Bill O’Reilly is once again defending an implication that being gay is equivalent to pedophilia and sexual abuse. He has specifically gone after Colorado House Speaker Mark Ferrandino for opposing Jessica’s Law while supporting civil unions for gay couples, and brings up the fact that Ferrandino is gay at every opportunity when discussing the issue.

On his March 12 show, he said:

“Colorado will not even put [Jessica’s Law] up for a vote in the legislature. That’s because Speaker of the House Mark Ferrandino has done everything he can to sabotage the law … We describe the Speaker as openly gay because Americans don’t know who he is and that description is used in almost every article ever written about him. And the reason we brought up civil unions is because Ferrandino objected to that vote being sabotaged by Republicans a few years ago, and then he turned around and used the same technique to table Jessica’s Law.” Here’s the video:

O’Reilly is referring to the Denver Post discussing how he conflates Ferrandino’s sexual identity with opposing enactment of Jessica’s Law, and accuses the paper of being dishonest in its characterization of him.

Jessica’s Law was first enacted in Florida in 2005 to punish sex offenders harshly, and reduce their ability to commit more sex crimes. Many states have since enacted the same or similar measures, but Colorado, having stringent laws and harsh punishments for sex crimes already on the books, has failed several times to pass Jessica’s Law.

O’Reilly’s stance on homosexuality shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, as he claims to be devoutly Christian and is an extreme social conservative. Around Christmas of 2012, when discussing the so-called War on Christmas, both O’Reilly and his guest, Bernard McGuirk, blamed the War on Christmas on gays and on abortionists, simply because those two things go against Christianity.

Very recently, O’Reilly blamed the media for the increase in people who support same-sex marriage, saying that a well-thought out campaign led by people like Ellen DeGeneres, and the failure of the right to formulate a strong, convincing defense of the reasons why we shouldn’t have gay marriage, is why there’s been this increase in support over the last 12 years.

In 2009, he invoked the Judeo-Christian “roots” of our country, saying that those traditions mean a nuclear family is the root of our society. He also invokes the famed “slippery slope,” saying that if we allow same-sex marriage, we also have to allow polygamy and more, solely for the purpose of equality for everyone. He ended that with a lament about how we’re no longer the United States, because liberal states will do one thing and conservatives will do another (presumably the “proper”) thing.

But the worst was in August 2012, when he defended the Family Research Council’s belief that pedophilia is a homosexual problem by reading from a press release for the FRC, and then explaining what he just read as such:

“So their belief system says that homosexuality is sinful. It is wrong. Are they a hate group for that belief? […] So they are pointing out that, in this area, there is a higher percentage of gay pedophilia, homosexual pedophilia, than heterosexual pedophilia. Are they a hate group for pointing that out? […] I think the statistics are-I could be wrong but we’ll get them-that the male-boy pedophilia problem is much more intense than the male-girl pedophilia problem.”

The comments that he’s made on his show appear to defend a position that demonstrate that he is, at best, conflating homosexuality and pedophilia, and at worst, equating the two. On the March 12 show, after going after the Denver Post, he said:

“I have to report the truth here. First truism, homosexuality has nothing to do with the crime of pedophilia. Second, everyone we report on is defined and that guy is proud of his circumstance and promotes it, so we reported it.”

Given what he said in August, and his defense of his comments regarding Mr. Ferrandino’s sexual identity every time he brings up Jessica’s Law, the statement rings a little hollow.

Rika Christensen is an experienced writer and loves debating politics. Engage with her and see more of her work by following her on Facebook and Twitter, and check out her blog, They Need To Go.