I’d be more into this news if his son wasn’t still runningThe 700 Club, but at least the world is down one raging homophobe.
How do you open a story about the death of Pat Robertson, a right-wing Christian media mogul who used his platform to blame 9/11 on gay people? “Ding dong the witch is dead?” No, that’s rude to Elphaba, whose misplaced anger at Dorothy makes sense if you give it a minute. We could turn to the Book of Proverbs, but that only reminds us not to rejoice when our enemies are vanquished, which will not do in this moment. So we’ll have to go with a straight approach, which feels fitting for a man who openly hated queers of all stripes: Televangelist crank Pat Robertson is finally dead at 93.
In his long 93 years, Robertson never backed down from hating queer people. In 2013, he said people can change their “sexual preferences,” much like rapists and murders can change their actions. And it wasn’t just the gays that he hated; Robertson had terrible things to say about Black people, too. When the 2010 earthquake devastated Haiti, Robertson told his viewers that it was so devastating because Haitians made a pact with the devil when they were fighting colonialists for freedom. “They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French. True story,” Robertson said. “And so, the devil said, ‘Okay it’s a deal.’”
Another of his absolute bangers was asserting that an equal rights amendment in Iowa was proposed so women can practice witchcraft. As the New York Times explained the August 1992 letter:
But Mr. Robertson’s letter, distributed late last month to supporters of the evangelical organization Christian Coalition, described the proposal as part of a “feminist agenda” that “is not about equal rights for women.” Claims of ‘Anti-Family’ [sic]
Instead, the letter said, “it is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”
As former Jezebel editor Erin Ryan eloquently said: Rot in power, you sick fuck. And I guess send up some prayers for the end of The 700 Club, which is currently hosted by Robertson’s son.
