if Buttigieg wasn’t gay, nobody would even know who he is.”
Fischer is probably right in that regard. He wouldn’t have made as big of a splash if he weren’t gay; he’d be pounding sand along with Cory Booker, Michael Bennett, and any of the other two dozen candidates not named Biden or Sanders as they struggle to gain momentum.
But instead of sticking with that, Fischer, of course, had to jump into demeaning the issues systemically facing people of color while still working in stereotypes and ridiculous claims about LGBTQ people as well.
And that, no matter their chicanery with his employment, is partially why the American Family Association – who doesn’t want Bryan Fischer’s views to be “representative” of their organization – has been labeled a hate group. Because his words reflect the allegiance they require.
