In two separate articles posted on Friday, August 26, at OneNewsNow, a news service of the American Family Association -- as staunch a Christian conservative operation as there is -- conservative critics pounded away at Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter and Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

Peter LaBarbera, founder and president of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality (AFTAH) (http://americansfortruth.com/) who has been venting his anti-gay bile for more than a decade, was flummoxed by Glenn Beck, who recently told the Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly that he really didn't care about the question of same-sex marriage. "I believe that Thomas Jefferson said, 'If it neither breaks my leg, nor picks my pocket, what difference is it to me,'" Beck said.

"I think it's appalling that Glenn Beck says that homosexual so-called 'marriage' does not rise to a national issue," LaBarbera said. "Of course it's going to affect freedom [and] it's going to affect children. And for Glenn Beck, a national conservative leader, to be seemingly ignorant of the threat of the homosexual agenda is just astonishing."

Speaking with OneNewsNow's Chad Groening, LaBarbera also revisited the controversy involving Ann Coulter. (Coulter, a conservative icon, has accepted an invitation to speak at GOProud's HOMOCON 2010 event in late September in New York City.) "GOProud supports domestic partnerships [and]...homosexual so-called 'marriage.' It supports homosexualizing the American military by repealing 'don't ask, don't tell,'" LaBarbera pointed out. "GOProud is not a conservative group, even though they call themselves a traditional conservative organization."

And while he was at it, LaBarbera leveled criticism at Rush Limbaugh for paying $1 million to have Elton John sing at his wedding. Elton John, although an extremely talented musician, is also a hardcore homosexual activist," LaBarbera noted. "He has said some preposterous things [like] Jesus would support homosexuality. And for Rush Limbaugh to sort of just ignore that is very troubling to me."  

LaBarbera sees the GOP having a 'big and growing `gay' problem'

To LaBarbera, these recent events are indicative of the Republican Party's "big and growing `gay' problem." In an August 26 column posted at his website, titled "Why Is Michael Steele Applauding Ken Mehlman's Homosexuality?" LaBarbera tackled another manifestation of the GOP's "gay problem." The problem for the GOP, he wrote, is that it is "slowly going pro-homosexual even as GOP leaders continue to advertise theirs as the party of `family values.' Just one more reason why so many grassroots conservatives who regularly vote Republican call the GOP `The Stupid Party.'"

"The latest GOP hypocrisy: Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele's congratulatory words for former RNC chief Ken Mehlman, who has confirmed longstanding rumors that he (Mehlman) is a practicing homosexual." Steele said that he was "happy" for Mehlman and that the "announcement, often a very difficult decision which is only compounded when done on the public stage, reaffirms for me why we are friends and why I respect him personally and professionally."

LaBarbera lamented that Steele bothered to say anything at all about Mehlman's revelation: "Why couldn't Mr. Steele just have kept quiet about this tragic revelation by which another sexually confused man seeks to rationalize his misbehavior (sin) by declaring homosexuality part of his inherent being? Nope, instead, like a three-year-old boy approaching a puddle, Steele just had to step in it" (LaBarbera's italics).  

Hasselbeck of `The View'

In the Hasselbeck case, the criticism is coming from Janet Crouse, Senior Fellow at the Beverly LaHaye Institute, the think tank for Concerned Women for America (http://www.cwfa.org/main.asp).

Hasselbeck, the co-host of ABC's daily program, The View, recently told Fancast (http://www.fancast.com/blogs/2010/tv-news/elisabeth-hasselbeck-th ere-are-so-many-misperceptions-about-me/) that she is "not ultra-ultra-conservative on every issue ... [and that she] actually support[s] gay marriage." Hasselbeck also said that while she "believe[s] that life begins at conception ... I also don't believe that the government should tell women what to do with their bodies." She added that she was "torn there in terms of supporting laws [for or against abortion]. I always say I would rather change a heart than a law. I think it has to start there. Always trying to mandate, mandate, mandate this or that is not the way that I believe this country should run."    

Crouse is not impressed with Hasselbeck's brand of conservatism: "You can go all the way back to Julie Andrews up to [today] to Miley Cyrus," Crouse pointed out. "You have all these people who win a reputation for being conservative and straight down the line in terms of morals and being the kind of person that mainstream America admires -- and then when they get famous, they have to back away from it and say 'Oh, that's not who I really am'...and Elisabeth Hasselbeck is just following in those footsteps."

LaBarbera also checked in on the Hasselbeck matter: On August 21, he posted a "Letter to Elisabeth Hasselbeck on `Gay Marriage,' in which he wrote that she had "really abandoned your conservative and Christian principles by coming out for homosexual `marriage.'" He implored her to "reconsider" her "position on this issue. If you are a Christian, you should believe the Bible and not twist your views to accommodate popular culture, or your liberal co-hosts. (Also, stand up boldly for the life of the unborn as a matter of human rights -- rather than equivocating on this core issue!)"  

As for Coulter, LaBarbera has come up with "an idea" for her redemption; "how about if Coulter donates her GOProud speaking fee to two worthy pro-family organizations whose mission (we hope) Coulter agrees with more than that of the phony `conservatives' over at GOProud, who put "gay rights" above traditional values."

The two groups that LaBarbera suggests could use GOProud/Coulter money are Elaine Donnelly's Center for Military Readiness, "which has led the way in battling President Obama's reckless plan to homosexualize the U.S. military in a time of war (GOProud supports the Democrat-led effort to repeal the ban on open homosexuals in the military)"; and Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) -- "this worthy yet perpetually underfunded organization stands up for the rights of former homosexuals -- who regularly get demonized and sometimes bullied by the supposedly "tolerant" Homosexual Activist Lobby."