As Ryan Murphy's series "The New Normal" continues to face controversy, Ellen Barkin is arguing that anti-gay organizations should examine their definition of "normal parents."
While discussing playing the homophobic mother of Goldie (Georgia King) who has agreed to be a surrogate for a gay couple (Justin Bartha and Andrew Rannells), Barkin brought up another issue in the show: teen parenting.
"[My character] is a 56-, 58-year-old great-grandmother, which means for three generations women have had babies between ages of 15 and 16. There's a lot of people in the world who do not consider that normal, either," she said in a conference call on Wednesday, according to THR. "I think that they would even have to admit that in their own world of same-sex parents aren't normal, I would say then is a 15-year-old mother normal?
I'm just curious, who's more fit to raise a child? A loving committed same-sex couple or an unmarried 15-year-old with no income and really no skills to parent?"
This isn't the first time Barkin has addressed backlash over the NBC comedy. When Utah station KSL announced they wouldn't be airing the series, the actress took to twitter to express her frustration.
"It's not just hate, it's fear of the other," Barkin concluded in the conference call. "Hopefully we will learn that it's just not scary and there's nothing to be afraid of."
"The New Normal" premieres Sept. 11 at 9:30 p.m. ET on NBC, but you can check out the pilot here.
