Gonzo doesn’t have to worry about Camilla and his other chickens anymore, because the Muppets are officially going to be eating less chicken. In a Facebook note posted Friday evening, The Jim Henson Company, which currently offers toys in Chick-fil-A kids’ meals, announced that will no longer partner with the fast food chain on any future endeavors because of its anti-gay policies:

The Jim Henson Company has celebrated and embraced diversity and inclusiveness for over fifty years and we have notified Chick-Fil-A that we do not wish to partner with them on any future endeavors.  Lisa Henson, our CEO is personally a strong supporter of gay marriage and has directed us to donate the payment we received from Chick-Fil-A to GLAAD.  (http://www.glaad.org/)

It should come as no surprise that the Henson Company has taken this position, because the Muppets have long supported diversity in all its forms. Notably, Kermit and Miss Piggy’s interspecies relationship has always been a compelling allegory for non-traditional unions, like same-sex couples, and last year, Kermit even admitted that he had to “come out” as a mammal lover. If a group of entertainers as warm and inviting as the Muppets don’t want to affiliate with a company, that’s a very large indicator that its policies aren’t good for society.

Today, ThinkProgress caught up with Zach Wahls, who has been advocating for the Boy Scouts of America to change their policy discriminating against LGBT scouts and scout leaders. Last week, he delivered over 275,000 petition signatures from individuals opposed to the policy, a response to the ousting of Ohio mom Jen Tyrrell as a den leader because she is a lesbian. BSA announced today that it will reconsider allowing gay scouts and scouters next year, and Wahls is hopeful that the prospect of change is legitimate, not just a public relations ploy:

WAHLS: It’s not a smokescreen. This proposal was made after Jen Tyrrell’s pettion on Change.org. So even though this has been brought up in the past, it’s never gotten nearly the level of attention that it has today. And as another departure from the past, there’s never been a group — which I actually launched in coordination with a number of other Eagle Scouts today called Scouts For Equality — and we’re going to be working with a number of different groups to really build a community of scouts — Eagle scouts, former scout leaders, that sort of thing — we’re really going to work toward making this policy change.

Watch the full exclusive interview:

Attempting to respond to anti-gay comments by Kansas pastor Curtis Knapp, CNN anchor Ashleigh Banfield said yesterday that incest and pedophilia “are not by choice and are crimes” whereas “homosexuality is a lifestyle choice by people. It is voluntary.” She later clarified on Twitter that “being gay is not a choice. Being in a consensual relationship is. I support LGBT people.” This morning, she walked back her original comments on air:

BANFIELD: When I said that incest and pedophilia involve people who don’t have a choice — victims who don’t have a choice — and then said a gay relationship, you do have a choice, they are not crimes. Gay people involved in relationships are not committing any crimes at all. However, those who perpetrate incest and perpetrate pedophilia are committing crimes.

I don’t know that my comments were taken in that light and I certainly hope they were, but in no way did I ever want to suggest that being gay is a choice. It is not. And I probably used the word “lifestyle choice” — not what I meant to say at all. Being gay is not a choice; being in a voluntary gay relationship is a choice. It is not a crime.

So I hope that at least clears up any of the comments I made after that story of the pastor. And in no way do I agree with or stand by any of the comments that that pastor made either.

Watch it:

No doubt, Banfield made a big gaffe by using language that anti-gay activists regularly use. A sexual orientation is not a choice, nor is it a “lifestyle.” It’s a core part of who people are, defining their lives, not their style. It was right to criticize her word choice and good of her to walk back the comments and clarify what she meant. Allies are only helpful if they know how to be helpful.

In Banfield’s defense, the point she was trying to make was a valid one. Instead of “voluntary choice,” the language she was looking for was “consent.” Pedophilia is definitely a violation of consent, and incest often is as well. They are crimes for that reason. In same-sex relationships, both individuals consent to be together just as in opposite-sex couples. Banfield seemed to be trying to validate gay families as healthy and normal, and hopefully organizations like GLAAD can continue to work with her and other newspeople to help them use the best possible language in that effort.

Few elected Republicans have been willing to go on the record this week about President Obama’s support for marriage equality, which has created an opening for religious conservatives to speak out to media news outlets. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, has made numerous appearances, including at least three on CNN over the past few days. GLAAD’s Herndon Graddick took CNN to task for ignoring the vitriol Perkins stands for as the leader of an anti-gay hate group:

But when Perkins gets interviewed, a responsible journalist needs to tell the audience exactly who Perkins is speaking for. Based on his own statements — Tony Perkins represents people who believe supporting LGBT equality is akin to being a terrorist. Who believe marriage equality is the same as bestiality. Who say that gay people are “vile,” “hateful,” “spiteful” “pawns of the enemy.” Tony Perkins does not represent people who oppose marriage equality. Tony Perkins represents those who oppose LGBT people — period.

If CNN wants that side represented in this discussion, then Perkins is absolutely the right man for the job. But they need to make it clear to the audience that that’s what he’s there for. And by not doing so, they have not told the whole story.

GLAAD created the Commentator Accountability Project for exactly this reason, to make sure that anti-gay voices are properly identified and contextualized when they’re amplified by the media. After several appearances in which Perkins’ views went unchallenged, he finally faced his comeuppance in an appearance on MSNBC’s Harball yesterday evening. Both Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and host Christ Matthews took Perkins to task for teaching his children that being gay is wrong and for preventing children in need from being adopted by same-sex couples. Watch it:

(Click on the graph to see it full size.)

A new study from GLAAD and the University of Missoui Center on Religion & the Professions finds that pro-LGBT people of faith are the “Missing Voices” — severely underrepresented in mainstream media. In fact, three out of four religious messages about LGBT issues over the past three years have come from people who identify with anti-gay faith traditions. Evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics were by far the most represented in the media, with mostly negative messages to share, while those from Mainline Protestant and Black Church affiliations often shared positive messages but were invited to do so significantly less often.

The study also notes that the proportion of these messages does not reflect the U.S. population. Evangelicals appear more often (34 percent) than their presence in the population should warrant (26 percent), and the frequency of anti-LGBT Catholic messages (over 50 percent) conflicts with the strong LGBT support among American Catholics (over 71 percent). In contrast, about 16 percent of the population identifies as Humanist, atheist, or agnostic, but that group only constituted 1 percent of religious discussions on LGBT issues.

Perhaps the most troubling result of the study was the discovery that the media constructs a conflict between religion and the LGBT community. Those hostile to LGBT people were often identified with their religious identity, while those who were supportive or neutral were not.

ThinkProgress similarly documented that progressive voices of faith were completely absent from the Sunday morning political shows’ conversations about religion. This clip serves as a perfect example for how one-sided the media has become on matters of spirituality: