Anti-LGBTQ activist Peter LaBarbera was, unsurprisingly, not a fan of the new gay teenage romance film “Love, Simon,” complaining to Religious Right radio host Janet Mefferd on Tuesday that the film fails to promote a “religious message” and does not warn audiences that gay people face a life of physical and mental illness “and of course the judgment of God.”
LaBarbera joined Mefferd on Tuesday to weigh in on the release of “Love, Simon,” which is a romantic comedy film that features a 17-year-old boy who reveals his sexual orientation to his friends and family and falls in love with a classmate. LaBarbera, who has long been livid about the entertainment industry advancing LGBTQ causes, shared with Mefferd what he saw to be “three myths” promoted in the film.
“Number one is that being homosexual—quote-unquote ‘gay’—is basically who you are, intrinsically who you are. You know, if that line just happens to be gay. That’s number one. Number two, that there’s a total mutual equivalence between homosexual romances and the gay lifestyle and normal, heterosexual living, so it’s presented as totally equal. Number three, that parental love, the way they love their son after he comes out and declares his homosexuality or they find out, the parents, is they just basically express regret they didn’t know earlier,” he said. “There’s no sorrow. There’s no religious message at all in the movie, Janet, and there’s nothing that says any disapproval.”
LaBarbera said he believed the movie was “like a Disney gay movie” that was made for teenagers before complaining that “there’s no aftermath after this boy finds his quote-unquote ‘gay’ romance.”
“We’re never going to hear later about the diseases associated with homosexuality that he likely would get, mental illness, and of course the judgment of God,” LaBarbera said.
Mefferd asked LaBarbera to expand on what he meant when he referred to mental illness, to which LaBarbera responded by promoting the book “The Health Hazards of Homosexuality,” published by the anti-gay group MassResistence. He claimed that conditions like HIV are now “gay male diseases,” claiming that this is the case “because homosexual behavior is a perversion like God says it is, it is deviant, it is not normal.”
LaBarbera also said he was upset that “Love, Simon” posed the question of why heterosexual people don’t have to come out as “straight” to their friends and family. He answered the question by saying it was “because that's the way God designed it.”
“It’s so basic and yet Hollywood is doing everything it can now. We’re going to see more and more movies like this. And Janet, this is the first major teen homosexual romance film to be a big box-office hit. And so this is, again, Hollywood is trying to mainstream sexual sin,” LaBarbera said.
