AFA’s Outdated ‘Family’ Hurts America

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We really, truly don’t understand the American Family Association. And we have a feeling they don’t, either!

The non-profit recently launched a radio campaign against the Day of Silence, a national effort to raise awareness of and fight against homophobic violence.

This audio, which we’ve included below, offers a housewife’s dilemma: sure, her daughter’s school isn’t perfect, but the girl’s happy and seems to be getting along well. But, wait! What’s that? The school plans on participating in the Day of Silence? “What’s a mom to do,” the woman wonders aloud:

How could they let a pro-gay group hijack the school for an entire day?” Look, I don’t hate anybody, but why should Kayla have to be looked down upon just because she doesn’t celebrate the lifestyle?

An ominous voice over then instructs concerned parentals to fight the equality-minded initiative and keep their kids home on the specified date.

The AFA’s protest should come as no surprise – they’ve raised similar boycotts in the past. This year’s uprising, however, reeks a little more than previous efforts.

The Day of Silence coordinators dedicate this year’s commemoration, April 25, to Lawrence King, the 15-year old gunned down at school after asking another boy to be his valentine. The King story captured the national spotlight for a few weeks and the nation seemed to empathize with King’s school, family and friends. Obviously this murder tore apart the community, which mourned under an all-encompassing spotlight. While Simmie Williams Jr’s shooting a week later didn’t garner as much attention, the familial pain’s still palatable. The teen’s mother may not have understood his cross-dressing, but she knows he didn’t deserve to die. Said Denise King:

Simmie’s friends asked me if I was going to dress him as a woman for the funeral. I said no. I gave birth to a boy, and my baby would be buried as a boy. I don’t know…what he did or didn’t do across town. What I know is that he was gay and didn’t deserve to be gunned down because of who he was.’

How, we wonder, can the American Family Association, which claims to defend family values and stability, protest an event against violence that tears apart families. If the American Family Association truly cared about families, they would fight alongside gay activists to end violence that brings mothers and fathers to their knees, leaves sisters without brothers and nieces without aunts. How in the world can founder Don Wildmon and his brethren stand on their high horse while kids die? It’s absolutely insane!

The AFA defines family by “traditional” terms, but that only extends to man and wife. What happens when man and wife have a gay child? Does that family suddenly become less than, invalid and untraditional? We think not, obviously, but can’t for the life of us figure out what the AFA’s thinking – if anything. By launching this effort – especially in this context – AFA seems to be endorsing their own silence: a silent approval of anti-gay violence. These people are closer to the cannibalistic killers from Texas Chainsaw Massacre than they are to the good Christians they claim to be – and just as disgusting.

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