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March 15, 2007
Is the Gay Rights Movement Reeling Backward?
by Jesus Politics
Chris Hedges continues to write challenging pieces on Truth Dig. One may be tempted to accuse him of being too pessimistic, but given how we are often prone to overlook or deny the presence of hate-based religion, Hedges' voice is useful in jolting us toward a reality we do not always want to confront.
But what is important is not this specific incident, or any other recent examples of public intolerance, but the seismic shift in public mood in much of the United States, a shift largely engineered by the radical Christian right. The Christian right has begun to strip gays and lesbians of their constitutional rights and render them second-class citizens. The gay rights movement, which made many gains over the past couple of decades, is reeling backward. And the mounting persecution of gays and lesbians is ominous not only for them but for the rest of society. [ ]The Rev. Mel White, who founded Soulforce and is one of our country’s most important if unacknowledged civil rights leaders, has spent most of his life, since coming out as a gay man, mounting nonviolent protests against these “Christian” bigots. But he and most gays and lesbians who resist usually resist alone.
"They [the Christian right] want to end homosexuality in America,” White told me, “and by doing that one step at a time, first the federal marriage amendment and then comes no adoption, no service in the military, the restatement of the sodomy laws and driving us back into our closets, or worse. They do not want to compromise, but they begin with compromise, after compromise, after compromise.”
The advance, White says, is demoralizing the gay community, which he warns “is losing the will to fight.”
"It’s safer back in the closet anyway, and since we can pass, or the gay leaders can pass, the ones who wear suits and have good jobs and have plenty of money, they will go underground,” he said. “It is the gay people out there in the hinterlands who have no options. They are being rejected by their families, discarded by their parents, kicked out of their jobs, harassed, ‘outed’ and killed. The gay leaders don’t have a clue about this suffering.” [ ]
“What frightens me most are gay people who don’t understand what’s happening and who are unwilling to take a stand,” he said. “Once they take away our rights they’re going to start wanting to register us because we’re the ones who have the most sexually transmitted diseases. They’re going to say ‘we want to register you so we can give you special medical attention.’ Quarantine comes next, along with taking away our children, the children we’ve adopted. They will take away the partnership rights the corporations put in place, because they can put pressure on the corporations. My bleakest description is that we’ll not only be driven back into our closets, but we’ll have to leave the country. Right now, we have to leave the state of Virginia, because of the law that says we can’t have any agreements, or any contracts, or any powers of attorney that represent marriage. So every gay person who has a business here lives in fear.”
My ethics professor at Harvard Divinity School, Dr. James Luther Adams, told us to watch closely what the Christian right did to homosexuals. He had seen the same tactic in Nazi Germany, where he spent 1935 and 1936 working with the underground anti-Nazi church known as the Confessing Church. The Nazis also used “values” to launch state repression of opponents. Hitler, days after he took power in 1933, imposed a ban on all homosexual organizations. He ordered raids on places where homosexuals gathered, culminating in the ransacking of the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin and the permanent exile of its director, Magnus Hirschfeld. Thousands of volumes from the institute’s library were tossed into a bonfire. The stripping of these Germans’ civil rights was largely cheered by the public and the German churches. But it legitimated tactics, outside the law, that would soon be employed against others. Adams said homosexuals would also be the first “social deviants” singled out and disempowered by the Christian right, but not the last.
Should another catastrophic attack such as 9/11 occur, should we enter into a period of prolonged instability and fear, what will prevent these preachers from calling for the punishment, detention and quarantining of gays and lesbians, as well as abortionists and Muslims and other nonbelievers to safeguard the nation? What will staunch hate crimes and physical attacks against those deemed immoral by fearful and angry Christians, against those whom these preachers have condemned as responsible for the nation’s abandonment by God? How will the nation function rationally if homeland security depends on an elusive piety as it is interpreted by the Christian right? And most ominously, the fringe groups of the Christian right believe “Bible-believing Christians” have been mandated by God to carry out Christian terrorism, to murder doctors who perform abortions and godless Muslims. In a time of anxiety and chaos, of overwhelming fear and uncertainty, how many more will be prodded by this talk of terror and divine vengeance to join the ranks of these Christian extremists?
