10 Anti-Gay Myths Debunked | Southern Poverty Law Center

Contents:

• ANTI GAY QUOT
• THE ANTI-GAY AGENDA
• GAY QUOT
• ANTI GAY QUOT & SAYGS
• ANTI GAY QUOT - PAGE 2
• 7. ON MOZILLA CEO BRENDAN EICH STEPPG DOWN BEE OF HIS SUPPORT FOR PROPOSN 8
• 10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED
• HISTORY OF THE ANTI-GAY MOVEMENT SCE 1977
• THE 10 MOST ANTI-GAY STATEMENTS FROM THE REPUBLIN NOMEE FOR LT. GOVERNOR OF VIRGIA

ANTI GAY QUOT

Maybe they should terrogate their own prient terts other people’s love, get at the root and figure out why the ia of male timacy ril the past few weeks, several rappers have ma sensive — or full-on homophobic — statements about gay people. About a week after DaBaby’s rant, Boosie Badazz, a hip-hop artist who me up the 1990s, went after Lil Nas X, one of the rare rappers who are openly, unapologetilly, explosns-of-glter gay, threateng to asslt me say first that the untry has quickly evolved on the acceptance of gayns, and that clus an evolutn among Black people. I have always ntend that all of the -isms and -phobias are s, that a society that creat a hierarchy of humany wh whe, straight, cisgenr men at the apex, every person who is not whe or straight or cisgenr or male gets assigned a lower orr of that sense, racism and sexism, homophobia and transphobia all branch om the same one bias n fluence and amplify a society that treats racism as a sport, which each racial group is jockeyg agast the others, all of them shadowed by a culture of whe supremacy laced wh misogyny, anythg that rc your percentage of straight mal or “femiz” them is seen as weakeng the Black people bee agents agast Black power and Black liberatn, a weight on the this dulent this is adopted, traracial terror picks up where terracial terror left off.

It is not the gay Black person who be an stment of a whe supremacist attack on Black masculy; is the Black homophobe who be the stment of opprsn agast his own is important to pot out that the racist and the homophobe often employ the same tactics.

THE ANTI-GAY AGENDA

Homophob often e the same tactic, claimg that they are protectg children om is precisely the fense Boosie Badazz ed when appearg on “The Breakfast Club” rad show, at one pot seemgly exprsg a fear that if rappers didn’t speak out agast certa exprsns of gayns, an entire generatn of children uld be aga, to clarify: There is no amount of exposure that n make a straight man prefer a penis or a gay one prefer a vaga. Sexual attractn and sexualy jt don’t work that this simplistic notn of sexualy oms is that there are also gay children who have known they were different for as long as they have known anythg, and those children serve reprentatn and visibily; they need to know that there is nothg wrong, broken or evil about them, so that they, too, n feel normal and seen. Tangible evince of cultural progrs — a giant beer maker partnerg wh a transgenr fluencer, for example — is now often met wh fire and brimstone om right-wg fact, new rearch found that the recent effort to roll back gas for gay and trans Amerins spiked durg Pri celebratns, cludg "blue" stat such as California, which was home to a full 1 5 of the anti-LGBTQ+ monstratns last month, acrdg to the Armed Conflict Lotn and Event Data Project.

Such actns were rerd 26 stat and the District of Columbia, but were ncentrated Texas, New York, and California, wh jt unr 20% of rerd anti-LGBTQ+ events takg place the Goln fdg after ACLED prevly reported a more than 300% crease anti-LGBTQ+ actns by far-right extremists 2022, pared to the year before, which said "strongly" rrelat wh ensug acts of vlence agast people who are perceived as gay or transgenr.

Former Print Donald Tmp — who once boasted about a transgenr performer takg part his Miss Ameri ntt — has monstrated that many whe evangelils are willg to overlook personaly flaws and other disagreements, and vice versa, if means achievg polil power and victori the culture 's 2016 mpaign helped fe such alns, wh far-right groups themselv explog issu of sex and genr — topics ripe for magoguery — to rec new members and make roads wh more mastream negative reactn to the creased acceptance of LGBTQ+ people, ma pecially visible by rporatns such as Target celebratg Pri Month, self risks a backlash, however: Most Amerins support gay marriage, for example, and many are likely unfortable wh imag of armed vigilant cidg for themselv who n read books at a library. I have been reluctant to lobby on other issu I most re about - nuclear weapons (agast), relign (atheist), pal punishment (anti), AIDS (fund-raiser) bee I don't want to be forever spoutg, dilutg the impact of addrsg my most urgent ncern - legal and social equaly for gay people worldwi.

