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September 12, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — A “gay journalists association” heavily backed by Fox News and other major media placed homosexual activist and X-rated, anti-Christian author Dan Savage in its “LGBT Journalists Hall of Fame” — despite Savage's record of vicious anti-conservative antics and statements, such as wishing Republicans dead.

The National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NJLGA) receives tens of thousands of dollars in grants from major media, lending legitimacy to its claim that it is merely a “professional association.” The media money poured in again this year at the group’s annual convention in Philadelphia that just concluded.

But the NLGJA’s “spin” is belied by its obvious activism — whether it is politicizing the English language to accommodate the latest LGBTQ fad or celebrating a man who represents the very worst of in-your-face “gay” activism.

In that profane world, Savage is in a league of his own, gaining notoriety through such wicked stunts and advocacy as:

  • “redefining” then-Sen. Rick Santorum's last name as the vile byproduct of rectal sodomy, to create a “Google bomb” against him because he was upset at something Santorum said. (2008)
  • launching an “Impeach the Mother F—ker Already” (ITMFA) campaign against President Donald Trump (2017)
  • crusading for married straight couples to be as NON-monogamous as homosexual male couples;
  • saying on national late-night TV (Bill Maher’s HBO show that he wished that all Republicans “were [f—king] dead” (2011; Savage later apologized for that one);
  • creepily licked GOP evangelical presidential candidate Gary Bauer’s doorknobs at his Iowa campaign office in a bizarre attempt to give him a cold (2000).

The list goes on and on. It is a sad testimony of the atheist Savage’s dedication to serving evil and perversion (like his “amateur porn” festivals) that this excellent 2012 Family Research Council Action video on Savage as Obama’s “bully-in-chief” only skims the surface of his prodigious record of championing sexual sin and maligning his foes (including yours truly).

And yet the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) gave Savage the hero treatment in its September 5 press release, which conveniently left out Savage’s notorious history of salacious, mean-spirited and reckless activism. Here is the NLGJA’s whitewashed description of Savage:

Dan Savage is an award-winning journalist and author, TV personality, and activist best known for his political and social commentary, as well as his honest approach to sex, love and relationships. His sex advice column, “Savage Love,” introduced over 25 years ago, is now syndicated throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia. He is the Editorial Director of The Stranger, and his byline has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, GQ, Rolling Stone, The Onion and on Salon.com. Savage is also the author of several books spurring Publishers’ Weekly to name him, “America’s most in-your-face sex columnist and gay rights activist.” In September 2010, Savage created a YouTube video with his husband Terry Miller to inspire hope for LGBTQ young people facing harassment and especially to let LGBTQ youth know that ,“it gets better”. Today, the It Gets Better Project (www.itgetsbetter.org) has become a global movement, inspiring more than 50,000 It Gets Better videos viewed over 50 million times.

A modern redundancy

Over the years, I have interacted with the NLGJA as a pro-family critic, going back to when it was founded in 1990 by the late Leroy Aarons, who knew the power that “out and proud” homosexuals could have in changing (I would say corrupting) America’s newsrooms.

The NLGJA bills itself “an organization of journalists, news executives, media professionals, educators and students working from within the news industry to foster fair and accurate coverage of LGBTQ issues.” Strange then, that the same group papered over its honoree Dan Savage’s history of anti-Christian bigotry, callous web bullying, physical harassment of foes and promotion of pornography—to celebrate this misguided soul.

Below is a portion of a letter I sent to NLGJA spokesman Dillon Lewis and the group’s president, Jen Christensen:

Dillon, this is Peter LaBarbera. I'm a writer for the conservative news site LifeSiteNews and a longtime pro-family (socially conservative) advocate, who, incidentally, has been allowed to attend NLGJA events as a critic and even spoke at one of your organization's panels many years back. 

I noticed that the NLGJA just honored Dan Savage by inducting him into their LGBTQ Journalists Hall of Fame….

What is missing from the release (and I understand why) is any mention of Savage's caustic rhetoric and sometimes vicious actions against Christians and conservatives — e.g., his creation of “Santorum.com,” which seeks to “redefine” former Sen. Rick Santorum's last name as a byproduct of anal sex. Savage, of course, is well known for being over the top in his activism — it's his calling card — and stunts like the Santorum smear and his “ITMFA” campaign against Trump have led conservatives, some liberals and even some gay advocates to label him as hateful and hypocritical. (After all, Dan crusades against “bullying.”)

I have disagreed with NLGJA's characterization of itself as a mere professional association, and I think here again we see evidence of your organization letting its “LGBT activist” hair down. Your release conveniently fails to mention or illustrate the highly controversial nature of Dan's protests and how he has come to personify the polarizing brand of leftist LGBT radicalism that many Americans abhor.

Can you or Ms. Christensen give me any comment on:

1) Why did you as a *journalistic* organization omit the more unsavory (many would say hateful) aspects of Savage's record in your description of him?;

2) How honoring Savage as a “journalist” affects the image that the NLGJA has cultivated for itself as a professional journalists’ group–as opposed to an LGBTQ advocacy organization? (Savage also celebrates amateur porn — another fact left out in your cheerleading bio of him.)

3) Certainly Dan is prolific. But how does honoring a man whose idea of acceptable political discourse is to launch an “Impeach the Mother [F—ker] Already” campaign against a president he dislikes actually serve the cause of journalism, civility or national healing in any way?”

In my letter, I offered to share the “gay journalist”’ group’s response to my questions, but I’m not expecting much if anything from them. The NLGJA is about as relevant these days as specialty homosexual bookstores and “gay” magazines. You see, the “gay journalism” movement, like the rest of the Gay Lobby, has been so successful it has become a redundancy.

Who needs a “gay journalists” group when so many in the so-called “mainstream media” are such passionate pro-gay and pro-transgender advocates that they no longer believe there is a legitimate, conservative “other side” in LGBTQ-related stories? (And don’t forget “out” homosexual journalists like Fox News’ Shep Smith, who hardly hides his antipathy toward Christians.)

On the other hand, it’s hard to come down too hard on “gay” journalists who honor a vulgar sex rebel like Savage when the rest of the media (e.g., Katie Couric) similarly lionize Savage, while they dutifully push the Left’s “fake hate” narrative to demonize moral-minded Christians as being on a par with the KKK.

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Peter LaBarbera is the founder and president of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH.org), a Chicago-based organization that exposes and counters the LGBTQ agenda. He is a former reporter for The Washington Times, worked as a writer, editor and analyst for Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America, and was a speaker for Focus on the Family. A graduate of the University of Michigan, LaBarbera got his start at Accuracy in Media and over the last 25 years has been widely interviewed by Christian, conservative and secular media on the homosexual-transgender agenda. Peter has been happily married for 28 years to wife Cristina. They are the blessed parents of five children.