Posted by Jesus Politics at March 15, 2007 05:56 AM
Comments
I recently told a friend of mine about regular attempts to spread "talk of terror and divine vengeance" on our campus- the weekly hate speech spewed by the fundamentalist "preachers" who think they have some sort of "calling" to try to scare people into becoming Christian- and condemn to hell all those who do not openly accept their mindbending.
She was appalled- but in spite of her very real Christianity (she is an ordained Episcopal minister), she says that they regularly tell her that she's going to hell.
I would gather from what I've heard that the fundamentalists are trying to force her to promote an attitude of condemnation towards the poor and hurting, instead of Christ's love and caring.
I wish those idiots could be made to see something critical- that we're all human (irregardless of sexual orientation or ANYTHING) and that we all deserve to be treated with kindness. Indeed, the very persons they tend to support (the rich and powerful) are the ones who need the least amount of kindness and support (actually- they deserve condemnation for their greed and abuse), and the people that they abuse are the ones to whom Christ showed the most kindness and gentleness.
IF homosexuality is a sin (and about that I have serious doubts), it is far less of a sin than driving people from God- which is all those fundie preachers accomplish (demonstrating the REAL nature of their preaching). The very terror and divine vengeance is more likely to be directed at THEM than those they vilify.
"For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God".
They seem to forget that scripture.
Posted by: Bob Bowers at March 20, 2007 02:46 PM
Has anyone seen these ads by "WeAreThinking" that speak out against gay civil rights? Very interesting stuff. Here are some links to check them out for yourself on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLvHA18stY8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQRCG9gJwRE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFBn7JcGynQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5py6wNVYMT8
Posted by: Allen at March 20, 2007 03:50 PM
Well, there's a very basic problem with limiting the rights of a huge number of one's fellow citizens based on one's personal belief system. For instance..... I personally find those on the extreme Right to be highly offensive, based on my religion. These people advocate a plutocracy, condone (and encourage) usury, and generally champion the causes of intolerance, war-mongering, apathy toward the poor, idolatry, and greed. Just bother to actually READ The Gospels (The New Covenant) and you will find why it is my belief that these people are filled (literally) with the Spirit of the AntiChrist and are serving Satan. Now, while others on my side of the fence may not be as extreme in their evaluation of them as myself...nonetheless there are tens of millions of people in this country who feel the same way about extreme Conservatives, and especially extreme Conservative "christians".
Now (follow me on this very carefully children), according to the logic Conservatives use to justify limiting the rights of gay and lesbian people, since I and many millions of others find THEM (extreme Conservatives) to be highly offensive and (for many people like myself) actually contrary to our religious beliefs.....THEN logically we should have the power to limit THEIR rights. Yes? Oh, yes, most definitely so, according to this school of "thought". So, here's the deal....let us "Lefties" have the right to decide what rights these extreme Conservatives have (including the right to marry), and then they can have the right to decide what rights gay and lesbian people have. Deal?
That said, I will say this regarding the gay rights movement, and that is that it needs desperately to re-examine itself in a major way. For too long hedonism and sexual promiscuity have been "accepted" as somehow part of "gay culture". That, to put it blunty, is a bunch of crap. Gay and lesbian people need to conduct themselves in a dignified manor, and to actively encourage a standard of decency, while actively DIScouraging hedonism and promiscuity. We are talking about basic HUMAN standards of behavior, and not about "conforming to heterosexual norms" (as I have heard and read it put forth so MANY times in the past). If the gay communities around this country would start to do this, I think you would see (over time) a radical change in the way that even many Conservatives view gay and lesbian people. If the Gay Rights movement is indeed "reeling backward" it may (and almost certainly IS) at least partly because it continues to refuse to examine itself with a critical eye and accept that it too is guilty of some wooly thinking, and a reluctance to tell The Emperor that he has no clothes from time to time.
Peace and Blessings,
Brother Damien
Posted by: Brother Damien at March 20, 2007 06:03 PM
You know, Br. Damien, I've had problems in the past with homosexuals who were, shall we say, very aggressive. I used to be quite hostile to them, because the ones I encountered wouldn't take "NO" for an answer and I had to get nasty and vicious in order to get them to leave me alone. I even lodged a complaint one time with one's employer because of his sexual harassment.
