The gay lobby is seeking a trophy, and the target is Dr. Laura Schlessinger. “Dr. Laura,” as she is known, is a radio therapist, dispensing advice to 18 million listeners. For sheer radio popularity, she has only one rival — Rush Limbaugh. An Orthodox Jew, Dr. Laura takes a traditional view of things, including homosexuality. For her troubles, gay groups have made her their Public Enemy Number One. They are campaigning tirelessly to get her off the radio and keep her off television. Conservative groups, more feebly, have risen to her defense. There is no fiercer battle in the culture war today.
Dr. Laura does not consider herself a gay-hater. She reminds people that she was one of the first radio hosts to take calls from open gays, about gay problems. She stresses compassion toward gays. But she is uncompromising in her opposition to homosexuality and the idea of gay rights. She has called homosexuality “a terrible sadness,” “deviant sexual behavior,” and, most controversially, “a biological error.” She is a firm defender of the traditional family and inveighs freely against the gay political agenda: marriage, adoption, and so on. Worst of all from a gay-activist perspective, she has supported “reparative therapy,” the treatment that seeks to help homosexuals change their sexual ways. She likes to say that radical, politicized gays always try to bully and silence other gays — the ones from whom she enjoys great and grateful support.
The campaign against Dr. Laura began in May 1999, when Paramount inked her to do a syndicated television show, to begin airing in September 2000. A prominent gay group, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or GLAAD, raised an alarm. In search of a mutual understanding, Dr. Laura invited the group’s leader, Joan Garry, to have an on-the-record conversation with her. They did. The transcript was published in Dr. Laura’s newsletter, with Garry having editorial control. The header read, “Their views on homosexuality are diametrically opposed, yet Dr. Laura and Joan Garry prove that philosophical differences can co-exist with mutual respect.” This cordiality soon died. A spokesman for Dr. Laura guesses that Garry came under increasing pressure from the militants around her. They were in a mood for war, not dialogue. So, for GLAAD, Dr. Laura became the Great Satan, or at least, as Garry said, the present-day Anita Bryant. In August, GLAAD asked for a meeting with Paramount and vented its concerns.
In January, Brian Lowry of the Los Angeles Times published a column reporting the anger of gay employees at Paramount over their company’s signing of Dr. Laura. David Lee, creator and producer of the popular sitcom Frasier, said, “I think it’s outrageous that Paramount chooses to be in business with a woman who is, I think, literally dangerous to the gay community.” The campaign heated up. Demonization set in. On February 14, GLAAD was granted another meeting with Paramount. Campaigning for president, Bill Bradley endorsed the move to bar Dr. Laura from the airwaves. A few days later, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors introduced a resolution tarring Dr. Laura as an inciter of “violence and hate.”
Then, on March 10, there seemed to be an entente of sorts. Dr. Laura issued what GLAAD calls an apology and what she calls something less. She said, “I never intended to hurt anyone or contribute in any way to an atmosphere of hate or intolerance. Regrettably, some of the words I’ve used have hurt some people, and I am sorry for that. . . . I regularly remind my listeners that we are all made in Gd’s image and, therefore, we should treat one another with love and kindness . . . ” Paramount, for its part, seemed relieved. It pledged that Dr. Laura’s TV show would include “multiple points of view, derived from a variety of sources.” It went on to say, “We have a long history of support for the civil and human rights of all people. We have been equally strong in our support and respect for the free exchange of speech and ideas.” All very neat and American.
Five days later, though, Dr. Laura made it clear, through a column by the Boston Herald’s Don Feder, that she had not meant to apologize, only to clarify. She would not recant any of her views. GLAAD then hit the ceiling, calling for the outright cancellation of Dr. Laura’s TV show. The group held a rally outside Paramount on March 21. Garry, showing a talent for rhetoric, said that the studio had “to recognize that they didn’t buy controversy when they bought this show, they bought trouble.” Dr. Laura, she said, “is a loose cannon, and everyone knows it — gay and straight.” And “if she can’t be controlled, she must be stopped.” This was not “censorship,” she insisted — only an attempt to squelch “defamatory expression” that “encourages prejudice and discrimination.” Demonstrators carried signs such as “Stop Dr. Hate” and the charmingly subtle “Bigots Killed Christ.”
