FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
‘We’d Be Delighted to Expose Her Bigotry in a Court of Law and the Court of Public Opinion,’ Says TWO’s Wayne Besen
BURLINGTON, Vt. – Truth Wins Out responded today to a frivolous lawsuit threat by Linda Harvey, an anti-gay talk radio host and the president of Mission America. Harvey warned Truth Wins Out of possible legal action in a Twitter post this afternoon. Harvey was upset about a column that TWO’s Executive Director Wayne Besen wrote about her titled, “The Most Homophobic Woman in America.” She was also angry that the column linked her to supporting Uganda’s draconian “Anti-Homosexuality Bill,” which includes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.”
“Bring it on,” says Truth Wins Out’s Executive Director Wayne Besen. “We hope that such a case would be aired on television so we can expose Harvey’s vile words in a court of law and in the court of public opinion. It’s bizarre that Harvey is upset because we quoted her verbatim, which tells me that on some level she is ashamed of her own hateful rhetoric.”
Truth Wins Out has obtained the services of notable Fort Lauderdale attorney Norm Kent, who is also the publisher of South Florida Gay News. Kent says it is likely that Harvey’s threat is empty because her claim has no merit.
“Linda Harvey’s legal threats are frivolous and if they rested on any shakier legal ground they would be measured by the Richter Scale. I can only surmise her tweets are a pathetic and desperate ploy for attention,” said attorney Norm Kent. “We look forward to her next move and will take appropriate action.”
The centerpiece of Harvey’s tweet was that she “never advocated for killing anyone” in Uganda. While it is true that Harvey never explicitly said, “I want to kill gay people in Uganda,” she admits during a March 2010 speech at Grosse Pointe, Michigan tha
t she and anti-gay activist Scott Lively actually worked on the anti-homosexuality bill, which would imprison and murder LGBT people in that country. According to Harvey’s speech:
“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.”
“Harvey was either remarkably ignorant or clearly lying through her teeth at the Michigan event when she falsely claimed that the intent of Uganda’s ‘Kill the Gays’ bill was only to punish pedophiles,” said TWO’s Wayne Besen. “In reality, LGBT people could be murdered by the state for a charge called ‘aggravated homosexuality’ which basically means they were accused of having sexual relations on more than one occasion. In her talk, Harvey clearly supported imprisonment and possibly capital punishment for LGBT people in Uganda when she flippantly stated that, ‘The fact they are re-criminalizing homosexuality is (a) their business.’ Obviously, the business she breezily refers to is the hunting down of innocent LGBT Ugandans for the purpose of imprisonment or worse.”
Truth Wins Out’s Evan Hurst and John Becker compiled a short list of quotes from Harvey so readers can see the deep intensity of her anti-LGBT views.
According to her bio: Harvey hosts a radio show on the Salem Network station in Columbus, OH, (WRFD 880 AM), and airs a weekly commentary on the Moody Radio Network. She is also a frequent guest on talk shows coast to coast, a regular columnist for World Net Daily and is interviewed by state and national media outlets. Harvey has been a conference speaker at numerous pro-family meetings including conferences held by Concerned Women for America, Focus on the Family, Heartbeat International, American Family Association, Americans for Truth, and XChange. In addition, Mrs. Harvey has spoken on Capitol Hill and testified numerous times before state legislative committees. She serves on the National Pro-Family Forum and the Ohio Pro-Family Forum.
Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that fights anti-LGBT religious extremism and the “ex-gay” myth. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.
