On Sunday’s Reliable Sources, host Brian Stelter opened his show with a bizarre segment complaining about Florida’s anti-child grooming “Parental Rights in Education” law, and defending Disney’s self-destructive turn towards wokeness and in support of sexually indoctrinating their young audience.
Just as crazy was the chyron that ran on the bottom of the screen which read “LGBTQ Community Latest To Be Caught In Culture War” as if the “LGBTQ community” wasn’t the one who started this whole controversy in the first place, as NewsBusters' Tim Graham prudently pointed out.
Stelter demonized his own country when claiming “there is an ugly history in the United States of portraying gays, lesbians, transgender people as perverts, as predators who are preying on children” while alluding to his favorite target Fox News of the Disney controversies: “when I see some of the coverage in the last week, seems to me they are just repeating an ugly history.”
Transgender activist Charlotte Clymer bemoaned how “exasperating” it was for him to watch “LGBTQ families be framed as predatory or as divisive.”
Clymer who obviously never read the Florida law in question wailed that it’s heartbreaking to watch families who “already struggle to get by day to day in the public square and now have their own government going after them just for existing.”
When asked by Stelter what he would say about how conservatives frame the law as “just about parents' rights,” Clymer continued to play the victim while failing to grasp the purpose of the Florida law, arguing that, “it says to the parents of Florida that we can't talk about LGBTQ families without talking about sex. And it is this very strange need by Governor DeSantis and the Republican Party of Florida to I would say sexualize LGBTQ families in a way that you would never see done to non-LGBTQ families.”
Stelter then turned to Natasha Alford of the Grio for her take and it was even more deranged than Stelter or Clymer’s. She initially said the framing of the argument in support of the law is “very smart and it’s strategic because most parents will say, yeah, I guess that makes sense, it seems pretty common sense that we wouldn't be talking about sex or sexual orientation.”
She then whined that “the thing about parental rights framing is that this is not the first time we've seen this in American history.” Alford continued:
If you frame, you know, Critical Race Theory against parental rights then people feel, okay, we have a right to be upset. If you think about -- go back to segregation. There was a parental rights argument about, well, we shouldn't be integrating and having our kids in schools based on race because that will introduce another level of intimacy or relationship. And so when you go at that personal angle, you will actually get a lot of people who miss the sort of bigger picture behind what this bill is really about and it has a chilling effect.
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To read the relevant transcript click "expand":
CNN’s Reliable Sources
4/3/2022
11:05:30 a.m. EasternBRIAN STELTER: There is an ugly history in the United States of portraying gays, lesbians, transgender people as perverts, as predators who are preying on children. And when I see some of the coverage in the last week, seems to me they are just repeating an ugly history.
CHARLOTTE CLYMER: Good morning, Brian. Yeah, it's exasperating to watch all this go down. I can't believe that it's 2022 and we're still seeing LGBTQ families be framed as predatory or as divisive or I would say as almost perverted. I mean that seems to be the message to millions of LGBTQ families by the actions of Governor DeSantis right now. It's heartbreaking to watch because these are families who already struggle to get by day to day in the public square and now have their own government going after them just for existing.
STELTER: But when you hear the framing on the right, this is just about parents' rights, just about parents' rights, what does that get wrong? What's wrong with that?
CLYMER: I think it's insulting to the parents of Florida. It says to the parents of Florida that we can't talk about LGBTQ families without talking about sex. And it is this very strange need by Governor DeSantis and the Republican Party of Florida to I would say sexualize LGBTQ families in a way that you would never see done to non-LGBTQ families. I have so many friends who are LGBTQ parents or parents of LGBTQ children and they are shocked and exasperated by what's going on right now, they don't feel that they can be in schools or their communities without seeing this kind of backlash from conservative lawmakers. And it's really unfortunate to watch.
STELTER: Rhetorically, Natasha, do you see this as effective? I don't mean to talk about all of this in terms of politics only, but when I'm watching the Fox coverage this week I'm thinking they know what they're doing. This is something that’s very compelling and scary to their audience.
NATASHA ALFORD: Brian, you're right, it's brilliant framing because you can't argue with a parent's right to influence their child. Parents care deeply about their children. I'm a parent, I get it. And when you focus on this particular subset Kindergarten through 3rd grade, again, it's very smart and its strategic because most parents will say, yeah, I guess that makes sense, it seems pretty common sense that we wouldn't be talking about sex or sexual orientation, but it sort of hides the real intention behind the bill and the thing about parental rights framing is that this is not the first time we've seen this in American history.
If you frame, you know, critical race theory against parental rights then people feel, okay, we have a right to be upset. If you think about -- go back to segregation. There was a parental rights argument about, well, we shouldn't be integrating and having our kids in schools based on race because that will introduce another level of intimacy or relationship. And so when you go at that personal angle, you will actually get a lot of people who miss the sort of bigger picture behind what this bill is really about and it has a chilling effect. When you say there could be consequences for even touching this issue people are more likely to not want to touch the issue at all which marginalizes groups, which takes a family that maybe has two mothers or two fathers and you say, all right, I can't read that book or we can't have that conversation in class because I don’t want to be penalized as a teacher. There’s a little bit more to the bill than just parents' rights and I think that's what we have to remember.
