Is Megyn Kelly homophobia’s best ally at Fox News?

BY EQUALITY MATTERS

Megyn Kelly was supposed to be a harbinger of Fox News‘ “gay rights revolution,” but she’s used her primetime spot to enable some of the country’s most extreme anti-LGBT activists.

At the height of the controversy over Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson’s homophobic remarks in a December 2013 interview with GQ magazine, Kelly invited GLAAD consultant Jeremy Hooper to appear on The Kelly File and weigh in on the firestorm.

She also invited Tony Perkins, president of the notorious anti-gay hate group the Family Research Council (FRC), to appear immediately afterward.

During his segment, Hooper urged Kelly to hold Perkins accountable for his extensive history of bigoted rhetoric. “What specifically? Because I’ll ask him,” Kelly promised. Hooper pointed to Perkins’ endorsement of a Ugandan bill that would have imposed the death penalty for homosexuality, his claim that gay people face “eternal damnation,” and his comparisons of gay people to terrorists.

In the segment that followed, however, Kelly didn’t ask Perkins to explain his virulent anti-gay rhetoric. Instead, she introduced him as the leader of “a group whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and culture from a Christian worldview.”

Kelly’s failure to hold Perkins accountable is a case study in her broader habit of mainstreaming anti-gay hate.

In the seven months since The Kelly File launched in October 2013, Fox’s 9pm hour has been a friendly forum for some of the country’s most odious anti-gay extremists, including Perkins, the far-right legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), and, most recently, the Benham brothers, the home renovators whose rabidly anti-gay activism led HGTV to cancel their planned reality show.

Since Kelly’s promotion to Fox‘s primetime lineup, she has hosted Perkins six times. (Filling in for Kelly on the Dec. 27 edition of the program, Shannon Bream hosted Perkins an additional time.) Perkins has used his appearances to condemn Gov. Jan Brewer’s (R-Arizona) veto of her state’s license-to-discriminate bill, champion anti-LGBT discrimination, opine on openly gay NFL draftee Michael Sam, and lambaste HGTV for cancelling the Benham brothers’ planned show.

Kelly’s willingness to grant Perkins a platform isn’t a recent development. As a daytime host on Fox‘s America Live, she provided Perkins the opportunity to peddle anti-gay talking points with impunity—and often parroted the same talking points herself, asking Perkins why gay rights activists are so intolerant, and defending him and other “openly religious” leaders against charges of bigotry.

Meanwhile, Kelly has invited ADF to defend anti-gay business discrimination on her program. While other cable news anchors have exposed ADF’s anti-gay extremism—including its international work to criminalize homosexuality—Kelly gave the group the same treatment she afforded Perkins, failing to hold ADF to account for its disturbing work.

The Benham brothers could also count on Kelly to downplay their history of strident anti-gay and Islamophobic activism, including condemning homosexuality as “demonic” and “destructive.” On the May 19 edition of her show, she called the backlash to their activism “incredible,” asking them to enlighten viewers on their “more traditional views.”

One group that hasn’t had the chance to convey its message on The Kelly File is the American Family Association (AFA), an anti-gay hate group whose spokesman believes gay men were responsible for the Holocaust and has assailed Kelly herself as “resentful,” “angry,” “hostile,” and “bitter.” But the AFA was actually slated to be featured on the Oct. 16 edition of the show, an appearance bumped by breaking news coverage of Congress’ 11th-hour resolution to its debt ceiling standoff.

At a network that all too often conflates homophobia and Christianity, whitewashing of anti-gay extremism hardly stands out. But Kelly is supposed to be a different kind of Fox anchor. Breaking with many of her colleagues, Kelly has staked out pro-LGBT positions, prompting BuzzFeed to herald Kelly in 2012 as a sign of how “the gay rights revolution” had arrived at Fox News (a premise that continues to prove flawed).

What makes Kelly arguably the best friend an anti-gay extremist could have on Fox isn’t that she agrees with people like Perkins on every issue. In fact, it’s just the opposite. It’s precisely because Kelly isn’t seen as an anti-LGBT hack that her willingness to elevate groups like the FRC and ADF to positions of respectabilitymakes her so dangerous.

The more that groups like the FRC can convince people like Kelly to take them seriously, the easier time they’ll have billing themselves as credible organizations, their records notwithstanding. As a self-professed straight shooter, Kelly shouldn’t fall for such ploys. It’s one thing to treat viewers to spirited debates on issues of current affairs and public policy. It’s quite another to treat toxic homophobic activists as legitimate participants in those debates. Megyn Kelly may have earned accolades for her occasional pro-LGBT commentary, but her willingness to cozy up to some of the country’s most fanatical anti-LGBT bigots will leave a much bigger stain on her legacy at Fox News.

Methodology: Equality Matters searched news transcripts provided by LexisNexis for “Tony Perkins” between Oct. 13, 2013—the launch of The Kelly File—and May 21, 2014.

Equality Matters is a new media and communications initiative in support of gay equality. Through strategic communications, research, training and media monitoring we strengthen efforts for full LGBT rights and correct anti-gay misinformation. This article was originally featured on Huffington Post Gay Voices and reposted with permission.

Photo via MattGagnon (PD)