Anti-gay

Overview

"Anti-gay" refers to any viewpoint, opinion, or person advocating against tolerance of homosexuality. Anti-gays are often referred to as "homophobic", given that much of their dislike for homosexuality seems to be based in unreasoning fear. A milder term is "heterosexism", which is the unthinking presumption that heterosexuality is preferable to any other forms of sexual expression.

Conclusions

While popular with (and heavily promoted by) religious fundamentalists (the Westboro Baptist Church being the textbook case) and far-right conservatives, anti-gayness has not proven to be rationally defensible; none of the anti-gay arguments examined by Issuepedia thus far have held up under examination.

Any argument against homosexuality (or indeed against any activity or lifestyle) must address in detail the question Is it harmful? (And how is it harmful, and what do you propose doing about this, and why do you think your proposal will be more helpful than harmful if implemented?) All the anti-gay arguments so far examined have largely been fear-based appeals to emotion, leaving the audience to fill in the answers with whatever horrors their imaginations can conjure up.

The anti-gay movement is part of the ongoing wars on the family (especially where it targets gay marriage) and individuality.

Causes

The vast majority of anti-gay sentiment seems to be driven by powermongers seeking a target which can be successfully demonized, causing people to fear them and look to the powermongers for guidance and safety. Gays are handy bait for this sort of operation, as they are a minority whose distinguishing feature strongly pushes many non-gay people's cultural squeamish-buttons. Squeamishness can be overcome, but it is also very easy to convert into fear and hate, and it is unfortunately easier to make money (and gain power) – at least in the short term – through fear and hate than through cooperation and understanding.

The myths, lies, and distortions surrounding homosexuality are a power structure meme: they exist solely to support powermongers who feed on anti-gay fears, and who in turn encourage those fears in order to build their power base.

Habitat

Anti-gay positions are most commonly argued from Biblical premises. The Bible condemns homosexuality in a number of places, and the arguer usually takes it as a given that this automatically means all right-thinking people should condemn it as well.

A few non-Biblical arguments argue from a social conservative standpoint of preserving social order, though these arguments generally lack substance.

The anti-gay viewpoint is most commonly expressed as political opposition to gay marriage, but it can also be violently physical. Many people (not all of them gay) are killed in personal assaults each year because of hatred and fear of homosexuality; many more are raped or injured.

Historical Context

Homosexuals were one of the groups targeted for extermination by Adolf Hitler's Nazis during the Holocaust in World War II.

Arguments

• Being gay is a choice: completely irrelevant but often used as a red herring to sidetrack the debate
• God condemns homosexuality: only if you choose to follow certain parts of the Bible over others.
• Homosexuality is unnatural: so is civilization. Are you saying we should avoid doing anything unnatural, like... wearing clothes, drilling for oil, flying in airplanes? Are you in support of anything that is natural, like breastfeeding?

Links

Reference

• Homosexuality article index at 100777.com, a religion-based site

Projects

• Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AfTAH) (web site): this must be some strange new meaning of the word "truth" I wasn't previously aware of... or perhaps it's just the neocon reality inversion again
  • president: Peter LaBarbera

Filed Links

version 3

• 2012-07-16 [L..T] Chick-fil-A's flippant response to years of LGBT controversy: 'Guilty as charged' Chick-fil-A COO Dan Cathy defends the company's anti-gay activities on Biblical grounds.

