Fox contributor defends Florida's “Don't Say Gay” bill, blames “the left” for “sexualizing children”
Tammy Bruce: “It has nothing to do with tolerance or gay rights and it has everything to do with molding children within the view of these marginalized extremists”
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From the March 30, 2022, edition of Fox News' Outnumbered
EMILY COMPAGNO (CO-HOST): The meeting also featured Disney's activism partner, Nadine Smith, who made this stunning claim about Gov. DeSantis' agenda with the parental rights law.
(VIDEO BEGINS)
NADINE SMITH (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, EQUALITY FLORIDA): When they can erase you, when they can criminalize your existence, when they can demonize who you are, the next step is to criminalize you and take your kids.
(VIDEO ENDS)
COMPAGNO: Tammy Bruce, what say you?
TAMMY BRUCE (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): Well, I say plenty, but we only have an hour, right? Thank you for having me on today, it's an honor, you guys. Look, this is outrageous. Now many in the audience may not know, and I say it only in reference when it's relevant, but I'm a gay woman, and that is something that is relevant in some of our politics as is clear right now. Everything you heard there is outrageous. It is untrue. It is a reflection of what I term, and others do as well, malignant narcissism, which is this effort to make everything that's in the world about you. Well, here's a news flash for the leftism, alright? This has nothing to do, by the way, with homosexuality or gays and lesbians. We fought for years to have Americans know that we are not after their children because we're not, and here you have this dynamic that sets into motion this idea that children are the focus. Now, clearly for some it is a marginal extremist framework on the left. It has nothing to do with gay civil rights and if you're a parent and a family or just a regular person who is outraged, you are not a homophobe. As a matter of fact, American lives, the lives of gay Americans, are fabulous because of the American sensibility, because we are Americans first. And this kind of argument, this kind of thing moved out under the guise of gay rights or trans rights is the homophobia because it places us in a context that we are sexualizing children, that we want children to be sexualized. And here's another news flash, there are no gay or straight children, and that's going to cause a controversy, but there are simply just children. Gender is a concept that children don't even understand or can comprehend. They certainly are not thinking sexually. This is the narcissism of projecting our adult issues onto kids. Now that's happening sometimes in general, and that has to stop before a corporation like Disney, which we have entrusted our families and our children to when it comes to American culture. It is outrageous, it is only a few people, and others in charge have been made afraid and terrified at what that marginalized extremist group will do. It has nothing to do with tolerance or gay rights and it has everything to do with molding children within the view of these marginalized extremists. I'm telling you, I know lots of gay people, I know plenty of transgender people. No one likes what's going on here. No one in this country, no one on the left or the right. This is not normal and it's unacceptable and everyone should reject it for the sake not only of your children but also for the civil rights gains that gays and lesbians have made in this country.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY (CO-HOST): Great points, wow.
COMPAGNO: Tammy, it seems like such significant momentum in the false narrative and that false equivalency, it comes from people's triggers and past pain from actual anti-gay historical legislation, right? You've seen statements like we heard in the intro like demonizing and criminalizing, but the whole point is this parental rights is not that.
BRUCE: Right, exactly. Now, see, this is it. It's almost like a fake hate crime, right? There is a desire and a need for victimhood because that is what the agenda builds on. And it is -- it has been true, there is racism in this country. There is sexism and there is homophobia, but when you have a political base that relies on identity politics, it relies on the need to fight against something as opposed to elevating people. So when you have that, it creates, you know, the fake hate crimes, the nature of, let's say, Jussie Smollett and what he thought he'd be elevated for, and this is what generates -- having come from the left, that is what generates the passion. And we can move above that and certainly beyond it while still dealing with certainly some of the bigotry that exists in this country. But when you make things up, like with the Florida bill, every parent, whether you be gay or straight, have an interest in your children learning the basics in school, and then it's up to you to be able to teach them about sexuality, and when you do that, that is a basic civil right for every parent no matter who they are.