For generatns, livg openly as a gay person the Uned Stat was difficult, and often dangero. But there's been a dramatic change public attus toward gay people. This week, we explore one of the most strikg transformatns of public attu ever rerd. And we nsir whether the strategi ed by gay rights activists hold lsons for other groups seekg change.
Contents:
- 18 ANTI-GAY GROUPS AND THEIR PROPAGANDA
- 10 ANTI-GAY ACTIVISTS... WHO WERE OUTED AS GAY
- GROUPS OPPOSED TO GAY RIGHTS RAKE LNS AS STAT BATE ANTI-LGBTQ BILLS
- HISTORY OF THE ANTI-GAY MOVEMENT SCE 1977
- RADILLY NORMAL: HOW GAY RIGHTS ACTIVISTS CHANGED THE MDS OF THEIR OPPONENTS
18 ANTI-GAY GROUPS AND THEIR PROPAGANDA
A small terie of groups now prise the hard re of the anti-gay movement * anti gay activist *
Even as some well-known anti-gay groups like Foc on the Fay morate their views, a hard re of smaller groups, most of them religly motivated, have ntued to pump out monizg propaganda aimed at homosexuals and other sexual mori. The groups’ fluence reach far beyond what their size would suggt, bee the “facts” they dissemate about homosexualy are often amplified by certa policians, other groups and even news anizatns. The book mak a seri of claims that virtually no ser historian agre wh: that Hler was gay, that “the Nazi Party was entirely ntrolled by aristic homosexuals, ” and that gays were pecially selected for the SS bee of their nate btaly.
10 ANTI-GAY ACTIVISTS... WHO WERE OUTED AS GAY
In today’s heightened culture war, the ffers of the anti-gay movement are overflowg. * anti gay activist *
Takg a page om the anti-gay fabulist Stt Lively (see Abidg Tth Mistri, above), Fischer claimed a blog post last May 27 that “[h]omosexualy gave Adolph Hler, and homosexuals the ary gave the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war mache and 6 ln ad Jews.
In a 2010 “actn alert, ” the AFA warned that if homosexuals are allowed to openly serve the ary, “your son or dghter may be forced to share ary showers and barracks wh active and open homosexuals. Amerins for Tth About Homosexualy (AFTAH) was formed as a part-time venture 1996 by long-time gay-basher Peter LaBarbera, who reanized 2006 as a much more ser and fluential, if often vic, operatn. A one-time reporter for the nservative Washgton Tim, LaBarbera has been an energetic mpaigner agast “the radil homosexual agenda” sce at least 1993, when he lnched The Lambda Report, which claimed to do first-hand reportg to expose s gay enemi.
GROUPS OPPOSED TO GAY RIGHTS RAKE LNS AS STAT BATE ANTI-LGBTQ BILLS
AFTAH is notable for s postg of the utterly discreded work of Pl Cameron (of the Fay Rearch Instute; see below), who has claimed that gays and lbians live vastly shorter liv than heterosexuals. The same year, he posted an open letter to the Lhuanian people om long-time gay-basher Stt Lively (see Abidg Tth Mistri, above), who has ma a seri of false claims about gays nng the German Nazi Party.
HISTORY OF THE ANTI-GAY MOVEMENT SCE 1977
DeMar has modified that dictum slightly the past, sayg that homosexuals wouldn’t all be executed unr a “renstcted” ernment, but that he did believe that the ocsnal executn of “sodom” would serve society well bee “the law that requir the ath penalty for homosexual acts effectively driv the perversn of homosexualy unrground, back to the closet.
It has lled the ia of allowg gays to serve openly the ary “evil”; opposed hate crim legislatn (which many relig-right groups falsely assert would make easy to send pastors to prison for nmng homosexualy); and raged agast a judge’s overturng of California’s Proposn 8, which had validated same-sex marriag. Wh regard to that last, said: “Homosexuals have turned away om humbly worshippg the te and livg God and his transcennt moral orr orr to make an idol out of their sexual perversn and chaos.
Although is somewhat benign by parison, the CADC has an advisory board that clus some of the untry’s most hard-le anti-gay activists: Lou Sheldon, head of the Tradnal Valu Coaln (see below); Donald Wildmon, the founr of the Amerin Fay Associatn (above); and O’Neal Dozier, a pastor who wrote his 2008 book that “[h]omosexualy not only spreads disease and ntraliz God’s mand, ” but also “stroys fai.
RADILLY NORMAL: HOW GAY RIGHTS ACTIVISTS CHANGED THE MDS OF THEIR OPPONENTS
In 2001, she hired proment anti-gay propagandists Robert Knight (now wh Coral Ridge Mistri; see below) and Peter LaBarbera (now wh Amerins for Tth About Homosexualy, above) to lnch CWA’s Culture and Fay Instute. While at CWA, on April 12, 2007, Barber suggted agast all the evince that there were only a “miscule number” of anti-gay hate crim and most of those “may very well be rooted dulent reports.
CWA long relied on and displayed Knight’s articl and talkg pots, cludg claims that “homosexualy rri enormo physil and mental health risks” and “gay marriage entic children to experiment wh homosexualy.
Print Wendy Wright said this Augt that gay activists were g same-sex marriage “to doctrate children schools to reject their parents’ valu and to harass, sue and punish people who disagree.