Should CNN Give Space to Anti-LGBT Bigots?

Is CNN helping or hindering the spread of accurate information about LGBT people and our rights? This spring, they aired Gary and Tony Have a Baby, a documentary about two men creating their family through surrogacy. Host Soledad O'Brien told Change.org's Adam Amel Rogers that the show could be the start of a "Gay in America" series akin to her "Black in America" and "Latino in America" ones.

That has yet to transpire, but Gary and Tony's story has spawned a Gay In America Web site, a portal for both CNN and user-created content about the LGBT community. In many ways, the site is better than the show, for it features a slightly wider range of families and issues. Indeed, one of the main criticisms of the show is that it focused on a stereotypical white, urban, upper-middle class couple. (See, for example, the piece by Bil Browning at Bilerico — as well as the response by communications professional Cathy Renna, who explains why the LGBT community itself needs to build a more diverse speakers' bureau.) The site also gathers links to CNN coverage of LGBT-related news. It is, as far as I know, the only LGBT portal of any major media channel.

So what's the problem?

CNN is also giving space to bigots. They recently ran an interview about Proposition 8 with Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International, which, as CNN describes it, is "a nonprofit 'ex-gay' ministry that promises freedom from homosexuality." (Thanks, Queers United.) The whole idea of being able to become "ex-gay," however, has no legitimate scientific basis. "Ex-gay" organizations have some very sketchy methods and associations.  See, for example, the resources compiled at Truth Wins Out or Box Turtle Bulletin, which explore the connections between Exodus and harsh anti-gay activities in Uganda. And the California State Senate yesterday passed a bill that would repeal a law instructing the State Department of Mental Health to conduct research into the “causes and cures of homosexuality.”

CNN also recently ran a column by Bishop Harry R. Jackson Jr., an outspoken opponent of marriage equality. When Jackson launched his High Impact Leadership Coalition in 2005, the event was attended and co-sponsored by the Rev. Lou Sheldon, head of the Traditional Values Coalition — which is listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. Pam Spaulding has compiled an extensive collection of Jackson's homophobic statements and associations.

Granted, CNN tried to balance Jackson's piece with one from O.C. Allen III, an openly gay pastor and supporter of marriage equality. And I'm all for airing multiple sides of an issue. We need to ask ourselves, however, at what point a person's opinions become so extreme, or so unfounded in fact, that a news organization loses credibility for airing them? Would CNN give similar space to a leader of the Ku Klux Klan or other hate group, for example?

I doubt it. They might cite his or her views, but would place them in the proper context, not present them as valid.

CNN is hardly the only media channel to do this. Time after time I find articles that profile LGBT families (like this one), but feel they need to include the opinion of someone from an anti-LGBT "family" organization. Very often these organizations are the state affiliates of the American Family Association, an extremist group so far to the right that it condemned conservative pundit Ann Coulter for speaking at a conference for gay Republicans. These are not people who have the capacity to say anything legitimate about my family.

We should commend CNN for the steps they have taken to inform people about the reality of LGBT lives. Their Gay In America portal goes further than any other major media outlet in this regard (although it still lacks in some areas, like transgender issues). They and others need to be careful, however, about presenting the views of people like Chambers and Jackson as legitimate, rather than as the misinformation and bigotry they really are.

Photo credit: Tanjila Ahmed