Pastor Greg Locke got a friendly Fox News platform to discuss his viral rant against Target's transgender bathroom policy, in which he called transgenders "perverts, pedophiles, people that are going to harm our children."
Host Neil Cavuto set up the discussion by legitimizing Locke’s rant:
CAVUTO: By the way, that pastor's rant there went viral, but no more so than the policy that triggered it. Target, the big retailer, now saying that transgenders move to the front of the line here, and can use whatever bathroom they wish, not thinking it through that a lot of regular customers would be upset. 982,000 signatures, those boycotting this new policy. Greg Locke is the lead pastor at Global Vision Bible Church, as I said, that has gone viral. Pastor, good to have you with us. You're saying what exactly?
Cavuto didn’t mention that the group boycotting Target is an anti-LGBT hate group.
Locke complained, “I have four small kids under the age of 11, and I think this is going to open Pandora's box for a lot of people to bend this new policy and this law to their deviant behavior.”
Cavuto offered some nominal pushback, asking, “What do you say to people who have your view, pastor, who say, ‘Well, they're not inclusive, they're not open-minded, they're bigoted against transgenders.’ You say what?”
Locke responded with a twist on the “some of my best friends are gay” trope:
LOCKE: Well, certainly I've got that a lot. […] Here's what I try to get people to understand. If a gay person, if I can just use that terminology, was drowning, I would risk my life to save them. I would feed them, they're welcome to come to our church, we speak the truth in love, and we have raised a generation of people that believe that morals and convictions and values equal bigotry and discrimination. And I think that is a great injustice in the day and age in which we live.
Instead of calling out the hate that Locke tried to camouflage as Christian love, Cavuto feigned more pushback – while insulting transgenders:
CAVUTO: Alright, now they turn around as you know pastor, and say, "Well, you are slighting me. I'm troubled and not knowing whether I'm a man or a woman, I'm confused." You say what?
Locke repeated his insistence that he’s not a bigot. “I don’t have all the answers,” he said. “But this I do know, we're going to be very compassionate, and we're going to tread the waters lightly, but we're still going to stand.” He added, “We’re not mean spirited, we're not hateful. We're certainly not somebody like Westboro Baptist church, those people are ridiculous.
Locke went on to criticize the businesses and entertainers boycotting North Carolina over its anti-LGBT legislation for trying to "bully" the state.
Then he closed with a closer look at his “compassionate” views:
LOCKE: I do not see it as discrimination, I do not see it as bigotry. I see it as a war against common sense. This is going to open the door to a lot of perversity, and it's going to happen, it's just going to come. We're living in some very dangerous days, and people are afraid to speak out, for fear of the fallout that's going to transpire.
Watch it below, via Media Matters, from the April 28 Your World.
Well, I guess that’s alrighty then.
Yeah, guess that’s okay if you are a republican…