“fag,” “flamer,” and “dyke”. Those are words used by Focus on the Family US.

I’m going to write Focus on the Family Canada.

These meta tags first appeared in the US in 2005. To keep it simple for us none tech types, meta tags are words coded into a internet page to help search engines.

META NAME=”Keywords”  CONTENT=”same sex attraction, ex gay, sexual partner, life partner, gay, lesbian, lover, butch, effeminate, dyke, flamer, fag”
 

Here is Focus on the Family’s Canada 2007 meta tags for their Troubled With Love and Sex section:

META NAME=”keywords” CONTENT= “same-sex attraction, ex-gay, sexual partner, life partner, gay, lesbian, lover, butch, effeminate, dyke, flamer, fag”

To view meta tags in Internet Explorer - IE - go to: View: Source
To view in Firefox go to - View: Page Source

When this was brought to the attention of Focus on the Family US in 2005, the following response was received.

11/23/05 Rick Shea

Thank you for writing to TroubledWith.com. We appreciate your taking a moment to share your thoughts regarding our meta tags and keywords.

In response, keywords are not intended to represent the philosophical perspective of the web site sponsor. They are created solely to direct traffic to the website. In the instance you raised, our market research showed that a fair number of people searching for content on homosexuality tend to use the offensive terms that were in the keywords. Given our goal of reaching those with unanswered questions about homosexuality with a compassionate message of transformation and truth, we included those keywords we knew would help interested readers find the articles they were looking for - including the offensive keywords receiving recent publicity. Nevertheless the manner in which our motives have been so seriously distorted has led us to modify our metatag keywords on homosexuality.

Thanks again for writing. We hope this response has been helpful. Grace and peace to you!

Rick O’Shea
TroubledWith.com

Lovely corporate response isn’t it? 
It was done because of what their marketers said.
It was done to help people buy their products.
It was done to help hurting people ‘find’ them.  
And, oh blast it all, Focus on the Family is the victim again of a distorted media effort, because the intent is not to have things appear exactly as they appear.
The company took the tags down, let’s give them credit for that.
But they get no credit for putting them back up.
Nor do they get a speck of respect for putting them back up and using them in other countries.

Let’s get real here. Exodus International (Love Won Out) is a branch of Focus on the Family that rakes in a lot of money with conferences, affiliations and product advocating reparative therapy. Nothing to do with what Christianity is about, but they will fight tooth and nail to convince people otherwise and use skilled marketers to do it.

The meta tags are not only on their Canadian site, they are also on the UK site, the Australian site, the New Zealand site…need I go on? This is an international company and some of their Internet pages originate from the US headquarters server.

What am I offended by? 
I’m offended by intent.
I’m offended by disrespect.
I’m offended by the lie.
I’m offended by the sales pitch.
I’m offended by the contempt.
I’m offended that a US para-church ministry ropes in sincere people and harms hurting ones.

XXXChurch.com, a ministry to help people struggling with pornography addiction has respectful meta tags.

meta name=”keywords” content=”XXXchurch, Christian, Porn, Site, Craig Gross, JR Mahon, Jesus, Loves, Stars, pancakes

Just one person in each of the 16 countries Focus on the Family operates in writing their respective national offices and saying this attitude and behavior is not appropriate; is better than pretending this doesn’t matter.
Be prepared to find yourself on their mailing list, Focus on the Family perceives you as a source of potential revenue and potential ally in the Focus on the Family culture war.
Australia, Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica, Egypt, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, United States

If Focus on the Family Canada gets back to me, I’ll post.
I believe it is important they be given every opportunity to be listened to.
I think what  Canadian Focus on the Family employees have to say does matter.   
If you write, I’d appreciate you taking time to drop it in the comment section here so everyone can see.

Update: Fotf was down. Fotf Canada was up. They are all operational now, here is what I found:

 Family org meta tags read:

META NAME keywords” CONTENT same-sex attraction,ex-gay,sexual partner,life partner,gay,lesbian,lover”

Focus on the Family Canada:
META NAME=”description” CONTENT=”Though homosexuality continues to gain cultural acceptance, many who consider themselves gay or experience homosexual tendencies feel puzzled and even apprehensive about their sexuality - If this is normal, why am I so confused? Do I have a choice in the matter?”  META NAME= “keywords” CONTENT=”same-sex attraction,ex-gay,sexual partner,life partner,gay,lesbian,lover”

Focus on the Family US has spread out their sections and resources on homosexuality with different meta tag. ie: Parenting Teens: Homosexuality

META NAMEdescription” CONTENT “Hollywood insists, It’s okay to be gay! You were born that way, offering sexual options to impressionable teens. As a concerned parent, you wonder how your child can possibly understand and embrace a healthy sexual identity in the middle of such a perplexing culture. Perhaps you, too, wonder if homosexuality is genetic, or maybe you suspect your teenager is exploring homosexual desires
META NAME keywords” CONTENT”gay,lesbian,effeminate,son,daughter,coming out,experimentation,acting out,same-sex attraction,tolerance”

I would appreciate hearing from Focus on the Family Canada. As stated above, the companies response will be posted in entirety without rancour or extraneous comment.