#748: Linda Harvey

Linda Harvey is a paragon of batshit dimbuggery whose main activity is to ramble more or less incoherently about how everything she doesn’t particularly fancy (first and foremostly homosexuality) is covert paganism and a deliberate attempt to destroy America and Christianity. She writes for the WND (itself a reliable sign of lunacy), is the founder of Mission: America, and is a staunch Biblical literalist.

One of Harvey’s and her organization’s aims is to tell TheTruth About Homosexuality (as she tries to do here), in particular that homosexuality is a mental health disorder and that there is no scientific research indicating that one is “born gay.” Therefore, there is a conspiracy among gays to recruit children to homosexuality. For instance, according to Harvey the Media uses “demonic manipulation” to make children gay, and someone like Dan Savage “twists the Bible” while exploiting kids. Gays really need to “embrace” this reality (and she seems to be genuinely non-plussed why gays are “so afraid to know the truth”). But there is also an economic incentive, apparently. The fact that college scholarships are handed out to gay students as well as non-gay students causes, Harvey imagines, some kids to go gay for pay. She has, of course, warned against trusting medical science when it disagrees with her (so she is dimly aware that there is, in fact, some science on this issues – presumably what she means when she denies that there are scientific studies is that there are no reliable scientific studies that support her views), maintaining that “mainstream medicine is falling under the spell of leftwing politics” on reproductive health and sexuality, starting in the 1970s when they followed the science and removed homosexuality from the list of mental disorders. They don’t even accept her assertion that gays, like vampires or leeches, work by attempting to absorb the personality and identity of another person.

As a parent you should thus read Mission: America’s “Risk Audit” sheet rating your child’s school’s policies and remove your child from the school if necessary. A school may fail the risk audit if it has

i) an anti-harassment or anti-bullying program (here Harvey is talking to Barb Anderson of the Parents Action League and the Minnesota Family Council about Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin school district. where Anderson’s group had successfully lobbied against such programs until the suicide and bullying rates there led to national coverage);

ii) a non-discrimination policy;

iii) mentions words such as “diversity” or “tolerance” anywhere (according to Harvey LGBT-inclusive education is “pure evil and should be declared child abuse”)

iv) has books in the library that treats homosexuality as anything but a perversion;

v) have sex education programs that “assume all students are at risk of AIDS” and “need to be taught about use of condoms” (since only gays can get AIDS, the solution to the spread of AIDS is, according to Harvey, to ban sex education). The reasoning isn’t always completely transparent, but at least it is shrill.

The Solution(s) to Everything

If Harvey and Mission: America had their way, all the problems would be solved by banning homosexuals from being teachers or having any contact with youths. Parents should also take care to avoid gay doctors, just to be sure. And be aware of the multitude of websites trying to trick children into becoming gay.

A particular worry for Harvey is the Day of Silence, which she dubbed “a God-dishonoring day”. So she obviously doesn’t like it: “The DOS operates at the most elementary level of manipulation, propaganda and social engineering. […] Out comes a Hitler Youth product ready to do battle with anyone holding traditional moral values or even common sense.” It is, of course, Harvey who is persecuted here. As she points out gay rights advocates who criticize and expose the vitriolic rhetoric of Religious Right activists are just like the Nazis who used “hate branding, focusing on Jews” to brand “them as the ‘enemy.’” (also here). Accordingly, she has initiated her own day, a “spirit day”, which is a day to go on tirades about gays - just like every other day, in fact.

Harvey’s solution to the incredibly high suicide rate among gay teens is to tell them that being gay is shameful and that they can pray it away, and that homosexuality is an abomination in the eyes of God, but that method has not yet gained statistically significant beneficial results in controlled studies. Neither has her suggestion that gays can become straight through discarding feelongs of “envy, grudge-holding, and other sinful attitudes.” Blaming the victim is apparently just the beginning here, however.

