Radio host, ‘Christian’ activist met by crowd of 200-plus LGBT people in Michigan appearance
She Applauds Holocaust Revisionist Scott Lively and Claims To Have Worked On Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill
By Todd A. Heywood
GROSSE POINTE, Mich. — Linda Harvey, leader of Mission America, claims legislation pending in Uganda , the anti-homosexuality bill, does not include a death penalty provision for homosexuality. Instead, Harvey says, the bill was designed to stop “Western homosexuals” from exploiting Uganda children.
“This has been mis-portrayed– and please clear this up. Uganda is criminalizing rape of children, and I think that a lot of people would say hmmm maybe death penalty for rape of children — heterosexually or homosexually,” Harvey said in an interview following the speech in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.
(Audio recording of the interview, 13 minutes)
“The fact they are re-criminalizing homosexuality is (a) their business, (b) it is patronizing for white Westerners to be telling these folks — they are seeing George Soros funded gay groups going into Uganda. They are all through the schools, lots of promotion to kids. Poor kids, poor kids are being offered money and favors and gifts to have sex. That’s exploitation. That’s sex trafficking. And it’s being done mostly homosexually. By Western homosexuals coming in and trying to get involved in Uganda.”
The actual bill includes a death penalty provision for “aggravated homosexuality,” which is described in part as “serial homosexuality” or multiple convictions. There is nothing in the legislation which specifically addresses the alleged “exploitation” and “sex trafficking” Harvey claimed.
Harvey said the Southern Poverty Law Center was wrong when it recently classified several anti-gay groups, including Scott Lively’s Abiding Truth Ministries, as “hate groups.”
“I can’t stand the Southern Poverty Law Center. They are such a hypocritical organization. They don’t cover any of the violence that happens to any of the conservatives.I love what they do with the Klu Klux Klan and racial issues, . They need to go back stay out of this other stuff. They need to get out of classifying hate groups, family groups. I mean I am a normal ordinary person I just happen to have conservative values. I don’t hate anybody. I don’t go on anybody’s websites. I don’t picket funerals. I can’t stand Fred Phelps. I think he is funded by the gays,” Harvey said. “I think he is.”
She said she and Lively have both worked on the anti-homosexuality bill in Uganda, and that she “loves” Lively.
Harvey also launched into a spirited defense of abstinence-only education. She said such programs did work — even though nearly every study has shown otherwise — and that they did not discriminate against gay youth. When confronted with the fact the message is abstain from sex until marriage was in itself discriminatory to LGBT youth, as most are not allowed to be married in the United States. She said that was untrue.
“They can still marry some one of the opposite gender,” Harvey said.
In addition, Harvey painted a picture of gays as being disease riddled. Specifically, she focused on CDC numbers. She used the following quote from a recent CDC report on HIV cases in the U.S.
“The data, presented at CDC’s 2010 National STD Prevention Conference, finds that the rate of new HIV diagnoses among men who have sex with men (MSM) is more than 44 times that of other men and more than 40 times that of women.”
What Harvey did not mention, or discuss, was that same study’s conclusion about why the HIV numbers in men who have sex with men are so high.
“Research shows that a range of complex factors contribute to the high rates of HIV and syphilis among gay and bisexual men. These factors include high prevalence of HIV and other STDs among MSM, which increases the risk of disease exposure, and limited access to prevention services. Other factors are complacency about HIV risk, particularly among young gay and bisexual men; difficulty of consistently maintaining safe behaviors with every sexual encounter over the course of a lifetime; and lack of awareness of syphilis symptoms and how it can be transmitted (e.g., oral sex). Additionally, factors such as homophobia and stigma can prevent MSM from seeking prevention, testing, and treatment services.”
Harvey also touted the number of men dead in California from HIV, a number she put at 69,000. Asked what role the Reagan administrations failure to act on the HIV epidemic in the first six years and its impact on those numbers, Harvey brushed that off and focused on new infections– which do not necessarily translate to deaths with improved medications and understanding of HIV infections.
Harvey came to Grosse Pointe from her Ohio home on Thursday to speak to a Christian group called Point of Relevance. Her speech was billed as a discussion on the gay agenda. But when local activists and groups got wind of her appearance, they launched a Facebook campaign to fill the War Memorial room where she was speaking. Nearly 200 pro-LGBT activists showed up. But Harvey and Point of Relevance decided that with so many LGBT people in the audience, they were better off witnessing to the group, then proceeding with the program as advertised.
For her part, Harvey stood up and told how she went from being a liberal to a conservative, how she had worked for Planned Parenthood, and her work in the health care field as an advertising and marketing executive as the AIDS epidemic ratcheted up. She was questioned several times by audience members about presenting her powerpoint presentation, “Homosexuality: Is the Debate Over,” and she said she didn’t think it was right for “this audience.”
Harvey and Point of Relevance explained to the audience that they change in program was because they were “moved by the Holy spirit.”
After nearly two hours of delay — including 30 minutes of music worship — Harvey finally launched into her powerpoint, speeding through it and only presenting a portion of the entire hour long program. She ended on a slide introducing the Day of Silence, saying “I am sure you all know what that is.”
The dialog Point of Relevance had advertised for the evening consisted of three questions from the audience.
“Southern Poverty Law Center does amazing work and they should keep their eye on people like her,” said Alicia Skillman, executive director of Triangle Foundation, an LGBT rights group in Michigan. “I think it’s horrible that she is working in Uganda on the bill for the killing of LGBT people.”
Skillman said, “Her argument was basically change then we’ll love you.”
CDC link: http://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/Newsroom/msmpressrelease.html
