Valuable ‘Nick News’ Examines Gay Parenting

Hate is wrong. “Am I right on that?” Linda Ellerbee asks in tonight’s “Nick News Special Edition.”

If that is “pro-homosexual propaganda”--as Andrea Lafferty, director of the Traditional Values Coalition, has charged about this bold and valuable kids’ special she didn’t see--then Jerry Falwell himself is pro-gay.

Falwell’s knee-jerk gay bashing has sometimes earned him ridicule even among some of his fellow fundamentalist Christians. But he speaks from the other side of his mouth in this half-hour, titled “My Family Is Different,” which explores issues related to gay parenting without preaching.

“I don’t think gays and lesbians should in any way be harassed or robbed of their civil rights,” Falwell says in a segment taped at Liberty University, where he is chancellor. On the other hand, he again calls homosexuality a “lifestyle,” as if he could exchange his heterosexual “lifestyle” for those of Ellerbee’s gay adult guests: a fireman, a school principal and outgoing TV talk-show host Rosie O’Donnell, a parent who has publicly acknowledged being lesbian.

Ellerbee, longtime host and producer of “Nick News,” keeps the promise she makes here not to tell kids “what to think” about homosexuality. Instead, in addition to Falwell, there’s a short film about the pressures schoolmates put on a 12-year-old girl because she has “two moms.” And Ellerbee--as always approaching her subject from a young perspective without talking down--explores the hate issue with youngsters in the studio, all of whom appear to be among the most thoughtful kids on the planet.

As the host mostly just listens, three say they have at least one gay parent, and three say they believe homosexuality to be “wrong.” Several represent minorities historically victimized in the United States by the same kind of hate and prejudice inflicted on gays.

“It’s against our religion,” a Muslim girl says of homosexuality. “But it’s also against our religion to discriminate.” A strong message, another strong Ellerbee show--one that parents should join their kids in watching.

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“Nick News Special Edition: My Family Is Different” can be seen at 9 tonight on Nickelodeon. The network has rated it TV-PG (may be unsuitable for younger children).