Most often, when reports like this surface, the attention is turned towards the anti-gay zealots, but isn’t the real culprit here the news media in general?
Mr Green, 60, who was recently interviewed by the BBC over his views on Elton John becoming a father, has approved of the death penalty for gays and lesbians.
Mrs Green described the incident which prompted her to leave him, recalling how he made a list of her failings as a wife and then beat her until she bled with a piece of wood.
She said: “He even framed our marriage vows — he always put particular emphasis on my promise to obey him — and hung them over our bed. He believed there was no such thing as marital rape and for years I’d been reluctant to have sex with him, but he said it was my duty and was angry if I refused him.
Why is it that people like this are allowed to voice their opinions about lesbian and gays? What is it that gives them authority such that their opinion is valid or meaningful? So often (and for good reason actually) we blame these religious crazies for the anti-gay rhetoric and the harm it causes. But why is it that we, as a LGBT Rights movement in general, express no outrage at the public media who uses our lives and our issues as a tool to drive up ratings or sales or controversy?
Consider the situation here. Elton John and his partner have a baby. A pretty mundane and average thing to do really, but the media uses an extremist like Stephen Green, and by doing that, it frames Elton John’s family as extremist too. In a very big way, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans folks are not better respected or treated as “normal” because the media frames us and our lives as controversial, and they make controversy, even where little exists.
Yes! The anti-gay, far-right crazies deserve outrage and should be held accountable for their harmful rhetoric and lies. but even if they went unchecked, the media is the real problem facing the LGBT Rights movement. They are the responsible party for framing our lives as extremist; for caricaturing our families and the things that are important to us, and for equating the average, normal things we do (such as love each other) as freaky.
That this guy beats his wife was pretty horrible, but even more deplorable is thew fact that the media still see him as a credible spokesperson. What does this say about the world the media wishes to see created or how they view “normal”?
via Christian Voice leader Stephen Green ‘a wife beater’ – Pink News.