Since the announcement of the birth of a baby boy to Sir Elton John and David Furnish (his partner of 17 years) on December 25, all kinds of homophobic and ignorant responses have been popping up in the media. Perhaps the most notably offensive was the decision of the BBC to use a statement from Stephen Green, outspoken bigot / christian fundamentalist in order to “balance” the coverage, and supposedly reflect a “genuine” debate over the issue of surrogacy for gay couples. However, Stephen Green, a man who supports state-sponsored execution of gay men, and is one of 500 members of a radical hate group called Christian Voice, was the BBC’s only interview in the supposedly “balanced” coverage.
The report aired on December 28, as a part of BBC news at six, which is watched by approximately 7 million viewers. The BBC entertainment correspondent Lizo Mzimba introduced Mr Green by saying: “not everyone is pleased to see such a high profile same sex couple start to raise a surrogate child.” The report then contained an interview that was visibly edited together in which Mr Green told the BBC: “This isn’t just a designer baby for Sir Elton John, this is a designer accessory… [cut] Now it seems like money can buy him anything, and so he has entered into this peculiar arrangement…[cut] The baby is a product of it. A baby needs a mother and it seems an act of pure selfishness to deprive a baby of a mother.” [source]
This affront perfectly illustrates a terrible trend in “journalism” today: under the pretense of providing the viewer with “balanced” coverage – news sources give voice to obscure, fundamentalist bigots who are completely unqualified to offer their opinion in a public forum.
Meanwhile, the New York Post ran a story with the headline: “Elton and wife proud dads.” The headline is anti-gay, sexist and purposefully insulting to LGBTQ people – essentially part of Rupert Murdoch’s mandate at the New York Post.
GLADD’s reaction to the New York Post’s story can be found here.
From the Advocate: The organization reached out to the managing editor, but the newspaper has not changed its headline. In previous years GLAAD has taken to task the newspaper for calling transgender women “she-males” and for its insulting cartoon depictions of gay men. The watchdog group was created 25 years ago in response to the Post’s antigay AIDS coverage.” [source]