GLAAD has added five Minnesotans to its Commentator Accountability Project (CAP), and two hold key leadership positions in Minnesota for Marriage, the group advocating for the anti-gay marriage amendment that will be on the ballot in 2012.
GLAAD’s CAP aims to put critical information about frequent anti-gay interviewees into the hands of newsrooms, editors, hosts and reporters.”
GLAAD adds, “Audiences need to be aware that when they’re not talking to the mainstream media, these voices are comparing LGBT people to Nazi Germany, predicting that equal treatment of LGBT people will lead to the total collapse of society, and even making accusations of satanic influence.”
Of the Minnesotans added to GLAAD’s list, four are associated with the Minnesota Family Council: Tom Prichard (president), John Helmberger (CEO), Chuck Darrell (communications director), and Barb Anderson (volunteer staffer). The other Minnesotan, Bradlee Dean, runs a ministry in Annandale.
Two of those individuals hold high level positions in Minnesota for Marriage. John Helmberger is the chair of the group, and Chuck Darrell is the communications director.
GLAAD notes that both have made controversial remarks about the LGBT community.
Among the statements by Helmberger that GLAAD cites:
– Claims “Redefinition of marriage obscures the picture of Christ and his Bride, robs God of glory due him, and undermines the witness of the Church.”
– Claims Christians, as both “citizens of heaven and citizens of an earthly kingdom,” have an obligation to vote against same-sex marriage in order to “restrain evil.”
– Says of his team: “we oppose homosexual marriage, anti-bullying and sex education curricula that affirms homosexual behavior because the medical evidence proves it is a killer.”
– Says “there is no civil right to deny children their mothers or fathers, which is exactly what every same-sex marriage does.”