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Jul 14, 2011
Rich Sweir
LGBT civil rights advocates are pressuring the Tea Party Nation’s Rich Swier to recant his statement that anti-gay harassment of kids is a healthy form of peer pressure.
Swier, earlier this year, gained notoriety with his statement that “anti-family government programs” and procreating immigrants mean the “White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) population in America is headed for extinction and with it our economy, well-being and survival as a uniquely America culture.”
In late June, he responded to an announcement from the nonprofit Gulf Coast Gives, which was raising money to bring wrestler Hudson Taylor of Athlete Ally to Florida’s west coast for an anti-bullying program.
Swier, in a statement on a TPN blog, said the “entire bullying campaign is a sham” created by Kevin Jennings, the founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network who now works in the Obama administration.
Swier said LGBT youth are not being bullied or harassed, but rather are targets of healthy peer pressure. “Homosexuality, like drugs, harms young people if they experement (sic) with it. That is the greatest tragedy,” he said.
People for the American Way’s Right Wing Watch team picked up on Swier’s remarks.
Activists with a number of LGBT civil rights groups responded, including the Human Rights Campaign, which has launched a “Call It Out” campaign to go after those who make anti-gay pronouncements.
“Bullying of any kind is unacceptable and can lead to very real and serious consequences,” said HRC VP Fred Sainz. “For Rich Swier to publicly suggest that bullying is in fact normal and healthy is irresponsible.”
Taylor added, “We need leaders and allies sending a clear message – prejudice and bullying are never acceptable.”
