Does CNN Think We Can Cure Homosexuality?

Cable news giant CNN is supposed to be "America's Most Trusted News Source." But if they want to earn our trust, they ought to stop running news stories that suggest homosexuality is something that can be cured.

Yet that's exactly what CNN did this week, according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), during a segment hosted by news anchor Kyra Phillips. The segment focused on an outdated law in California, written in the books in 1949, that directed the state to fund research into a cure for homosexuality. A California legislator, State Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, introduced legislation to repeal this law, and yesterday that repeal moved forward. (H/T Equality California)

But instead of couching that news segment by talking about how every major scientific and medical entity has condemned efforts to cure homosexuality, CNN chose to give airtime to a widely discredited and unlicensed ex-gay activist, Richard Cohen, who spoke about how we should be in the business of looking at cures for LGBT people.

The rap sheet on Richard Cohen is longer than a monthly grocery list. In 2002, Cohen was expelled from the American Counseling Association for violating ethical codes. He has long held scientific beliefs about homosexuality that have been roundly criticized, including the idea that homosexuality is caused by a parent's divorce, the death of a loved one, or race, as well as a fear of intimacy with the opposite sex. He's also a huge champion of conversion therapy, where patients undergo dangerous procedures to try and change their sexual orientation. Last year, the American Psychological Association issued a statement blasting conversion therapy as abhorrent, and said that medical professionals should not be in the business of converting the sexual orientation of a patient.

So given all of that, why would CNN invite an unlicensed, widely condemned activist to talk about this sort of issue? If Richard Cohen is what passes for expert opinion these days on CNN, then you can forget their moniker of "America's most trusted news source," and replace it with "America's news source for opinions rooted in bad science, right-wing religious beliefs, and dangerous psychotherapy."

Let CNN know that unlicensed ex-gay activists have no business chatting it up in millions of homes under the guise of news.

CNN is batting a thousand these days when it comes to anti-gay voices infiltrating their air waves. As we've pointed out before, CNN has given a platform for the virulently anti-gay Redstate.com editor, Erick Erickson, who has made a name for himself by calling Supreme Court judges "goat-f*cking child molesters," and calling gay and lesbian White House employees immoral.

Perhaps Erickson and Cohen can form a new club: Anti-gay voices with the blessing of CNN. Maybe they can make up some T-shirts to wear whenever they're on camera.

Already, thousands of folks have emailed CNN to criticize the hiring of Erickson. Now CNN is bringing it on themselves again by giving someone as dangerous as Cohen a platform to spout faulty science and dangerous medical advice.

Everyone recognizes that as a news network, CNN has the right (if not the responsibility) to bring on varying viewpoints when it comes to the subjects they cover. But shouldn't we be striving for people who don't resort to hateful or dangerous language?

CNN, as a "trusted news source," has a responsibility to act more professionally. By giving Erickson or by giving Cohen ample air time, they're failing in their journalistic ethics, and allowing people to enter the homes of millions of Americans and do some serious damage with their discredited beliefs.

Take a second to e-mail CNN and let them know that we deserve better from America's leading news source.

And check out the clip below from CNN where Richard Cohen is given a soapbox. Yuck, CNN. Yuck.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons