Ex-gays scend upon D.C. to lobby agast LGBTQ rights

Contents:

• HOW HOBBY LOBBY SPL THE LEFT AND SET BACK GAY RIGHTS
• THE LGBT LOBBY: NOT THE SAME THG AS PEOPLE WHO ARE GAY
• EX-GAYS SCEND UPON D.C. TO LOBBY AGAST LGBTQ RIGHTS
• WHAT THE GAY LOBBY DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW
• DO THE HOBBY LOBBY DECISN THREATEN GAY RIGHTS?

HOW HOBBY LOBBY SPL THE LEFT AND SET BACK GAY RIGHTS

But the major nflict that has epted the wake of that cisn has been between relig eedom and gay rights. The rultg ntroversy has spl gay-rights and fah groups on the left, wh wi-rangg polil fallout that some now fear uld hurt both chapter of the ntroversy is set to close on Monday, when Print Obama plans to sign a long-awaed executive orr banng feral ntractors om discrimatg agast gays and lbians, acrdg to a Whe Hoe official. Many proment gay-rights groups have now whdrawn their support om a top legislative prry, the Employment Non-Discrimatn Act, over the relig exemptn ntas.

“The relig exemptn bate has now been polarized to the pot where people are sayg, ‘All or nothg, ’” said Lanae Erickson Hatalsky, director of social policy for the center-left thk tank Third Way, whose rearch and activism on gay marriage have been stmental to that e’s mastream acceptance. Some gay-rights and civil-liberti advot had lled on Obama to elimate that provisn. But the new orr will not clu a broar relig exemptn that would allow nonprof ntractors to refe employment to gays if they viewed as nsistent wh their fah.

(ENDA’s exemptn don’t apply to for-prof pani like Hobby Lobby, but would allow a Catholic school, for example, to fire a gay teacher or janor. ) Such an exemptn ma many gay-rights mpaigners nervo, but most accepted as a necsary polil promise to get the vot of morate Catholic Bishops reneged on the al, g out opposn to ENDA 2010 spe the exemptn. Many of the Republins who voted for the bill, such as Utah Senator Orr Hatch, ced the exemptn as the reason they uld support the Republin-ntrolled Hoe clg to brg ENDA up for a vote, gay groups lled on Obama to take executive actn by applyg s provisns to feral ntractors.

THE LGBT LOBBY: NOT THE SAME THG AS PEOPLE WHO ARE GAY

Gay-rights groups lobbied agast cludg an exemptn the executive orr.

On July 8, the Amerin Civil Liberti Unn, Gay & Lbian Advot & Defenrs, Lambda Legal, the Natnal Center for Lbian Rights, and the Transgenr Law Center announced they would no longer support ENDA as long as clud the relig exemptn. The Gay & Lbian Task Force even lled on Obama to veto ENDA if reached his sk wh the exemptn language gay-rights voic urged utn.

The Human Rights Campaign, the natn’s largt gay-rights anizatn, said still supported ENDA but would fight for a narrower relig exemptn the bill.

EX-GAYS SCEND UPON D.C. TO LOBBY AGAST LGBTQ RIGHTS

Third Way issued a memo tled “Don’t Abandon ENDA Over Its Relig Exemptn, ” notg that even wh the exemptn, the bill would reprent huge progrs and ensure protectn for the vast majory of currently vulnerable LGBT the past , a growg partnership between gay-rights groups and relig lears has been stmental to the advancement of gay rights, both terms of policy and social acceptance. The partnership was mutually beneficial: Church’ image benefed om showg a more tolerant face to the world, while gay-rights mpaigners benefed om showg they weren’t opposed to fah.

“I hope the larger progrsive muny is begng to unrstand that we need people of fah for all of our stggl, ” Alan van Capelle, who helped get gay-marriage passed New York as head of the Empire State Pri Agenda, told me last year.

The executive-orr bate spl relig-left groups and gay groups alike to opposg mps. ” Progrsiv like Wear and Wallis, who see themselv as eply, spirually mted to gay rights, surely would be dismayed at beg lled “right-wg nservativ. ” Such name-llg, advot fear, uld alienate alli that have been tremendoly important to the e of gay larger fear is that such spls uld brg back the bad old days when gay rights and relig rights were seen as irrencilable—and liberals suffered polilly for the image that they were alienated om relig valu.

WHAT THE GAY LOBBY DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW

I was railed agast last week for beg “homophobic” for suggtg last year at a Christian nference that the “LGBT lobby” had bee an overly fluential facet of Brish public life, pennt om the realy of the wish of sir of the natn, gay or otherwise. That was before “Gay Pri” banned LGBT UKIP om attendg their annual march, whose members, spe beg gay, were not emed to be “LGBT iendly. In the media today, we hear often of the views of “the black muny”, “the gay muny”, “the Polish muny”, but spe this inty polics beg so prevalent, the so lled muni simply do not exist.

There is not a sgle viewpot that un all gay people, black people or Polish people, that don’t une all of humany. The fact is, the “LGBT lobby” do not speak for gay people, speaks for self. The msage went out 2012 om self appoted spokmen like Peter Tatchell, that gay marriage was the fal step achievg equaly for gay people the UK.

DO THE HOBBY LOBBY DECISN THREATEN GAY RIGHTS?

Sir Ian McKellen, a founr of the Stonewall lobby group spoke this week, a moment of disarmg tth, of the power of Wtmster LGBT lobbyists: “It’s astonishg for a Tory Prime Mister to sist on gay marriage, draggg the party behd him. Many gay Christians have experienced the same excln om LGBT groups and events as UKIP has experienced this week, and I have had a large number of nversatns and bat wh members of LGBT advocy groups where they refe to accept that anyone who is gay might not support same sex marriage.

I was told that any gay person who do not support gay marriage is “eher not really gay or sane. It has reached the pot of such ridicule where many the movement believe they have the abily and right not only to ci if an dividual is worthy of takg part their purportedly clive events and anisatn, but to ci if they are worthy of even beg nsired gay.

Almost every public figure is terrified of challengg both the unchecked march of LGBT lobby groups and the rise of the fascism of “liberal tolerance”, for fear of beg labelled a “homophobe”, “racist” or any number of other modish, progrsive buzzwords. A group of people om across the untry who formerly intified as gay and transgenr have scend upon Washgton this week to share their stori and lobby agast two proposed LGBTQ-rights group is ma up of 15 members of Church Uned and Changed, two California-based anizatns that seek to provi muny for, and protect the rights of, “formers” — dividuals who formerly intified as lbian, gay, bisexual or bills the group is lobbyg agast are H.