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From the August 8 edition of Fox News’ Hannity : Previously: Hannity Suggests Limbaugh Was Just “Trying To Be Funny” In His Misogynistic Attacks On Sandra Fluke Hannity Adopts Limbaugh’s Defense Of His Attacks On Sandra Fluke: “He Uses Absurdity To Illustrate The Absurd” Hannity Rushes To Defend Limbaugh’s Misogynistic Attacks

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On Friday, the  New York Times  published a  story  profiling Dr. Robert L. Spitzer, a prominent psychiatrist who recently retracted and apologized for a study he conducted in 2003 which purported to demonstrate that some people actually could change their sexual orientation through therapy. In a recent letter to Dr. Ken Zucker, the editor of the journal that published Spitzer’s study, Spitzer  wrote : I believe I owe the gay community an apology for my study making unproven claims of the efficacy of reparative therapy. I also apologize to any gay person who wasted time and energy undergoing some form of reparative therapy because they believed that I had proven that reparative therapy works with some “highly motivated” individuals. With Spitzer’s apology, perhaps the last iota of ‘credible’ scientific evidence for the belief that gays and lesbians can be ‘cured’ of their homosexuality has vanished. Unfortunately, few of the news networks that touted Spitzer’s study in 2003 have covered its retraction . In fact, the belief that a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity can be changed is still alive and well at Fox News thanks to the work of Dr. Keith Ablow – a member of network’s “Medical A-Team.” Ablow is notorious for peddling the  false idea  that children might decide to identify as transgender if they see a happy transgender person – like  Dancing with the Stars’   Chaz Bono  - on television. He’s also suggested that using  pink nail polish  and having  same-sex parents  might similarly cause children to abandon their gender identity. He’s been open about his belief that transgender people are suffering from ” psychotic delusions ” and should be encouraged, through therapy, to identify as their biological sex. Ablow has also voiced his support for the claim that homosexuality is a product of environmental factors and, as a result, can be changed or reversed. In the past year alone, Ablow has argued that: Homosexuality can be caused by  environmental factors , including a lack of access to women Homosexuality can be caused by ” unresolved issues ” [not seeing this quote at the link] with important females in adolescence Homosexuality is a ” lifestyle choice ” And last week, Ablow  condemned  the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for declassifying Ego-Dystonic Homosexuality (EDH) as a mental illness in 1987. EDH, which was the diagnosis given to people who were distressed by their same-sex attractions, continues to play an important role in the pseudoscientific research produced by modern “ex-gay” groups today. Although Ablow has thus far avoided explicitly condoning “ex-gay” therapy, he’s provided all of the allegedly ‘expert’ medical opinion one would need to buy into the myth that LGBT people can be ‘cured’: LGBT people made a choice, they’re LGBT because of bad parenting, their identities can be influenced by external factors, etc. So while Spitzer’s apology seems to have left reparative therapy in critical condition, over at Fox News, the doctor is in.

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Georgetown University Law student Sandra Fluke appeared on MSNBC tonight to demand an apology from Fox News’ Monica Crowley on behalf of the LGBT community following what Fluke called Crowley’s “hate speech.” Fluke stated: “Well, you know, where I’m from when someone tells you that they’ve become engaged, you say, ‘Congratulations,’ rather than engaging in hate speech.” She stated that “the blatant homophobia in the comment” really bothered her. She went on to say, “I don’t want an apology from anyone personally, I think it’s possible that she owes an apology to the LGBTQ community.” She added: “It’s not offensive to me to be gay, to be out in that way, but it was clearly meant as an insult and that is homophobic and offensive.” Reacting to the news of Fluke’s engagement to her boyfriend, Crowley wrote on her Twitter feed, “To a man?” Following criticism of her on Twitter, Crowley’s first response was, “I love exposing the Left’s total lack of a sense of humor.” She later added that all she was doing was asking a “Straightforward question” about Fluke.

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