Fox News and hate radio host Sean Hannity is offering advice for current and expecting parents.
What is his advice? Tell your kids that being gay is wrong and whip them if they don’t listen.
During his radio show yesterday, Hannity expressed concern that parents are may soon be prohibited from transmitting their shitty values into the minds of their children by telling them that they should feel ashamed and ostracized if they’re gay.
HANNITY: “This is my problem with liberals. Because here’s where my fear goes. You guys want to tell parents what they can and cannot do — for example, is it going to become illegal if a parent teaches the politically correct view that being gay is not normal?” [...]
“I think we’ve gotten to the point where, you know, if we don’t politically correct our kids we might as well hand our kids over to the government the day they’re born and let them raise them.” [...]
“My problem here is, do parents have the right to instill their values in their children? My problem is we send these kids off to school. Maybe they’re taught that God is dead, or maybe they’re taught that it’s okay to have sex. Maybe they’re taught values that contradict what the parents are teaching, whatever it happens to be — you know Heather has two mommies, daddies, roommates — that’s the government circumventing parental values.” [...]
“Look, some people disagree on the gay lifestyle because of religious views. If they teach their kids, is the government going to come in one day and say, ‘That’s wrong, that’s immoral’?”
The government may not come in and say that’s wrong, but I will.
Whether or not parents will instill questionable values in their children would be less of a concern if the parents themselves did not exhibit questionable values. And, as far as I’m concerned, sending a message to your children that being gay makes them abnormal is questionable. Making your children feel ashamed of who they are is what’s truly wrong and immoral.
The government cannot dictate what values you hold dear, but it can create a public space where your values are not given precedent over the values of others. So-called “religious liberty” laws, for their part, are an affront to the idea that everyone should be treated equally in public and such laws are an attempt to codify the values of the few above the values of all.
Hannity didn’t stop at saying parents should be free to shame their gay children, however.
Last night Hannity defended Vikings running-back Adrian Peterson, who beat his son until he bled, saying that he turned out just fine after being whipped.
“I got hit with a strap. Bam, bam, bam. And I have never been to a shrink. I will tell you that I deserved it,” he said.
“I think he went far,” Hannity then said about Peterson. “But I don’t want to see this guy get a felony, I don’t want to see this guy lose his job. He deserves parenting classes.“
Parenting classes taught by Hannity?
Hannity’s claim that being beaten by his father did not leave him “mentally bruised” seems debatable to me.