John Fugelsang zinged conservative radio host Heidi Harris on this Friday's The Ed Show during a discussion on whether a person's sexual orientation ought to be covered under anti-discrimination statutes, like the one that was just voted down by North Dakota legislators this week.
I don't know why MSNBC's Ed Schultz feels compelled to keep having this woman back on his show since she generally has very little to add to the dialog than the type of nonsense we saw from her this Friday that both Schultz and Fugelsang called her out for.
Comedian John Fugelsang clashed with conservative radio host Heidi Harris on Friday when Harris questioned the need for sexual orientation to be covered under anti-discrimination statutes.
“Being gay is what sets a person apart from straight people,” Fugelsang told Harris on MSNBC’s Ed Show. “If you don’t like gay people, take it up with the manufacturer, because God keeps creating them around the world.”
“Did I say I didn’t like gay people?” Harris shot back. “I did not say that.”
“Well, stick up for them, Heidi,” he countered. “You’re a nice person.”
Harris argued that in the workplace, only a person’s behavior could set them apart, proving that non-discrimination statutes like one that was voted down by North Dakota legislators on Thursday were unnecessary.
“Why are we protecting a certain group of people because of their behavior?” Harris asked at one point, causing Fugelsang to facepalm. “Not only that, but how do you prove someone didn’t get hired because they were gay? You can’t prove that any more than you can prove somebody didn’t get hired because of their age or their sex.”
“Being gay is behavior?” host Ed Schultz asked, cutting Harris off.
“Of course it is,” she replied.
Schultz pointed out that, because of the defeat of Senate Bill 2279, the state’s LGBT community can lose not only employment, but housing opportunities because of their gender or sexuality.
“You can do that in North Dakota now, Heidi,” Fugelsang said.
“They could have done it in North Dakota two weeks ago,” Harris countered. “Was anybody suing about that?”
Harris then argued that there has been no evidence of abusing state law for the purposes of anti-gay discrimination in the past 22 years.
“You might not realize this, but sometimes straight people are mean to gay people,” Fugelsang said to her. “That’s why gay people have needed more protection.”
“Wow, there’s a sweeping statement — all straight people are mean, and all gay people are perfect,” she countered, reinterpreting Fugelsang’s words.
Which he immediately gave her a load of grief for after she tried twisting what he said.
I think Fugelsang would make an excellent host if MSNBC, who claims they're ready to do some big shakeup at the network, or any of the rest of them who might be hiring, decided to pick him up. I won't hold my breath on that, especially since MSNBC looks like they're ready to turn the entire network into a version of Morning Joe redux.
If there are any SiriusXM subscribers out there who haven't caught his show yet on 121 XM Insight, Tell Me Everything, which is on from 2-5 pm eastern time with reairs at night is just wonderful. He covers everything from music to pop culture to politics to the news of the day, and it's three hours of radio that will leave you laughing and smarter than when you arrived if you get a chance to check it out.