In fact, gays may apparently not even exist: “There’s one big fact that’s not backed up. There is no proof that there’s ever anything like a gay, lesbian or bisexual or transgendered child, or teen or human,” and any campaign calling for “respect” is a “PR campaign to hold up gay as a good thing: the lifestyle, not the person, because there are no such humans.” The point seems to be that there is no such thing as “sexual orientation.” It is just something “gay” people say to set children up for molestation. In fact, gays are, according to Harvey, not even persons (which sort of also explains why they are no gay persons, but in a somewhat different way than you expected), and as such not protected by the 14^th Amendment’s “equal protection of the laws” (and at least they deserve to be fired from their jobs).

And boy, did California miss an opportunity when they banned gay conversion therapies.

Paganism

The second big problem (in fact, the real problem underlying the homosexuality problem), according to Harvey and Mission: America is paganism. Mission: America helpfully provides us with a fact sheet here as well, to help you avoid becoming a true pagan without realizing it. A pagan is one who:

 i) celebrates Halloween; according to Harvey Halloween represents “rebellious flirtation with fallen angels and deceptive spirits,” exposing children to “dark elements.” (Also, gays like Halloween.) Therefore it not “loyal to Jesus to participate in the event” and “it isn’t appropriate for the bride of Christ to observe a holiday founded on the priorities of our spiritual enemy.” You need to be careful around Thangsgiving as well; at one point Harvey almost accidentally ate a halal turkey, and had an incoherently batshit reaction.

ii) trades Pokémon cards (apparently that also causes autism);

iii) practices yoga;

iv) reads Harry Potter books (here’s Harvey talking about Harry Potter to Truth in Action Ministries’ Carmen Pate and John Rabe, who appear to agree);

v) lets your daughter date someone with corrupted blood, e.g. a vampire;

vi) anything to do with multiculturalism and diversity; Harvey has claimed that schools actively promote occultism in the name of “multiculturalism and diversity.”

vii) and, seriously, not practices Harvey’s brand of Christianity. Presbyterians are pagans in Harvey’s eyes, as are Democrats. The test sheet ensures us that your church is false if it teaches children about doing good deeds, raises money for a downtown soup kitchen instead of an anti-abortion center, or supports women's rights.

America Heading for Doom

The thing is that progressives helped create a culture without boundaries, which means that people are now for instance “confused about child-adult sex” (yup, the Penn State scandal is all the fault of progressives. Progressives are also engaged in a war on women because they refuse to criminalize abortion, but it is a bit unclear how the connection is supposed to work except as a desperate and pitiful attempt at making a rhetorical point. Apparently Obama’s push for woman’s rights is “a humanitarian disgrace”, and perhaps something can be gleaned from her attempts to denounce the anti-male attitude of the girl scouts. And the boy scouts? “What”, Harvey asks, “will boy scout leaders say to Jesus when they meet him?” A clear example of how gays are bullies with no respect for others. Indeed, even Harvey has noticed the increased acceptance of homosexuality among youths, and likened it to thinking that the sun revolves around the earth.

How scary is this direction in which America is supposedly going? According to Harvey one reason why same-sex marriage should be banned is that otherwise Jesus might be forced into a gay marriage when he returns. Think about that!

It is, keep in mind, the children who suffer the most from marriage equality. Why is less clear, but it has something to do with Jesus.

She has also expressed severe doubts about the alleged Christian faith of “Afro-Americans who voted for Obama”, and lamented the “wrath” they are “calling down” upon themselves, agreeing with anti-choice activist Mark Herrington people who supported Obama and the ‘Democrat party’ no longer have a “functioning conscience”. The church must, in other words, take a stance, and fight homosexuals (and liberal black people) like slavery.

Here she claims that a married gay person is exactly like an unlicensed surgeon.

Now, Harvey is definitely not the only anti-gay wingnut out there who has come out in support of Russia’s ban on anti-gay propaganda. Yet even in this case Harvey takes things a step further – not only does she admire the ban; she cannot comprehend why anyone would be against it, which really is a whole new level of crazy (and tells you a bit about Harvey’s general comprehension skills as if any more indications were needed anyways.)

There are decent Linda Harvey resources e.g. here and here.

Diagnosis: As you might have guessed, it would have been possible to go on for a while here, and it is hard to provide an apt conclusion that captures the level of hatred, insanity and bigotry of this character. That she apparently has some influence (she is at least vocal) ought to beggar belief.