December 30, 2014
Michelle Duggar's Lesbian Sister's Partner Speaks Out
EDGE READ TIME: 2 MIN.
What do you do when you're the matriarch of America's most famous anti-gay family who has a lesbian sister with a longtime partner? Pray that nobody from "that side of the family" speaks out.
As the old saying goes "God answers all prayers, but sometimes the answer is 'no'."
According to a report on Radar Online, Sharon Callahan, 52, the longtime partner of Michelle Duggar's lesbian sister Evelyn Ruark, has broken silence on her opinion of her famous in-laws.
"We are worried about them," Callahan said. "We have often thought that QuiverFull is a cult. It appears to be brainwashing to me."
According to the Daily Beast, the Duggars are members of a fringe strain of fundamentalist Christianity dubbed the "Christian patriarchy," or sometimes the "Quiverfull" movement, which preaches a combination of beliefs that run counter to mainstream America: Absolute female submission, a ban on dating, homeschooling, a rejection of higher education for women and shunning of contraception in favor of trying to have as many children as humanly possible.
Michelle Duggar came under fire in late 2014 for lending her voice and celebrity star power to a series of fear-mongering, transphobic robocalls on behalf of an initiative that successfully overturned a recently passed Fayetteville, Arkansas city ordinance that protected against specific types of discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and other criteria. The law also would have created a municipal civil rights administrator position to investigate discrimination complaints.
In the robocalls, Duggar likened trans women to criminals and child molesters.
"It's not the first time the�Duggar�clan has used their celebrity to advocate against equality." Said the Human Rights Campaign in a statement published in December. "In October 2013, the Duggars�went on the road with the Family Research Council for a�'Values Bus Tour'�across Virginia in support of a radically anti-LGBT gubernatorial ticket. Last month, Josh�Duggar�led a rally against marriage equality in Little Rock, Arkansas last minute."
