Is There Such Thing As Being Too Extreme For Breitbart?

Anti-gay activist Austin Ruse continues to write for Breitbart.com, even two weeks after an anti-gay hate group cut its ties with Ruse over his declaration that liberal professors “should all be taken out and shot.” 

Filling in for American Family Radio host Sandy Rios on March 12, Ruse commented on the case of a Duke University student who revealed that she had acted in porn to help pay her college tuition. Ruse seized on the story to condemn “the hard left, human-hating people that run modern universities, who should all be taken out and shot.” In response, the American Family Association, an anti-gay hate groupbroke off ties with Ruse.

For nearly two weeks since after Right Wing Watch reported that decision, Ruse didn't publish any material at Breitbart, where he has made a name for himself as the site's go-to anti-gay extremist. But on March 25, Breitbart published a new piece by Ruse celebrating the news that Missouri recently became the sixth state to have only one abortion clinic.

With his editors at Breitbart apparently unbothered by Ruse's recent incitement to violence, it's unclear what the website would consider a bridge too far. As the president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM), also an anti-gay hate group, Ruse is no stranger to inflammatory rhetoric and deeply offensive commentary - much of it spewed during his time at Breitbart.

Here's a round-up of some of Ruse's greatest hits.

  • Matthew Shepard Trutherism. A leading proponent of the bogus claim that Matthew Shepard's murder wasn't motivated by anti-gay hate, Ruse composed two pieces for Breitbart touting the shoddily reported book that proposed that claim. Describing Shepard as a “winsome young homosexual,” “achingly handsome,” “slight of frame,” and “delicately chiseled,” Ruse charged that “Matthew Shepard Inc.” was engaged in a conspiracy to cover up the facts surrounding the college student's 1998 death.
  • Calling Gay People “Intrinsically Disordered And Abnormal.” As GLAAD notes, Ruse (who shut down his Twitter account following the professors-should-be-shot brouhaha) has tweeted that “Children don't need to know about what is intrinsically disordered and abnormal.” Ruse regularly defends his anti-gay bigotry as something that's all about the children.
  • Championing Russia's Anti-Gay Crackdown. In columns for The Daily Caller and Breitbart, Ruse has celebrated Russia's draconian law banning so-called gay “propaganda.” Ruse, who calls the legislation a “human rights” measure to protect children, is no mere armchair supporter of the law. In October 2013, he traveled to Russia for a planning meeting for the World Conference of Families, slated to be held by leading conservative supporters of the crackdown this September in Moscow.
  • Blaming The LGBT Movement For LGBT Teens' Suicides. In a tweet flagged by GLAAD, Ruse blamed gay people and activists for gay teen suicide, alcoholism, and early death. Ruse -- a professional purveyor of anti-gay hate - has little use for the expert consensus that homophobia is frequently the driver of those problems

Given the AFA's own record of extremism, its decision to cut ties with Ruse demonstrates that even hate groups have a limit for how much toxic rhetoric they're willing to tolerate. It's a limit that apparently doesn't exist at Breitbart.