In its coverage of the birth of a surrogate son to Sir Elton John and his civil partner David Furnish on Christmas Day, the BBC had Stephen Green, of right-wing group Christian Voice, as the sole commentator in a news report that was repeated on a number of occasions on BBC’s flagship News at Six on BBC One on the evening of Dec 28, 2010.
"This isn't just a designer baby for Sir Elton John, this is a designer accessory," said Green in the interview. He is the national director of the organisation which says on its website that their members “have had enough of secularist politicians imposing wickedness on the rest of us (Christians)."
"Now it seems like money can buy him anything, and so he has entered into this peculiar arrangement. A baby needs a mother and it seems an act of pure selfishness to deprive a baby of a mother," he added.
The UK gay news website Pink News, which slammed BBC’s choice of interviewee in an editorial published last week, called for viewers to take co-ordinated action against the corporation as a way of making their voices heard on this issue. It asked: “Would they ask a member of the Ku Klux Klan to comment on the birth of a surrogate child to a mixed raced couple?”
The website further noted that Green has also publicly supported the death penalty for gay men. In 2009, Green supported a proposed death penalty for gay men in Uganda saying: “The contrast between our politicians and those of Uganda could not be more stark. A Parliamentarian in Uganda is trying to protect his nation’s children. The House of Commons of the United Kingdom is trying to corrupt ours. Which country is the more civilised, I wonder, in the eyes of Almighty God?”
Last year, Green criticised Gareth Thomas, the former Welsh rugby captain for becoming patron of LGBT History Month, saying: “Gareth Thomas is urging such children to identify themselves as homosexual, and to inhibit their normal development into heterosexuality. That is a wicked thing to do to impressionable young people. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke about millstones being tied around the necks of those who lead children astray.”
Pink News last week urged readers to send complaints to BBC and Ofcom, UK’s communications regulator and suggested refusing to pay the television licence fee although it also noted that it a legal requirement to do so.
"No other group of people is subjected to the same level of insult by the BBC as the LGBT community."
The report says between 3.5 to five million LGBT people in Britain own a television set and all of whom are forced to purchase a television licence fee in order to fund the BBC regardless of whether they watch any BBC programmes.
“This monopoly over an effective tax on television consumption means that the BBC has a greater duty than most to accurately reflect the nation.”
In December last year, as news of Uganda’s proposed anti-gay bill made world headlines, the BBC’s decision to ask its readers “Should homosexuals faced execution?” similarly attracted controversy. The question was later changed to: “Should Uganda debate gay execution?”
When contacted by Pink News, the BBC defended its choice of interviewee: “The practice of surrogacy is a sensitive subject and remains controversial in some quarters. Our short news bulletin featured Elton John talking about wanting to have a child and an opposing viewpoint. All sides of the debate on surrogacy have been widely reported in the news media and our coverage has reflected this.”
Pink News however also points out that the sound-bite used of Sir Elton significantly pre-dated the announcement of his surrogate child and that a BBC source said the corporation did attempt to reach the star for a new interview.
In an update posted on Dec 30, Pink News said: “The BBC has effectively admitted interviewing a known homophobic extremist in order to ‘reflect’ what they perceive is a genuine debate over gay couples having surrogate children. The corporation makes no apology for the choice of interviewee. PinkNews.co.uk believes that the BBC were unable to find anyone else willing to give an interview on camera in opposition to Sir Elton’s decision to have a child.”
“There are no ‘two sides’ to the issue of LGBT rights”: Dan Savage
In a November 2010 television interview, Dan Savage, an openly gay syndicated relationship and sex columnist who kickstarted the It Gets Better project said: “There are no ‘two sides’ to the issue of LGBT rights. Right now one side is really using dehumanising rhetoric. The Southern Poverty Law Center labels these groups as hate groups and yet the leaders of these groups, people like Tony Perkins, are welcomed onto networks like CNN to espouse hate directed at gays and lesbians. And similarly hateful people who are targeting Jews or people of color or anyone else would not be welcome to spew their bile on CNN.”
He was being interviewed in a story about the new hate crime statistics and the fact that gays are the most likely to be targeted in hate crimes of any minority.