Christiane Amanpour slams ‘strange’ DeSantis over LGBTQ rights: ‘Human rights are under fire’

There was a time, way back in the pre-woke, old-timey days, when Christiane Amanpour was an insightful, fearless war correspondent. A time when she understood nuance and worked tirelessly to get to the truth.

Sadly, those days are gone. Amanpour in recent years has gone full-Geraldo, pursuing clicks instead of leads and regurgitating narratives like a Pavlovian dog for her progressive masters.

On Thursday’s broadcast of PBS’s “Amanpour & Co.,” her obedience was on full display as she attacked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in a nearly 20-minute interview with Andrew Solomon, author of the LGBTQ hit, “Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity.”

She set the tone for the show with an introduction that claims states are callously attacking “minority populations.”

“Human rights are under fire all over the world and in the West, particularly in the United States where new state laws target gay, trans, and minority populations,” she stated. “In his nonfiction hit, Far from the Tree, the author, Andrew Solomon, brings empathy to those on the margins, sharing stories of families who are raising children who challenge society’s definition of normal…I spoke with Solomon about the remarkable social progress he’s experienced, and the backlash that threatens to undermine it.”

So, right from the get-go, it’s clear that Amanpour had no intention of having an open, balanced discussion on the complexities of the LGBTQ movement.

She went on to compare “strange” Florida laws — laws enacted to allow parents to have a say in their children’s education and protect minors from life-altering elective medical procedures — to Islamic nations that just execute members of the LGTBQ community.

“So, you mentioned many countries where it’s just, frankly, illegal on pain of death in many African countries, many Islamic countries, and it’s terrible, and that happens now,” she told Solomon. “But in the United States of America — so-called global superpower based on human rights and universal rights, freedom of expression, freedom to be the individual — we’re seeing right now today the very laws and norms and social acceptances that have come towards LGBTQ being challenged, whether it’s at the court level or, let’s just say, the governor of Florida, somebody who clearly wants to be the next president, has implemented a whole raft of strange, strange — requests, bills, laws. How do you see it going in Florida?”

Solomon responded with an anecdote about a speaking engagement in Texas for which he was asked to “skip” a story about a transgender child during his lecture on youth suicide “that was sponsored by the largest children’s hospital in Northern Texas.”

“I got a message from the children’s hospital saying, one of the people you talked about is transgender. And transgender children is a very politicized issue here, and we feel that you are talking about that will alienate a lot of people. So, we would like to ask you to skip that story,” he recalled.

“And I ended up giving the lecture, telling that story,” he continued, “and ending by saying that anyone who supported legislation like the legislation in Texas, that takes medical decisions out of the hands of children, their doctors, and their parents, and puts it in the hands of people who have no qualifications, thereby further stigmatizing –”

“Such as politicians?” Amanpour eagerly interjected.

“Exactly,” he stated. “Thereby further stigmatizing what is already the most marginalized group in America, that those people have blood dripping from their hands.”

And so the show went.

No pushback. No questions about the many “trans” youths who were showered in hormones and encouraged to get mastectomies or to remove their penises and now realize they were just confused teens when they were allowed to make those irreversible, emotional choices.

Why dig into that messy topic when you can bash Ron DeSantis?

“So, let’s fast forward a little bit to the actual current day, and that is the, you know, the political situation,” Amanpour said. “There is a massive culture war going on in the United States and in other democracies, actually. And it’s often around women, around the marginalized, around minorities, LGBTQ. And we see from, you know, banning books on the issue to — what do they say in Florida? ‘Don’t say gay’  or whatever. I mean, what effect, do you think, that will have?”

Of course, Amanpour knows full well that Florida legislatures never said, “Don’t say gay.”

She is well aware of the fact that the “Parental Rights in Education” bill sought only to prevent teachers from discussing gender fluidity and sexual identity with kindergartners through third graders.

“Or whatever.”

Christiane Amanpour isn’t stupid.

She evidently just doesn’t care about facts anymore.

You can watch the full interview, via NewsBusters, here:


(Video: NewsBusters)

Melissa Fine

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