GAY QUOT

Our children will be forced to learn that homosexualy is normal and natural and that perhaps they should try , and that'll be very soon our public schools all across the state, begng krgarten.

And through his ath he has bought sce I have been open about my own experienc wh homosexualy, a number of Christians have said somethg like this: 'the gospel mt be harr for you than is for me', as though I have more to give up than they do. Read More: Donald Tmp Nam Veep Pick on Twter Here are some of the statements and posns Pence had has related to LGBT issu: He said gay upl signaled ‘societal llapse’ In 2006, as head of the Republin Study Commtee, a group of the 100 most-nservative Hoe members, Pence rose support of a nstutnal amendment that would have fed marriage as between a man and a woman.

“The ncept that really gets the goat of the gay-hater, the ia that really sps their melon and sickens their stomachs is that most terrible and terrifyg of all human notns, one n love another of the same genr, that is what the homophobe really nnot stand. “The roots of sexism and homophobia are found the same enomic and polil stutns that serve as the foundatn of racism this untry and, more often than not, the same extremist circl that flict vlence on people of lor are rponsible for the eptns of vlence spired by sexist and homophobic bias.

ANTI GAY QUOT & SAYGS

Compared to the Amerin public at large, probably a slightly higher percentage of journalists, bee of thier enhanced power of discernment, realize they know a gay person or two, and are, therefore, ls ightened of them. Ever sce born-aga sger and orange juice pchwoman Ana Bryant helped kick off the ntemporary anti-gay movement some 40 years ago, hard-le elements of the relig right have been searchg for ways to monize gay people — or, at a mimum, to fd arguments that will prevent their normalizatn society.

But addn to hawkg that myth, the legns of anti-gay activists who followed have add a panoply of others, rangg om the extremely doubtful claim that sexual orientatn is a choice, to unalloyed li like the claims that gay men molt children far more than heterosexuals or that hate crime laws will lead to the legalizatn of btialy and necrophilia.

ANTI GAY QUOT - PAGE 2

The fairy tal are important to the anti-gay right bee they form the basis of s claim that homosexualy is a social evil that mt be supprsed — an opn rejected by virtually all relevant medil and scientific thori. Depictg gay men as a threat to children may be the sgle most potent weapon for stokg public fears about homosexualy — and for wng electns and referenda, as Ana Bryant found out durg her succsful 1977 mpaign to overturn a Da County, Fla., ordance barrg discrimatn agast gay people.

Others have ced a group lled the Amerin College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) to claim, as Tony Perks of the Fay Rearch Council did November 2010, that "the rearch is overwhelmg that homosexualy pos a [moltatn] danger to children. Gregory Herek, a profsor at the Universy of California, Davis, who is one of the natn's leadg rearchers on prejudice agast sexual mori, reviewed a seri of studi and found no evince that gay men molt children at higher rat than heterosexual men. The Amerin Amy of Child & Adolcent Psychiatry affirmed 2013 that “[c]urrent rearch shows that children wh gay and lbian parents do not differ om children wh heterosexual parents their emotnal velopment or their relatnships wh peers and adults” and they are “not more likely than children of heterosexual parents to velop emotnal or behavral problems.

The Amerin Amy of Pediatrics (AAP) a 2002 policy statement clared: "A growg body of scientific lerature monstrat that children who grow up wh one or two gay and/or lbian parents fare as well emotnal, gnive, social, and sexual functng as do children whose parents are heterosexual. Siarly, the Child Welfare League of Ameri's official posn wh regard to same-sex parents is that "lbian, gay, and bisexual parents are as well-sued to raise children as their heterosexual unterparts. A 2013 prelimary study Atralia found that the children of lbian and gay parents are not only thrivg, but may actually have better overall health and higher rat of fay hn than heterosexual fai.

