When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised to veto the same-sex marriage bill in California, I had a difficult time believing that it was out of respect for the "will of the people." Regardless of referendums passed by popular vote, it seems clear that he was pandering to the religious right.
I've never taken the claims many religious conservatives make to not being homophobic seriously. Accuse the Jerry Falwell types of homophobia, and they will usually take offense, claiming that they're not homophobic - they just disapprove of the "homosexual lifestyle" and "love the sinner, hate the sin." Closely examining their rhetoric, however, reveals a different story.
"These perverted homosexuals absolutely hate everything that you and I and most decent, God-fearing citizens stand for," wrote Jerry Falwell in a 1999 fund-raising letter, according to Church & State, the magazine of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "These deviants seek no less than total control and influence in society, politics, our schools and in our exercise of free speech and religious freedom. If we do not act now, homosexuals will own America!"
In a letter quoted on the Web site of People for the American Way, Don Wildmon of the American Family Association wrote, "For the sake of our children and society, we must oppose the spread of homosexual activity! Just as we must oppose murder, stealing and adultery! Since homosexuals cannot reproduce, the only way for them to 'breed' is to recruit! And who are their targets for recruitment? Children!"
That's not what I'd call nice.
It is slowly being recognized, however, that this sort of talk doesn't work.
Lately, according to an Associated Press article last week, Focus on the Family has been in Maine advising activists there to avoid certain Bible quotes and "Love the sinner, hate the sin" arguments in their attempts to prevent the addition of sexual orientation to the state's Human Rights Act, which would ban discrimination against gays in areas such as housing and employment.
Peering beneath the thin veneer of kindness, however, it's still easy to detect the hatred and hostility that drive the religious right's opposition to gay rights. Regardless of the Maine activists' choice of words, the bottom line is that in their eyes, the only good homosexual is one who has to live in secret for fear of unemployment and becoming homeless.
A look at the sections of many religious right Web sites regarding the "homosexual agenda" reveals their true feelings. On the Web site of the Christian Civic League of Maine, a group campaigning to have gays excluded from the anti-discrimination law, there is a long list of stories about homosexual child molesters, criminals, carriers of STDs and NAMBLA. While it's less extreme in tone, the site of the American Family Association falls into the same trap of sweeping characterizations and thinly disguised hostility.
Obviously, all hell has not broken loose in Massachusetts because of gay marriage, and as far as I'm concerned, no opponents of gay marriage have come up with a logical or rational reason why it should be banned. Rather, all I hear are arguments about semantics.
But this isn't just about marriage because, as of late, activists in Massachusetts and California have been campaigning against civil unions as well. This demonstrates that the religious right doesn't just oppose gay marriage - it opposes gay anything.
Perhaps members of the religious right need to learn about the Golden Rule, because I doubt they would like the sort of bigotry they espouse visited upon them.
Write to Alaric at
ajdearment@bsu.edu
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