From there, the gay lobby shifted into permanent Get Laura gear. GLAAD bought full-page ads in important newspapers. Another advocacy group, the left-wing outfit TomPaine.com, published ads declaring Dr. Laura “The Queen of Hate Radio.” The conservative Family Research Council bought ads of its own: “The Thought Police Are Out to Silence Dr. Laura.” Dr. Laura remarked that GLAAD’s tactics reminded her of “Stalinist Russia.” Anti-Laura websites proliferated, notably StopDrLaura.com, the command center of the campaign. The site features a picture of Dr. Laura showing her in a diabolical light. It looks doctored. The site also provides information about protests around the country, runs breathless bulletins about the state of the campaign (“San Francisco Station May Drop Laura!”), and sells T-shirts reading, “Are You a Biological Error?” Presumably, GLAAD’s fund-raising has gone through the roof; a group spokesman is coy on the subject. But, as Dr. Laura’s rep points out, GLAAD and its allies can ill afford to let up on Dr. Laura. She is their cause, their rallying point, their cash cow.
The “entertainment community,” too, is in on the act. Susan Sarandon posts messages of solidarity on StopDrLaura.com. GLAAD held one of its “media awards” ceremonies recently, which doubled as a hate-Laura session. Julia Louis-Dreyfus said, “I’ll never forgive her.” GLAAD boasted that it had refused any Paramount funding for the event (although it saw fit to take money from Philip Morris). Liz Smith, the gossip columnist, has expressed the hope that Dr. Laura will “dissolve like the Wicked Witch of the West.” Ellen DeGeneres has labeled Dr. Laura “very dangerous.” Another noted gay performer, however, has shown a bit of American spirit. Said Melissa Etheridge, “Dr. Laura has her own opinion. If people want to listen to it, it’s fine. I don’t believe in shutting anybody up.”
Given the immense pressure on her, Dr. Laura has buckled little. She continues to defend reparative therapy, saying that to deny it to those who crave it is “unbelievably cruel.” She will not accept the swastika that her enemies try to stitch on her: “I am a member of a group that has been persecuted for millennia. To suggest that, because I do not support hate-crimes legislation for any group, I am indifferent to the suffering of others is reprehensible.” Still, some of Dr. Laura’s allies fear that, as the campaign wears on, Dr. Laura will have to pull her punches. Dr. Laura declined to be interviewed for this story, saying through a spokesman that she wanted to “lie low” for a while. Her harassers, though, take no break.
Because of death threats, Dr. Laura has had to cancel a number of engagements, including her annual birthday fund-raiser, which was to be held on April 15 in Michigan. The event would have raised $ 100,000 for her foundation, which benefits disabled and abused children. Asked to comment on the death threats and forced cancellations, GLAAD’s spokesman, Stephen Spurgeon, scoffs. “She always makes claims about death threats,” he says, “and that’s a powerful thing to say, but I don’t see her correspondence.”
Dr. Laura’s TV show is still slated to debut in September. In light of her broad national following, it should be a success. (In addition to her radio work, Dr. Laura is the author of four bestsellers. Her new book has a typically tart Schlessingerian title: Parenthood by Proxy: Don’t Have Them If You Won’t Raise Them.) But the activists continue to hope. John Aravosis, the power behind StopDrLaura.com, has said, “The show’s going to be canceled. This is going to be living hell for Paramount for the next year at least.” Dr. Laura has special scorn for those who believe as she does but will not stand up to the gay lobby. She knows that her fellow conservatives are afraid to touch these issues — doing so brings nothing but grief. She has said, somewhat dramatically, that the gay lobby is trying to “stifle the lone voice out there standing up for Judeo-Christian principles.” She has a point. Laura Schlessinger is, in effect, a lone voice, particularly in Hollywood. Which is probably why her enemies are working so hard to snuff that voice out.
Jay Nordlinger is managing editor of National Review.
