OK, kiddo! Here are all the fantastically amazing posts tagged with American Family Association

Soup Ad Draws “Pro-Family” Ire

January 7th, 2009

No soup for nobody!

The anti-gay lobby group American Family Association is steaming—boiling in rich, silky broth—after Campbell’s Soup placed an ad for Swanson’s brand stock in The Advocate, a gay magazine.

The ad, which shows two real-life, lesbian café owners in New York serving soup to their son, prompted the AFA to launch a hysterical campaign against Campbell’s. From the lobby group’s press release:

Campbell Soup Company has openly begun helping homosexual activists push their agenda. Not only did the ads cost Campbell’s a chunk of money, but they also sent a message that homosexual parents constitute a family and are worthy of support. They also gave their approval to the entire homosexual agenda.

The AFA goes on to urge their base to harass Campbell’s with letters, phone calls, and emails, demanding the company stop “pushing the gay agenda” and to “remain neutral in the culture war.”

Culture war. That’s a phrase I hear from these guys a lot. I’m not sure anything of the sort exists in reality, but even if it did, wouldn’t showing family types from all walks of life, including real-life gay parents, be precisely a neutral stance? I mean, neutral means either showing all types of families, or no types—including heterosexual ones. Deliberately banning portrayals of specific famliy types due to some frothy lobby group’s boycott would be a decidedly non-neutral action, if you ask me. 

But that’s not how the AFA thinks, I guess. To them, simply showing a photo of gay parents serving soup amounts to “pushing the homosexual agenda.”

So the next time you need to entertain some AFA members,  I suggest serving a nice, hot bowl of Cambell’s soup. And after a lovely lunch, don’t feel ashamed to brag about your generous donation to the food bank this year.

Lobby Group’s Gay Obsession Backfires

July 2nd, 2008

An AFA Christmas

The American Family Association, an anti-gay lobby group based in the United States, is well-known for altering copy from Associated Press stories on their OneNewsNow website. In particular, they invariably change all occurrences of the word “gay” to “homosexual.” It’s dishonest journalism and against AP policies, but hey—they like their obsessions.

It’s not a random decision, mind you. The AFA and other anti-gay lobby groups prefer the term “homosexual” because it’s more clinical-sounding and negative compared to gay. It also keeps focus on sexuality and sexual behaviors, while de-emphasizing love and humanity, which is precisely what’s needed if they are to counter simple human rights for gay people.

Still, when I say that they invariably change gay to homosexual, I mean invariably.

Let’s take a look at how they re-printed an AP story about Tyson Gay, an American sprinter:

Tyson Homosexual easily won his semifinal for the 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials and seemed to save something for the final later Sunday.

On Saturday, Homosexual misjudged the finish in his opening head and had to scramble to finish fourth [...]

Fascinating. And NBA star, Rudy Gay?

Memphis Grizzlies backer hit the hay hoping that Kevin Love would open things up for Rudy Homosexual in the frontcourt.

What a hoot! Bravo, AFA; you’ve discovered the downside to auto-replace!

(And a big ‘ol hat tip to People For The American Way for the story.)

Ford Motors Surprised To Be Led By Anti-Gay Lobby

March 14th, 2008

Boycott Negotiations

The Ford Motor Company has expressed surprise upon learning that an anti-gay lobby group has claimed responsibility for their decision to cut back advertising in gay publications.

The American Family Association boycotted Ford for the past two years because they were advertising to gay people. In a press release last week, the AFA said it would lift its boycott because “the conditions of the original agreement presented [to Ford] in fall 2005 have been met.”

Interestingly, Ford spokesperson Jim Cain said that there was no such negotiation with the AFA:

I can tell you there was not a negotiated settlement to this boycott.

We’ve been in real financial difficulties. There’s been reduced spending in lots of areas.

Jim added that Ford continues to advertise its Volvo line in gay publications and is still involved with gay rights organisations, including PFLAG and the Human Rights Campaign.

Ford has received a top rating by the HRC’s annual Corporate Equality Index for four consecutive years due to their support and equal treatment of gay employees, customers, and investors.

Wal-Mart Sells DVD

April 7th, 2006

Brokeback Mountain at Wal-Mart

Won’t someone please think of the children? Alberta-filmed Brokeback Mountain is available for purchase at Wal-Marts across the country despite the wailing of an American Christian advocacy group. Imagine—Wal-Mart selling DVDs! Have they no shame?

In a statement issued on their website, Mississippi-based American Family Association urged parents to visit local Wal-Marts and protest their “decision to promote and carry [a] pro-homosexual movie.” This, supposedly, instead of simply not purchasing the film, since I’m sure most Wal-Mart shoppers regularly knock unwanted products into their carts by accident.

Curiously, the no doubt humongous stampede of horrified families evacuating Wal-Mart en masse didn’t seem to hurt sales. 1.4 million Brokeback DVDs were sold in North America on the first day.