7. ON MOZILLA CEO BRENDAN EICH STEPPG DOWN BEE OF HIS SUPPORT FOR PROPOSN 8

A si effect of this argument is the monizatn of parents of gay men and lbians, who are led to wonr if they failed to protect a child agast sexual abe or failed as role mols some important way. ” Schumm, who has also argued that lbian relatnships are unstable, has ti to discreded psychologist and anti-LGBT fabulist Pl Cameron, the thor of numero pletely basels “studi” about the alleged evils of homosexualy.

The Amerin Psychiatric Associatn noted a 2000 fact sheet available on the Associatn of Gay and Lbian Psychiatrists, that alg wh gay, lbian and bisexual issu, that sexual abe do not appear to be any more prevalent among children who grow up and intify as gay, lbian or bisexual than children who grow up and intify as heterosexual.

10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED

Siarly, the Natnal Organizatn on Male Sexual Victimizatn not on s webse that "experts the human sexualy field do not believe that premature sexual experienc play a signifint role late adolcent or adult sexual orientatn" and add that 's unlikely that anyone n make another person gay or heterosexual. Warren Throckmorton, a psychologist at the Christian Grove Cy College, noted an analysis that “the rearch on sexual abe among GLBT populatns is often mised to make ferenc about atn [of homosexualy].

Anti-LGBT anizatns, seekg to promote heterosexualy as the healthier "choice, " often offer up the purportedly shorter life spans and poorer physil and mental health of gays and lbians as reasons why they shouldn't be allowed to adopt or foster children. " Usg obuari llected om newspapers servg the gay muny, he and his two -thors nclud that gay men died, on average, at 43, pared to an average life expectancy at the time of around 73 for all U.

HISTORY OF THE ANTI-GAY MOVEMENT SCE 1977

On the basis of the same obuari, Cameron also claimed that gay men are 18 tim more likely to die r accints than heterosexuals, 22 tim more likely to die of heart attacks than wh, and 11 tim more likely than blacks to die of the same e. Anti-LGBT anizatns have also tried to support this claim by distortg the work of legimate scholars, like a 1997 study nducted by a Canadian team of rearchers that alt wh gay and bisexual men livg Vanuver the late 1980s and early 1990s. Christe Mueller, profsor of history at Reed College, did a 1994 le-by-le refutatn of an earlier Abrams article on the topic and of the broar claim that the Nazi Party was "entirely ntrolled" by gay men.

Anti-gay activists, who have long opposed addg LGBT people to those protected by hate crime legislatn, have repeatedly claimed that such laws would lead to the jailg of relig figur who preach agast homosexualy — part of a bid to ga the backg of the broar relig muny for their posn. Anti-gay groups have been adamantly opposed to allowg gay men and lbians to serve openly the armed forc, not only bee of their purported fear that bat reads will be unrmed, but bee the ary has long been nsired the purt merocracy Ameri (the armed forc were succsfully racially tegrated long before Amerin civil society, for example).

At the same time, gays and lbians have served openly for years the armed forc of 25 untri (as of 2010), cludg Bra, Israel, South Ai, Canada and Atralia, acrdg to a report released by the Palm Center, a policy thk tank at the Universy of California at Santa Barbara. " Siarly, a 1985 survey of 6, 500 male Canadian service members and a 1996 survey of 13, 500 Brish service members each revealed that nearly two-thirds exprsed strong rervatns about servg wh gays. Dpe the fact that gay men and lbians have been servg openly the ary sce September 2011, anti-LGBT groups ntue to claim that openly gay personnel are g problems the ary, cludg claims of sexual abe by gay and lbian soldiers of straight soldiers.

THE 10 MOST ANTI-GAY STATEMENTS FROM THE REPUBLIN NOMEE FOR LT. GOVERNOR OF VIRGIA

The anizatn removed homosexualy om s official diagnostic manual 1973 after extensive review of the scientific lerature and nsultatn wh experts, who nclud that homosexualy is not a mental illns. Though is te that LGBT people tend to suffer higher rat of anxiety, prsn, and prsn-related illns and behavrs like alhol and dg abe than the general populatn, that is due to the historil social stigmatizatn of homosexualy and vlence directed at LGBT people, not bee of homosexualy self.