But, it seems that the situation has changed- I know several homosexual people today, and not a one of them is pushy or aggressive- they are all just people who are attracted to the same sex, but sex isn't their whole existence. This opened my eyes to a lot of things (and helped to destroy a stereotype).
Just as there are straight sex fiends as well as more "ordinary" people, so it is with homosexuals. They are, after all, people just like everyone else. After talking with a few of my gay acquaintances, I now know that I had had the bad misfortune to have run into a few of the fiends (and my acquaintances were aggravated at the behavior I described- they didn't care for the promiscuity either!)
In fact, the most sexually promiscuous (embarrassing, really- she was very open about it) person I've ever met was a girl who graduated not too long ago. She was about as straight as you could get- and she would get almost vulgar at times.
I'm certainly not interested in someone else's sex life. The way I think- that is private. I was just about as put off by the girl's talk as I was by the aggressive homosexuals from the early '80's.
Now, this stereotype of the "aggressive hedonistic homosexual" is something that is ubiquitous to the religious right. It, like other stereotypes, is wrong- and unfortunately, I doubt that without actually getting to know someone who is homosexual, they are not likely to change their view.
......
Limiting the conservatives rights... what a hoot! Actually, I suspect that is what they think we want. What they are demanding, in essence, is the right to have their lives completely free of people they don't like- to the point of the Other's nonexistence. They forget the saying "Your freedom ends where my nose begins!!!"
Posted by: Bob Bowers at March 21, 2007 12:37 AM
Bob,
Glad you liked my logical extrapolation of the Conservatives' arguments against Gay Rights. LOL.
As for the hedonistic and promiscous homosexual being just a stereotype....well, no actually it isn't. While there are MANY gay and lesbian people who live decent lives and are neither hedonistic nor promiscous, there are many others who are ( and remember, I know whereof I speak, as my denomination is extremely supportive of gay rights and active in the gay community). As you pointed out, and rightly so, there are also MANY heterosexuals who are hedonistic and promiscous, but my point is that in the gay culture this is actually considered to be a perfectly acceptable "lifestyle choice". Many gay men (and lesbians) get the message that they're not being whores or shallow or materialistic...that's simply their "lifestyle choice". Now, the same thing also happens in the straight world, and it is repugnant in both instances, but my point is that (since the topic refers to the Gay Rights movement "reeling backward"), gay communities across the U.S. need to start encouraging real VALUES to help perhaps curb this apathetic trend. As you will know from my past posts, I am 100% in favour of absolute equality for gay men and lesbians, but at the same time I will not (as the gay communities continue to do) put a golden seal of approval on immoral and shallow behaviour. And yes, I preach this message every bit as loudly to straight people! (smile)
Peace and Blessings.
Brother Damien
Posted by: Brother Damien at March 21, 2007 01:16 AM
Please stop calling it the Christian Right they are not Christians a Christian must follow the teaching of Jesus Christ And hating was not one of Christ’s things. Remember Jesus Christ died too take away our sins at the most being gay is just a sin. The correct name is the Religious Right
Posted by: Monte Schlarman at March 22, 2007 12:04 AM
Well... that certainly raises some real issues. I'll have to think about that- I do not agree at all with hedonistic behavior. Thus, I would have to disagree strenuously with Gay Culture on that point if it promotes that sort of behavior.
Like you, I believe in supporting people and I believe in equal rights. However, at the same time I will quickly and openly state that hedonistic activity is just asking for STD's and other forms of misery.
That sort of behavior also has the wrong focus. It's not love, it's lust.
Irregardless of the gender or orientation.
Monte- one word... OUCH!!! (GRIN!)
Posted by: Bob Bowers at March 22, 2007 04:08 AM
I read this morning that some of the Soulforce people were arrested because they wanted to talk to a seminary president and refused to leave.
I wonder if the "president" was afraid he'd catch something!
[SIGH!]
I hope that the people who were arrested don't have too heavy fines (but I'd bet that the seminary is probably pushing for the worst punishment they can get).
Posted by: Bob Bowers at March 27, 2007 03:18 PM
