Fox News host Mark Levin compared being LGBTQ to bestiality on his radio show ealier this week.
Levin was complaining about the latest LGBTQ story making the rounds on rightwing media, involving a proposal at the National Education Association’s (NEA) assembly earlier this month that didn’t even come up for a vote. The proposal was to replace language in some official documents about parents to be gender-neutral.
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“The official position now is not to use the terms ‘mother’ and ‘father’ or ‘mothers’ and ‘fathers’ anymore but ‘birthing parent’ or ‘non-birthing parent'” Levin ranted on his show yesterday in audio caught by Media Matters.
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Levin blamed the (proposed) language change squarely on transgender people, even though the rule was proposed to reflect “how LGBTQIA+ members build their families” because words like “mother” and “father” don’t function the same way in families headed by same-sex couples or by non-binary or transgender people.
“Using those terms denotes a biological sex,” Levin said in his incorrect explanation of why the proposal was considered. “They denote a binary of sexes, male and female.”
Levin rambled on for a while before he used the initialism “LGBTQIA+,” which bothered him.
“Why don’t they just say ‘the alphabet plus’ because nobody’s able to follow this anymore,” Levin whined.
“What’s ‘A,’ Mr. Producer?” he asked sarcastically. “Do we know what ‘A’ is? That’s a new add-on to the whole jumble here. Nobody knows.”
“I don’t know. Is it anything that goes? How about bestiality? Is that part of it? I’m just waiting. And if it’s not, why not?”
His statements were incorrect. The proposal was to change the language on some official documents – not ban people from using the words “mother” and “father” entirely – and the proposal didn’t even come up for a vote according to an NEA spokesperson, meaning that it’s not “the official position” of the organization.
Moreover, the “A” stands for asexuality and the meaning of the letters in LGBTQIA are easily found online.
The argument that ending discrimination against LGBTQ people will automatically lead to widespread bestiality is a popular one on the right. The narrative is that the only thing holding most people back from having sex with animals are conservative mores about sexuality that say that sex should only occur in a heterosexual marriage. If those rules are changed to allow sex between two consenting adults, the argument goes, then the floodgates will open and people will have sex with animals.
