A TV news station is saying that watching porn is spreading gay culture and making viewers gay.
Leading regional channel TV9 Telugu in India recently tried to expose "the spread of homosexuality" in a segment called “Gay Culture on the Rise in Telugu States.”
The segment originally aired on December 25. In addition, several sites are reporting that the segment was shared on the news station’s Youtube channel, but it seems the video has since been taken down.
At the start of the segment, the anchor declared:
“The gay culture in western countries, is now increasing in the Telugu states. A large number of youngsters are now turning homosexual.”
"What is the reason for the increase of this gay culture?” she asks, “What are doctors saying?"
The anchor then turns it over to a reporter who asks more questions like, “Are mental health problems the reason behind people turning gay?”
But possibly the worst thing is when the channel interviewed two anonymous doctors.
One anonymous doctor seemed alright and only persisted that gay men should commit to safe sex in order to prevent contracting STDs.
The other doctor sadly went in the other direction.
“According to him, there are two things to be considered while 'dealing' with homosexual persons. The first being ‘trapping’ and ‘luring’ passive people into thinking that being gay is alright and okay. And the second are the Internet, social media and pornography.”
But it gets even worse. The news story then gave information for organizations that treat people who identify as gay and asked viewers to help stop the spread of gay culture.
“There is a need for youth to restrain from getting attracted to same sex, and they should be extremely cautious about the changes in the society or else the gay culture will further thrive,” it says.
As you can imagine, several people were upset by this discriminatory message presented by a well-known news agency.
“The general public learns from the media. They assume that the media is telling them the right things, and will agree with TV9 when it pushes homophobic content like this," said Abhishek from Queer Campus Hyderabad, an agglomeration of LGBTQ allies in the city.
"It is the responsibility of media persons to research and understand the issue that they are talking about before broadcasting such content.”
