Take Action Now: Hold CNN Accountable for Featuring So-Called "Ex-Gay" Activist Richard Cohen
This morning GLAAD announced a Call to Action after CNN gave so-called “ex-gay” activist Richard Cohen a platform for his biased and unsubstantiated views. We put out an initial blog about the incident yesterday.
In an attempt to discuss efforts to repeal an outdated law in California requiring the State Department of Mental Health to conduct research into the “causes” and “cures” of being gay, CNN took the irresponsible step of allowing the unlicensed, widely discredited, so-called “ex-gay” activist Richard Cohen onto the network’s airwaves to promote the idea that gay people can be turned straight.
CNN Host Kyra Phillips paired Cohen with California Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal to discuss the matter. Lowenthal is working to repeal the archaic California law. Phillips began the conversation by asking this highly offensive question: “Homosexuality, Is it a problem in need of a cure?”
While the segment tried to give the appearance of “balance,” the airtime afforded the disreputable Cohen to tout “healing” gay people, coupled with a lack of information about the harms caused by such practices is unacceptable. As GLAAD has noted in our publication, Unmasking So-Called Ex-Gay Activists, “The nation’s leading medical and mental health authorities have uniformly dismissed the idea that being gay is something to be ‘treated.’”
But even with this information widely available to media professionals, CNN’s Phillips failed to bring this to light while questioning Cohen. CNN’s graphics even described Cohen as a “Psychotherapist, educator and expert in the field of sexual reorientation.” Phillips and CNN also failed to note that Cohen was permanently expelled in 2002 from the American Counseling Association, for multiple violations of the ethical code.
After extensive conversations with CNN producers and publicity representatives yesterday afternoon and following our blog and twitter action, CNN called GLAAD in the evening, telling us they had received numerous complaints about the segment and inviting us to appear on this morning’s broadcast with Kyra Phillips to discuss our concerns. GLAAD then scheduled a representative to go on CNN but received a phone call from the network at 7 A.M. today telling us they had decided to cancel the segment. They also issued this statement:
"By bringing this story to the fore, we engage various advocates from all sides. This story does not end here and CNN will continue to explore other views and positions." -CNN
Fair-minded bloggers and activists have also issued critiques of CNN’s coverage and this unsatisfactory statement.
Just like the segment itself, CNN’s statement misses the mark and provides no explanation for its actions. GLAAD urges you to help us hold the network accountable.
Please contact CNN and voice your concerns about the platform extended to Richard Cohen and CNN’s failure to consult credible scientific authorities before proceeding with this coverage. Call on CNN to directly and publicly address these issues with its viewers and ensure that such a serious lapse in CNN's standards will not occur again.
Contacts:
Kyra Phillips
Anchor, CNN Newsroom
Kyra.Phillips@turner.com
(404) 827-1500
Karen Zuker
Producer, CNN Newsroom
Karen.Zuker@turner.com
(404) 827-1500
Bridget Leininger
CNN Publicity
Bridget.Leininger@turner.com
(404) 827-1500
Comments
To cure or not to cure, that is the question
Hi, I came to this page, following links from a facebook post. The lesson is not whether CNN should be able to discuss such matters in an unbalanced way, but whether facebook should?
Moving on, the whole matter of Richard Cohen, and the objections to him, interests me. In wiki, his biography refers to a troubled childhood, ...
There are two aspects to his notions, a. the flaky Religious aspect, b. the affect of abuse upon a person's experience of sexuality.
Utlimately, if there is a gay person who is happy about their sexuality, and their life, then that is good; but, not every person is the same, and perhaps not every gay person is gay for the same causes.
For myself, I am not gay; I have (or had) a more obscure sexuality, known as auto-gynephilia, which is more commonly known as transsexualism, or more accurately, a type of transsexualism. And this is why I find the matter of Richard Cohen interesting. For myself, I did suffer a great deal of abuse as a child, and the result of this was that in adulthood, I suffered from the disturbing condition auto-gynephlia. Now many people in the pro-trans media would say, there is no reason to cure transsexuals, just as other people say there is no reason to cure homosexuality. Myself, I now feel a lot happier, having explored, in psychotherapy - but mostly through self learning in books and insight-meditation - having explored the effects of abuse upon the psychological aspect of my sexuality; years down the line, I feel a great deal less autogynephilia, and a lot more able to enjoy healthy sexual relations with another partner.
Gay and lesbian people may object to the notion of Richard Cohen, because they do not see a need for themselves to be 'cured,' and certainly if they are happy in themselves, then that is all good. But are all gay and lesbian people the same? Are there people, active in gay society, who perhaps are not biologically gay, but instead are people who were abused as children or influenced otherwise, developed psychological illness that affected their sexuality, and hence they are unhappy in their 'assumed' sexuality.
The interesting thing about our times, is that we have just left the 00s behind. The 1980s were famous for people comming out as gay, the 2000s were famous for people comming out as straight. Leaving the religious types behind, I have heard of quite a few stories of non-religious people experiencing a sudden flip in their sexuality. Certainly, I know a man very well, now in his 40s, who at the age of 18ish, came out to his friends as being gay; this man now leads a very heterosexual life.
I think the point that I am making is this: Though this Richard Cohen, may not be a reliable person, perhaps due to religious brain washing, the basic concepts of whether or not a gay person can turn straight, and whether or not they would want to, are important questions, that should not be dumbed down by well meaning gay people, who are assuming that just because they are happy, that their views must over-rule the views of other gay people.