version 2

• 2010-05-08 [Talk|Index] Public Advocate of the United State's 2010 American Morality Survey § “EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Radical homosexuals claim YOU support same-sex marriage, special job rights and promotion of homosexuality in schools. Please fill out the survey below and let your voice be heard.”
• 2010-01-29 [Talk|Index] San Francisco's Answer to Westboro Baptist Church § “Westboro Baptist Church showed up to protest in front of Twitter's San Francisco office on Thursday, but found themselves severely outnumbered by a crowd of absurdist pranksters...”
• 2009-11-07 [Talk|Index] Wal-Mart bans gay couple for NOT shoplifting § A Wal-Mart in Michigan bans a gay couple for life, after falsely accusing them of petty theft and having them arrested.
• 2009-10-04 [Talk|Index] Pastor Donald "Faggot!" Fozard and Herald-Sun columnist rail about Council's marriage equality vote § “In the Durham Herald-Sun, columnist John McCann goes on a diatribe in support of a local minister who is, well, using the tired bible beating reasons to bounce council members by questioning their faith for voting for the resolution [...] to extend civil-marriage rights to same-sex couples.”
• 2009-04-30 [Talk|Index] NOM Board Member Advocates Criminalization of Homosexuality, Overthrow of Government § “[Orson Scott] Card, who represents the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the board and received an effusive welcome last week from NOM president Maggie Gallagher, supports criminalizing sex between same-sex adults.”
• 2009-02-15 [Talk|Index] Anti-Gay Group Places Full-Page Ad in SL Tribune § “The anti-gay group America Forever spent the last week protesting the governor for his revelation that he supports Equality Utah's Common Ground Initiative, disrupting both Equality Utah's and Californians Against Hate's press conferences, and now publishing a full-page, full-color ad in The Salt Lake Tribune.”
• 2008-10-15 [Talk|Index] Homeschooling Hints § “If we were living in a biblical society, homosexuality would be punishable by death ... With any luck, some radical will blow up the gay school. No, I'm not condoning vigilantism--I'm merely saying that it would be poetic justice.”
• 2008-05-25 [Talk|Index] Raleigh, NC Pair Charged With Sodomy § “When someone is attacked and calls the police, the last thing that person expects is to be charged with a crime — in this case, a nonexistent one...”
• 2008-04-08 [Talk|Index] MassResistance and White Supremist Find Common Cause § “I would laugh if some concerned father(s) donned ski masks and gloves, took a ride over to this arrogant prick's house and knocked the living shit out of him. I advocate parents using FORCE AND VIOLENCE against Superintendent Paul B. Ash as a method of defending the health and safety of school children presently being endangered through his politically-correct indoctrination into deadly, disease-ridden sodomite lifestyles.”
• 2008-03-16 [Talk|Index] Gays worse than terrorists, but hey, no offense intended! § [2]“Gays are a bigger threat than Islamist terrorists? Only if one feels less than confident about their own sexuality. In the real world, gays don’t threaten anyone with their choices. Kern, however, has paranoid notions of gay infiltration of city councils in an effort to drive America to ruin. Oh, the humanity!” A right-wing blog actually attacking gay-bashing -- whooda thunk it?
• 2008-03-12 [Talk|Index] Sally Kern Scrubs Gay Son? § [2]“If you compare a March 4th cache and today’s version, you’ll notice that Kern and/or her staff deleted a biographical sentence mentioning her two adult sons, Jesse and Nathan. Obviously our warning bells went off, so we did a little digging and found something quite queer.” The Google cached link appears to have expired, but archive.org shows the an archive of the page from 2007-04-14, which still refers to her "two grown sons, Jesse and Nathan", while the current version does not.
• 2008-02-28 [Talk|Index] Announced project proof of 'gay agenda,' says DC activist § [2]“Matt Barber, policy director for cultural issues at Washington, DC-based Concerned Women for America, says the project puts to rest the notion that there is no "gay agenda." He says the homosexual lobby is committed to infiltrating the executive branch with people who define their identity based on changeable, sexually deviant behavior.” As Box Turtle Bulletin points out, his singling out of the "gay agenda" for attention while neglecting any mention of the anti-gay agenda of groups such as Focus on the Family shows that they too have an agenda.
• 2008-02-20 [Talk|Index] Israeli MP blames quakes on gays § “An Israeli MP has blamed parliament's tolerance of gays for earthquakes that have rocked the Holy Land recently.”
• 2007-12-17 [Talk|Index] The Truth about the Sodomites § A pastor rants against homosexuality, citing the Bible
• 2007-05-07 [Talk|Index] Homosexual Propaganda Fed to Elementary School Children § [2]“In a press release this morning, Stephen Bennett, a man who once lived the "gay" lifestyle and has since founded a ministry to assist people to leave the destructive lifestyle, alerted the media to a video clip demonstrating what he calls first-hand homosexual activist "brainwashing" of elementary school children. The video available on the Internet on Youtube.com follows a Massachusetts school's fourth annual gay and lesbian pride day activities. .. The video contains actual classroom footage showing teachers imposing pro-homosexual propaganda on children as young as six. Beyond that the video captures a pre-gay pride day staff meeting where one teacher, an African American, asks if teachers are to tell children whose parents oppose homosexuality that they should nonetheless accept it as a good, to which an affirmative answer is given.” Includes link to this page, which has the videos. Ironically, the school shown (Cambridge Friends School) in the first video is a Christian (Quaker) school.
• 2005-08-31 [Talk|Index] Hannity blamed "anti-war left" for protest at soldier's funeral actually organized by anti-gay church § [2]“On the August 30 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Fox News host Sean Hannity falsely blamed "the anti-war left" for a protest at the August 28 funeral of Sgt. Jeremy Doyle of Indianapolis, who was killed while serving in Iraq. Hannity read excerpts of an article on the website of Indianapolis TV station WISH describing the protest, adding, "I guess this is just another example of how the anti-war left supports our brave troops." In fact, as The Indianapolis Star reported, the protesters were not anti-war liberals but, rather, members of Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) in Topeka, Kansas, who claim that the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq are inflicted by God to punish the United States for its acceptance of gays and lesbians.”
• 2005-05-11 [Talk|Index] The Gospel as preached on North Duke Street § [2]“The controversy, by now, is familiar. It follows the stage play The Laramie Project wherever it goes, in incendiary press releases, invariably from Topeka, Kan., to the local media. .. Two weeks ago it was Durham's turn.”
• 2005-05-06 [Talk|Index] First shots from the Westboro Baptist Church protest in Durham, NC § [2]“Guess what? No-show for Fred Phelps at the Durham School of the Arts. The gutless, ball-less Rotting Cryptkeeper wasn't there this evening, but plenty of his supporters and children/grandchildren were there with their filth. Plenty of counter-protesters showed up. There was a ton of drive-by traffic, slowing down for the freakshow. The cops kept the counter-protestors across the street from the Phelps clan, so it was civil. Queer supporters that didn't bring signs were given sheets with "Gay? Fine by me" to hold up in silent protest.” Includes a selection of photos of the event.
• 1953-04-27 [Talk|Index] Executive Order 10450--Security requirements for Government employment § [2]Established "sexual perversion", which was apparently assumed to include homosexuality, as a justification for firing from a government job. Commentary: 2008-04-27 Box Turtle Bulletin

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