UPDATE: Since we issued our GLAAD Alert last Tuesday, we're received a tremendous response from LGBT community member and allies protesting Larry King's one-sided promotion of the bigoted intolerance of James Dobson and Focus on the Family. And we're continuing to speak directly with CNN and Larry King staffers, calling on them to produce programming that features the stories of real people who can refute Dobson's inaccurate, defamatory attacks on our lives and our families.

Please take a moment today to send CNN and Larry King Live a message. Let them know that they have an obligation to focus on and air the real-life stories of our community, particularly in the wake of their decision to actively promote -- not once, but four times in two years -- the bigoted intolerance of Focus on the Family.

Following a diatribe against the Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas, King queried Dobson as to why he seemed so interested in dictating LGBT people's private lives. Dobson responded by attacking civil marriage equality for same-sex couples, claiming, "that will destroy the family, which will destroy the nation, and I think eventually have a major impact on Western Civilization."
When asked by King whether gay people can have families, Dobson responded, "Homosexuals can be, you know, committed to each other. And they have freedom to behave in the ways that they do, but they cannot be a family."
Dobson also repeatedly claimed same-sex couples "want to destroy marriage." After King asked Dobson why he believed that, Dobson claimed, "Many, many homosexuals are not committed for life. The research shows that they have as many as 300 to 1,000 partners in a lifetime. Why would they want to commit themselves to a binding relationship that prevents that?" King did not challenge either Dobson's claims or his highly dubious statistics.
After claiming that the Britney Spears/Madonna kiss was "part of this continuing effort to desensitize people to homosexuality," Dobson moved onto TV sitcoms, claiming that "almost every one of them now has a homosexual in a very respected role and then you have some straight guy who is a complete clod and a fool." He then attacked Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, characterizing it as "four homosexual men and then one fool that they're working on." (Dobson's factual errors -- in fact, only seven out of the more than 50 broadcast TV sitcoms have any gay, lesbian or bisexual characters, and there are five, not four, members of the Fab Five -- while they might seem trivial, exemplify the anti-gay right's tendency to mislead people through factual inaccuracies -- whether they're uninformed [as with Dobson's Queer Eye error) or intentionally misleading (as with his obviously inaccurate TV sitcom claim].)

On his Focus on the Family Web site and in his writings, Dobson uses inaccurate, defamatory scare tactics to frighten parents into forcing their children into dangerous, discredited pseudo-therapies designed to "cure" gay people. In a recent Focus on the Family publication, he repeatedly labels being gay "a disorder," and then exploits parents' uncertainty and concern by telling them that if they believe they have "an effeminate boy or a masculinized girl" that they should consult a book by anti-gay activist Joseph Nicolosi (whom Dobson praises as "the foremost authority on the prevention and treatment of homosexuality") and then "seek immediate professional help." (the entire essay can be read at http://www.family.org/docstudy/newsletters/a0021043.html)

Unfortunately -- and despite his well-documented attacks on the LGBT community -- this is not the first time that Dobson has appeared as King's sole, hour-long guest, but the FOURTH time in just the past two years.

For King to repeatedly feature Dobson's misleading, error-filled attacks sends a harmful message to the CNN audience, especially when no other guests are invited on the show to refute Dobson's inaccurate, defamatory depictions of gay and lesbian lives and families -- and when King's lines of questioning are so mild and deferential. CNN's and Larry King Live's one-sided promotion of Focus on the Family's defamatory attacks on the lives and relationships of LGBT Americans needs to end.

Write to Larry King Live executive producer Wendy Walker Whitworth using GLAAD's TAKE ACTION function by clicking 'Take Action' above. Tell her that you expect Larry King to stop allowing Focus on the Family and James Dobson to launch one-sided, unchallenged attacks on the LGBT community. Let them know that after Dobson's anti-gay diatribes on Sept. 5, you expect Larry King Live to produce a show featuring individuals and/or couples who can challenge Dobson's attacks on our lives and talk about the harm caused by our nation's refusal to extend basic protections, rights and dignity to same-sex couples and families. GLAAD is currently requesting this in direct conversations with CNN producers, so please help us by making your opinion known!