In recent months, mainline newspapers have carried on a veritable war against traditional family values.
The homosexual agenda
Last September 17, Judy Steed of the Toronto Star produced a page-long article headed, “Gay lawyer battling for job benefits and promotion in Ontario ministry.”
In a large photograph, Michael Leshner, the lawyer who alleged discrimination against him, was shown relaxing in a deck chair with a smile on his face and a Scottie dog in his arms. He and his partner, another Michael, “whom I love more than anyone in the world,” had just celebrated their tenth anniversary of domestic bliss –
“We’re a Saturday Evening Post couple,” he reported.
Before Christmas, the Star carried other similarly prominent stories.
One was headed, “Buddies promising gay old time at free party”; another, “Gay ‘family’ unites for Yule service.”
The first dealt with a musical – “dirty and funny and gay and lesbian”; the second covered a Christmas party in Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto for over 2,000 homosexuals with ‘Rev.’ Brent Hawkes of the Metropolitan Community “Church.”
February 16: The same homosexual “minister” conducted a ‘rite of blessing’ of the unions of 137 gay and lesbian couples. The Star printed two large, sweetly sentimental pictures to accompany its account of the event.
Prostitution
February 9: The Star’s Susan Kastner glorified the call-girl racket by a glowing interview with New York’s “Mayflower” Madam.
February 14: “Post porn star Annie takes love trip to T.O.” The article described a series of erotic performances by prostitute Annie Sprinkle, “the Mother Teresa of titillation.” (Nearly a while page, with illustration, in the Star.)
Also in the same Star: the smiling cast of the Degrassi Talks, TV show is depicted talking into a microphone about rape, abuse, suicide, unwanted pregnancies, homosexuality, etc., allegedly “without ever once verging on hype, scandal, or sensationalism.”
February 15: “Politics and the prostitute” – the madam of a London brothel is fed up with the cold shoulder she’s getting from her parliamentary clients. So she has formed the Corrective Party to punish them. (Globe and Mail)
Other Items
February 15: “Gay pair ‘try to be good role models’,” the story of a Vancouver couple (male) who have been together for forty years. (Toronto Star)
February 20: (Surprise!) Globe columnist John Allemang “remains unfaithful to the concept of marital fidelity.”
February 21: “Delightfully radical sex comedy” – discusses an “ambisexual” film. Also an article by Sallie Tisdale, “Talk Dirty to Me,” recommending soft porn as an acceptable female spectator sport. (Star)
February 22: The Star reprints a lengthy New York Times story headed “Buying my first condom at age 53.”
February 25: Slinger of the Star argues, supposedly tongue-in-cheek, that a new kind of journalist is called for – guaranteed, certified virgins – but doesn’t know where to find them.
February 26: Henry M. Gale writes in the Globe about “Choosing not to have children.” It prompts a series of letters in agreement, most of which seem to regard children as a form of pollution.
The Star carries a long article on how World War 1 helped “liberate” women. Among other things it describes the “campaign” for birth control clinics and abortion.
This short survey represents the fare for any short period of time for current 1991-1992 newspaper reading in Toronto. They are variations on the general theme of undermining traditional morality by choice of subject.
One must keep in mind that this daily dose of incidental articles is only part of the picture. Alongside of it there is another daily dose of articles on AIDS. Their general themes are 1) that AIDS has nothing to do with homosexuality and certainly not with sin; 2) that AIDS sufferers are innocent victims; and 3) that an ill-willed community and hostile governments never do enough for them.
On the Ferry
Rev. James Ferry is the Toronto Anglican minister and homosexual activist who claims that his sexual perversity ought to be accepted by the Anglican community as part of his ministerial behavior.
He has been given full support in the media, and especially in the pages of the Toronto Star.
This support is not “spelled” out in the same way as we would spell out our view above with the use of words like ‘notoriety’ and ‘sexual perversity.’ Instead of coming right out, the dailies do it much more subtly, through the use of space, source selection, photos and headlines.
The Anglican court’s verdict against Ferry on March 20 covered one half of the Toronto Star evening edition front page and the whole of page three for the Saturday edition under the heading: “Fight will continue, gay priest vows.”
Over and above the use of layout in their promotion of Mr. Ferry, the Star and Globe made it clear that he should be seen as a hero who fits the modern notion of an evolving, progressive morality which has none f that stuffy “rigidity” of the old variety.
How much publicity did Ferry get in the Toronto dailies? From September 1991, the Star carried an average of two articles per month until February. That month the Star published nine articles (The Globe six), including large photos and one full-page spread. The five letters to the editor were four to one in favor of homosexuality for ministers. Total number of articles on this one obscure homosexual minister from September, 1991 till March 23, 1992: Star 21; Globe 10; Toronto Sun 1.
