Late last week, anti-gay radio host Janet Parshall interviewed “ex-gay courage” winner Trace McNutt, the former “satanic drag queen.” In that interview, McNutt admitted that he’s not really “ex-gay,” in that he’s still attracted to men, and even fell in love with the bassist in his Christian rock band. Right Wing Watch reports that after that interview, Janet hosted “ex-gay” activist Anne Paulk, whose “ex-gay” story sort of imploded when her ex-husband John explained that he is still very much gay, and renounced his former place as the poster boy for the “ex-gay” movement.
Anne doesn’t really mention that detail of her life when she’s being interviewed in wingnut media, of course.
In her interview with Janet, Anne took a call from the mother of a twenty-seven year-old gay man, who is struggling to accept her son for who he is. Anne recommended that, because he’s an adult and his mother can’t really control him, she have a “healthy detachment” from him:
Paulk responded that the caller’s son is “rebelling against God” and that she should have a “healthy detachment” from him due to his “choices.”
“You can then love them like you would a friend who is going astray in different areas that are damaging to friend.”
“I think the key part is being winsome” when you tell your son you are going to have a “healthy detachment” from him, she continued. “Son, I love you and I disagree with where you’re going in your life and this is why.”
In Fundamentalist Christian Alternate Reality Land, that might sound reasonable, but the truth is that Anne Paulk basically just told this woman to cut ties with her son. In the real world, this woman’s son is a grown man who happens to be gay, and instead of Anne valuing family above all else, she’s intstructing the woman to deny herself a true relationship with her son, all for the sake of religious dogma and homophobia.
Well played, “family values person.”
