Michelle Duggar Called ‘Hateful Bigot’, Friend Is ‘Disgusted’ With Duggar’s Anti-Gay Stance
Michelle Duggar is being called a “hateful bigot” by one of her former high school classmates. Once known as a friendly high school cheerleader, the 19 Kids and Counting reality star is not as well liked as she was back when she attended Springdale Senior High School in Arkansas.
Radar Online reports that Sherrl McFerrin, who went to school with the then Michelle Ruark, is outraged about Duggar’s anti-gay stance. McFerrin remembers Michelle as “one of the loveliest, sweetest people you could ever hope to meet” — but she doesn’t feel that way now.
What changed McFerrin’s mind about her high school friend? Apparently, Michelle Duggar’s campaign against an anti-discrimination bill in Arkansas is what made her stop thinking of the mother of 19 as a sweet person.
The Huffington Post reports that Duggar was the voice behind a robocall that went out to Fayetteville residents in late 2014, one in which the star of TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting urged residents to strike down a bill that would grant equal rights to the transgender community. Michelle Duggar’s efforts to stop the anti-discrimination bill worked. Formally known as Ordinance 119, the bill was repealed 52-48 in early December.
McFerrin, who reportedly has both a gay son and sister, tells Radar that she doesn’t know what happened to Michelle Duggar’s heart and feels that her beliefs are “hateful and bigoted.”
“I don’t understand what has happened to her heart… But when your beliefs are hateful and bigoted … that’s a different story. When you [use] your words, actions, money and fame to further discriminate against an already marginalized group of people, you are a hateful bigot… the Duggars have blood on their hands. There is more of it every time another precious [gay or transgender] child takes his or her own life.”
In an effort to protest Michelle Duggar’s stance against the LGBT community, Sherrl McFerrin took a photo of her sister, Tandra Barnfield, kissing her girlfriend in front of the Duggar’s house. The photo was posted to Banfield’s Instagram page and subsequently shared on McFerrin’s Facebook page.
“For every bit of hate, we’re going to spread that much more love.”
Michelle Duggar isn’t the only member of the 19 Kids clan who actively campaign against the LGBT community. Media Matters reports that in October 2013, the Duggars were part of a “Values Bus Tour” with the Family Research Council to support an anti-LGBT gubernatorial ticket.
Michelle and her husband, Jim Bob Duggar, also made headlines for reportedly deleting photos of same-sex couples kissing from the Duggar family’s Facebook page, causing an uproar and an associated Change.org petition that was set up to “end LGBTQ fear mongering” by the Duggar family.
In November 2014, the Duggar’s oldest son, Josh, spoke at an anti-gay marriage rally in Arkansas, telling his followers that the had a right to “preserve marriage as the union of a man and a woman.”
[Images: TLC, Happy_Lil_Tantan Instagram]
