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Gay Rights Advocates Force Discriminatory Anti-Family, Anti-Religion Views On NCAA

Wednesday, February 24, 2010 , Posted by Christopher Byrne at 6:33 PM, under

Freedom of speech, however controversial it may be, is perhaps the most hallowed of the fundamental tenets of the United States. In acquiescing to the demands of gay rights groups, the NCAA has removed CBSSports.com sold ad inventory from Focus on the Family off of the organization's championships web sites.

But by forcing this move, a move driven by hatred of the messenger, these same gay rights groups took a stand that could easily be interpreted as discrimination against strong families and organized religion. And that, my friends, is a slippery slope that should be opposed not only by the Catholic colleges and universities that are members of the NCAA, but by any individual or group that values our basic freedoms.


But you may say that this is a victory against discrimination? How could it be? The ad simply espoused the importance of family and doing the right thing, while making no mention of gender preference.

Let's start by looking at the "offensive" ad:


The ad has a simple message: "All I want for my son is for him to grow up knowing how to do the right thing." It does not say that the father wants his son to grow up an avowed heterosexual that opposes abortion. In fact, if you look closely, the father is not even wearing a wedding band (either that or my eyes have gotten really bad).

So as the manufactured headline above states, by spinning the words and views of this mini-controversy, the gay rights advocacy groups are saying they are blatantly anti-family and that the message of Focus on the Family is too dangerous to allow in a space of public display.

Too radical a view? Consider this excerpt from an article on Inside Higher Education, especially the last paragraph which has been highlighted for emphasis:

That message may seem innocuous, Pat Griffin (pictured left), an emerita professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, said in an interview Tuesday, "but if you have any awareness of what Focus on the Family is and their position on issues of family and life" -- championing traditional definitions of marriage, deeming homosexuality to be immoral, and fighting to eliminate abortion -- it's very clear what their message is.... It's very disingenuous to say, those are innocent messages, messages anyone can join in."

Griffin, who works with the NCAA on gay and lesbian issues and consults widely in college sports, took on the NCAA after she noticed the ads on the NCAA site. In a post that spread quickly in the blogosphere, Griffin wrote Monday that Focus on the Family "not only opposes a woman’s right to choose whether or not to have an abortion, they also are one of the most powerful national opponents of civil rights for LGBT people. You can bet they are in the forefront of every national and state battle over LGBT rights and abortion rights.

"Now they want to impose their values on the NCAA tournament and college basketball fans and the NCAA and CBS are inviting them to. They are rolling out the red carpet and I am deeply offended by the NCAA’s complicity in this," Griffin added.

Perhaps I am being a bit simplistic, but the last paragraph indicts Griffin's entire argument, and the arguments of gay rights advocates. All Focus on The Family did was buy advertising space. Griffin and the opposing groups are the ones who have now forced THEIR values on the NCAA.

What about the rights and views of NCAA member institutions like Gonzaga, Georgetown, Providence, Loyola (CA, ND, and IL), Boston College, Holy Cross, Niagara, Fairfield, Fordham, Siena, DePaul, Notre Dame, Saint Peter's, Saint John's, Saint Joseph's, Dayton, Marquette, Villanova, etc, etc? Will they be heard in this debate? Or will they be silent because they do not want to mess with the golden goose known as the NCAA tournament?

In the end, all that the anti-Focus on the Family advocates have done is embarrass themselves and made Focus on the Family look like the nobler voice of reason. Remember all the pro-choice screaming about this Tim Tebow ad before it aired?





Who really came out looking worse? Who really took the higher road of discussion and reasonableness?

Our right to free speech is too precious for any one group or subset of groups to take away from all of us. And that is exactly what is happening here.

Currently have 4 comments:

  1. Rich says:

    I have to disagree with you. These are the same people (FotF) who bitch and moan at men kissing in a commercial that CBS then would end up not airing during the Super Bowl. Quite frankly both sides are in the wrong, but if I had to pick a side to be on, it would be with the gay and lesbian community. You don't ever here them spewing hate and anger at us "normal" people. I always thought religions taught tolerance and compassion..."Love thy neighbor" stuff. People forget that and promote bigotry and hate towards the gay and lesbian community and that is just not right.

  1. @Rich - I totally agree with you on religion and tolerance/
    compassion. But I ask again, where is there hate or anger in these ads?

    I think there are groups out there a lot scarier than FotF, and I hate hearing their hate filled venom walking to and from Sanford Stadium at UGA or at any other university.

    That is where the fight should be, not on an ad supporting family.

  1. plpfctn says:

    When FOF says "celebrate life" that's code for "stop murder innocent babies you f-ing nazis." doesn't take a genius to know their history of intolerance. These are clear political and religious statements that don't belong on a sports website. and the same rules apply to pro-choice and athiest organizations. i'm not saying the fcc should suspend cbs for these ads, but cbs should remove them b/c they're unethical.

  1. RBearSAT says:

    @Christopher I think you miss a key point of Rich's comment and that is CBS is not consistent in their approach behind the ban of the UCC's ad for church inclusion during the Superbowl in December 2004. So while I understand your point it falls down when that same group you are supporting pulled a similar tactic in 2004. If you take a look at the UCC ad it's even less controversial than FoF's ad. CBS's position on the 2004 ban was that "touches on and/or takes a position on one side of a current controversial issue of public importance."

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