Fox News Reporter: 'Heterophobic Bigots' Forced Antigay Pastor Out of Inauguration

If you don't think a minister who's made vehemently antigay statements deserves an official role at President Obama's inauguration, well, you're just "anti-Christian," "heterophobic," and a bigot, says a Fox News reporter.

Atlanta pastor Louie Giglio, scheduled to give the closing prayer at the inauguration, withdrew from that role this week after an antigay sermon he gave in the 1990s came to light, and the turn of events aroused the ire of Todd Starnes, a Fox News radio host and TV commentator.

"The stench of anti-Christian bigots is wafting across DC," Starnes wrote on Twitter, following it up with a tweet saying, "Don't be afraid to call out anti-Christian Heterophobic bigots & bullies."

Starnes elaborated with a story on the Fox News Radio website in which he quoted such antigay religious figures as Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association and gave space for them to assert that Giglio was forced out, which contradicts Giglio's statement about his withdrawal.

"What's becoming ever so clear to those who thought homosexual activists could be appeased is that their ultimate goal is to sanitize the public space of anyone who holds to a biblical view of morality," Perkins said in the article. Fischer added, "The banishment of Giglio is a naked display of bigotry and hatred directed at the last safe target in America for angry intolerance: Americans who believe what the Scriptures teach about human sexuality."

The watchdog group Media Matters observed that both men's organizations have been classified as hate groups and that neither "is a credible source when it comes to lecturing the administration about 'bigotry.'" Read more here.