On Tuesday, Fox News contributor and AM talk radio host Sandy Rios doubled down on her claims that the love between LGBT people is unnatural and more akin to the "love" professed by Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro and his victims. According to Right Wing Watch, Rios claimed that the furor that erupted over her remarks was the result of a misunderstanding, then proceeded to lay out another set of patently false anti-LGBT talking points.
“I stand by what we say," Rios insisted. "As unfortunate and uncomfortable, heartbreaking, irrational that seems to some of you that are so steeped in the homosexual lifestyle, you’re steeped in popular culture, it’s still the truth.”
She went on to lecture LGBT people, saying that if they have a problem with her remarks, then maybe it's because they're true.
“If what we’re saying is not true, it should have no power over you,” she said. "Because, you know," she helpfully explained, "there aren’t many lasting relationships – maybe among lesbians, but certainly not among gay men, that’s not the norm."
Rios told LGBT people that she doesn't think they're so broken that they are incapable of love, but that they're engaging in the wrong kind of love, which will inevitably lead to "heartbreak," especially "when you get older." If they would just enter into heterosexual marriages, she said, everything would be just fine with God.
"You’re humans, you love," she conceded. "The point is, the right kind of love. The right kind of love is life-giving. And the right kind of love is love for God, love for your natural family, love between a man and a woman and a woman and a man in marriage. Not cohabitating. There’s just some standards that God lays down.”
A 2007 UCLA study found conclusively that long-term LGBT relationships -- including those of gay men -- are just as likely to last as those of heterosexual couples.
"There is considerable evidence that both lesbians and gay men want to be in strong, committed relationships [and] are successful in creating these partnerships, despite difficulties created by social prejudice, stigma, and the lack of legal recognition for same-sex relationships in most parts of the U.S.," wrote UCLA psychologist and study co-author Anne Peplau.
Listen to Rios' remarks, embedded below via RightWingWatch.org:
Part One
Part Two
