When it comes to the culture war, official Fox "news" anchor, Martha MacCallum is a very good soldier. She was horrified about the availability of emergency contraception because, she felt, it would mean that slutty teens could purchase the pill if they thought that they might be pregnant. That was a lie because the pill doesn't, as she suggested, cause abortions.  And when it comes to anti-bullying school programs that include lessons on gender diversity, she was in full agreement with the head of the homophobic hate group, the Family Research Council, Tony Perkins that schools should focus on academics rather than "transgender lessons." Monday, she joined the Fox propaganda blast against the landmark CA law, aimed at protecting transgender students, by agreeing with FRC spokesperson and all around homophobe Peter Sprigg that this law will allow students to "change their identity" on a daily basis. As she did with Perkins, she opined that schools should focus on academics. And, in keeping with the popular Fox talking point, there was an abundance of bathroom references. (What is it with bathrooms and the Christian right???)

MacCallum immediately set up the patented Fox "controversy" which, in reality, is "controversial" only for a small minority of those in the radical religious right: "There's a controversial new law in California that's raising some eyebrows." She reported that students could choose bathrooms and teams "depending on how they identify and not their biology." She introduced her guests attorney Tamara Holder and Sprigg. She didn't mention that Sprigg, who has said (among many offensive and ignorant comments) that homosexuality is "harmful to the people who engage in it and to society at large," is employed by an SPLC designated hate group.

Sprigg immediately got into THE SEX: “You're talking about a bill that sets biological sex which is expressed in our internal sex organs, our external genitalia and the chromosomal makeup of every cell of our body against transient feelings and emotions of young people, of adolescents in this case, and saying, 'Oh, we're going to ignore the biological reality and define a person on the basis of these transient emotions.' I think it makes no sense even apart from the radical implications of it for use of bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams." As he spoke, the chyron reinforced the "controversy."

Holder ripped into Sprigg for making assertions about "transient feelings" not backed up by empirical evidence. She brought up the issue of bullying which is opposed by the FRC because, they believe, it advances a "gay agenda."  MacCallum brought up bathrooms: "Why do you even need a boys room and a girls room?" Getting hissy, she asked "why not have some huge bathroom." She asked about problems arising when kids "feel like" the opposite gender which, she asserted, could happen on any given day. And then she absolutely lied when, after admitting that this is a sensitive issue, she claimed that it ISN"T A BIG PROBLEM." Fact Check - A University of Arizona study shows that "LGBT students who experienced high levels of school victimization are more likely to report physical and mental health problems in early adulthood." Media Matters has more information refuting MacCallum's claim.

Disregarding that whole states rights thing that Fox supported when it came to the Texas abortion law, McCallum whined about how the schools should put academics before "opening up something that may be problematic for those children and everybody else." The SPLC has designated the FRC as a hate group, in part, because their homophobic claims are not based in science. This was shown when Sprigg said that the FRC "opposes" the notion that people can "change their sex," an assertion that does not comport with the science. He again brought up bathrooms in relation to "biological realities."

MacCallum agreed and asked Holder what happens when a child is "traumatized" by a boy in the bathroom. She asked if "transgender or those who think they might be have to prove their success was hampered in the education sphere by not being able to go into the other bathroom? After Holder cited how bullying impacts education, MacCallum said that "reading and math proficiency is a much bigger problem." She closed by saying that "it's a hot issue and you got to ask the big questions about where we're headed in the big picture." (Right, Martha, this gay agenda is the demise of America as we know it!)

There should be no question as to why the FRC is a hate group. There should be no question as to why Fox viewers are uninformed. There should be no question as to Martha MacCallum's bias in what is billed as "fair & balanced" real "news."