The director of issues analysis of a conservative fundamentalist Christian organization is backing the idea of an “Underground Railroad” to kidnap children from same sex couples.
In tweets posted on Tuesday night, the American Family Associations’s Bryan Fischer cited the need for an “Underground Railroad” in defense of a Mennonite minister who helped an “ex-gay” woman flee to Nicaragua after a court ordered that her former lesbian partner was allowed to visit their 10-year-old daughter.
Jury selection began on Tuesday for the trial of Kenneth Miller, who was charged with aiding and abetting the kidnapping of the daughter.
“Head of Underground Railroad to deliver innocent children from same-sex households goes on trial,” Fischer wrote in the first tweet.
“Why we need an Underground Railroad to deliver innocent children from same-sex households,” he added several minutes later, with a link to a column by a conservative California man who claims that his mother’s same sex relationship is responsible for all of problems in life.
“Quite simply, growing up with gay parents was very difficult, and not because of prejudice from neighbors,” Robert Lopez explained in his column. “I have no mental health disorders or biological conditions. I just grew up in a house so unusual that I was destined to exist as a social outcast.”
Think Progress’ Zack Ford pointed out that Fischer’s “Underground Railroad” idea was “incredibly dangerous rhetoric that has the potential to do great harm.”
“How much destruction could self-declared ‘Harriet Tubmans’ do to same-sex families, motivated by Fischer’s claims?” Ford wrote. “More than ever, the ‘culture war’ is a direct attack on the lives of LGBT and their families.”
