Fox News Named the L.A. Gay Men’s Chorus in a Hateful Article, But These Men Are Fighting Back
In a March 16 Fox News hit piece targeting the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), former Breitbart editor Adam Shaw tried to generate outrage by sharing the dollar amounts given to several LGBTQ arts groups, including a theater troupe doing plays with trans themes, a feminist press, Rosie O’Donnell’s children’s theater program and The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles (GMCLA). Not content to let the article go unaddressed, a recently released L.A. Gay Men’s Chorus Fox News statement denounced Shaw’s piece as “intolerant rhetoric” and stood up for its work.
Shaw’s article states, “The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles picked up a $10,000 grant for a national tour of a new work ‘to deliver a message of acceptance for young people.’” It then goes on to mention other pro-LGBTQ art projects (with cherry-picked details meant to disturb conservative readers) and to quote an arts critic who calls the work of the forenamed NEA grant recipients “degraded … soul-killing PC claptrap.”
In a statement released Monday, GMCLA Executive Director Jonathan Weedman said, “We were stunned to find ourselves mentioned in an article that was so clearly written as hate clickbait.”
Here’s a video from the GMCLA:
“The [FOX News] story refers to these works as ‘left-wing art projects’ and implies that these organizations are producing works that do not reflect true American values,” the L.A. Gay Men’s Chorus Fox News statement continued.
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The GMCLA contends its work not only reflects American values but also helps save lives.
Stating that LGBTQ kids are three times more likely that their straight peers to consider suicide, Weedman says the GMCLA has spent its 40-year history delivering “a message of acceptance to not just young people but all people and to change hearts and minds through the power of music.”
“Indeed,” Weedman adds, “we wear that as a badge of honor.”
