Where Christian church, other religns stand on gay marriage | Pew Rearch Center

Contents:

• 18 ANTI-GAY GROUPS AND THEIR PROPAGANDA
• GROUPS OPPOSED TO GAY RIGHTS RAKE LNS AS STAT BATE ANTI-LGBTQ BILLS
• THE PEOPLE WHO OPPOSE THE GAY MARRIAGE LAW
• WHERE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, OTHER RELIGNS STAND ON GAY MARRIAGE
• THE TOP 10 ARGUMENTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE: ALL RECEIVE FAILG GRAS!
• HOW GAY RIGHTS ORGANIZATNS WORK
• GAY RIGHTS

18 ANTI-GAY GROUPS AND THEIR PROPAGANDA

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 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.

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. 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.

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. 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.

GROUPS OPPOSED TO GAY RIGHTS RAKE LNS AS STAT BATE ANTI-LGBTQ BILLS

” Last year, CWA acced the Gay, Lbian, and Straight Edutn Network (GLSEN), a group that works to stop anti-gay bullyg schools, of g that missn as a ver to promote homosexualy schools, addg that “teachg stunts om a young age that the homosexual liftyle is perfectly natural … will [e them to] velop to adults who are sensized to the harmful, immoral realy of sexual viance. In 2002, before jog CRM, Knight wrote that gay marriage “entic children to experiment wh homosexualy” and that acceptg homosexualy leads to “a loss of stabily muni, wh a rise crime, sexually transmted diseas and other social pathologi. Both Dailey and Sprigg have phed false accatns lkg gay men to pedophilia: Sprigg has wrten that most men who engage same-sex child moltatn “intify themselv as homosexual or bisexual, ” and Dailey and Sprigg voted an entire chapter of their 2004 book Gettg It Straight to siar material.

In a 1999 publitn (Homosexual Behavr and Pedophilia) that has sce disappeared om s webse, the FRC claimed that “one of the primary goals of the homosexual rights movement is to abolish all age of nsent laws and to eventually regnize pedophil as the ‘prophets’ of a new sexual orr, ” acrdg to unrefuted rearch by AMERICAblog. 30, 2010, bate on MSNBC’s “Hardball wh Chris Matthews” between Perks and the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mark Potok, Perks fend FRC’s associatn of gay men wh pedophilia, sayg: “If you look at the Amerin College of Pediatricians, they say the rearch is overwhelmg that homosexualy pos a danger to children. ” AMERICAblog also reported that then-FRC official Yvette Cantu, an terview published on Amerins for Tth About Homosexualy’s webse, said, “If they [gays and lbians] had children, what would happen when they were too by havg their sex parti?

Started 1987 by psychologist Pl Cameron, the Fay Rearch Instute (FRI) has bee the anti-gay movement’s ma source for what Cameron claims is “cuttg-edge rearch” — but is, fact, pletely discreded junk science phed out by a man who has been nmned by three profsnal anizatns. In 1985, the Amerin Soclogil Associatn adopted a rolutn sayg Cameron “has nsistently misterpreted and misreprented soclogil rearch on sexualy” and “repeatedly mpaigned for the abrogatn of the civil rights of lbians and gay men”; the followg year, the same group formally nmned Cameron for that misreprentatn of rearch.

THE PEOPLE WHO OPPOSE THE GAY MARRIAGE LAW

They clu the Amerin Fay Associatn, Amerins for Tth About Homosexualy, Concerned Women for Ameri, Coral Ridge Mistri, the Fay Rearch Council (see above for all five) and, until recently, the Illois Fay Instute (see below).

In 2006, then-Executive Director Peter LaBarbera (see Amerins for Tth About Homosexualy, above), told a relig-right gatherg hosted by Visn Ameri that homosexualy was "disgtg" and mand the closg down of all "homosexual tablishments. ” The rponse of Lrie Higgs, IFI’s belligerent director of school advocy, was that Daly was showg “surprisg naïveté, ” g the same language as pro-gay “homosexualists, ” and failg to nont “the pro-homosexual juggernt.

In 2009, Higgs pared homosexualy to Nazism, likeng the German Evangelil Church’s weak rponse to fascism to the “Amerin church’s failure to rpond appropriately to the spread of radil, heretil, stctive views of homosexualy. Matt Barber, formerly wh Concerned Women for Ameri and Amerins for Tth About Homosexualy (see above for both), joed Liberty Counsel as director of cultural affairs (also beg Liberty Universy’s associate an for reer and profsnal velopment). A year earlier, Barber had argued that given “medil evince about the dangers of homosexualy, ” should be nsired “crimally reckls for tors to teach children that homosexual nduct is a normal, safe and perfectly acceptable alternative.

WHERE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, OTHER RELIGNS STAND ON GAY MARRIAGE

” Later, MassRistance charged that groups like the Gay, Lbian and Straight Edutn Network (GLSEN), which support school anti-bullyg programs, actually want to lure children to homosexualy and, very possibly, sadomasochism. Camenker, who has long foced on the purported “homosexual agenda” the schools and equently claimed gays are dangero to kids, has repeatedly ced discreded claims om anizatns like the Natnal Associatn for Rearch and Therapy of Homosexualy that lk homosexualy and pedophilia.

Former Prbyterian mister Lou Sheldon has been warng Amerins about the “gay threat” sce 1980, when he found the Tradnal Valu Coaln (TVC), which also is ncerned wh abortn and natnal secury and tak on liberal activists on a range of issu. ” Wh regard to LGBT teen suicis, TVC, unr the headle “Homosexual Urban Legends, ” claims that “[t]he ld, hard fact is that teens who are stgglg wh homosexual feelgs are more likely to be sexually molted by a homosexual school unselor or teacher than to m suici over their feelgs of spair.

THE TOP 10 ARGUMENTS AGAST GAY MARRIAGE: ALL RECEIVE FAILG GRAS!

The TVC also mak assertns on s webse about disproportnate homosexual pedophilia and attacks the ia that people are born gay and the claim that gays want the right to marry for the same reasons that heterosexuals do — the TVC suggts the real purpose of marriage equaly is to stroy the ncept of marriage and ultimately replace altogether wh group sex and polygamy. “Many of those, while not specifilly tied to a church, are rooted the nservative Christian, biblil sense of human sexualy, ” said Stt McCoy, the terim puty legal director for LGBTQ rights and special ligatn for the SPLC and the SPLC Actn Fund, the group’s polil actn simply holdg a relig belief that views homosexualy or transgenr inty as sful do not tomatilly land a church or an anizatn on the SPLC’s list of hate groups.

Among the “tradnal moral valu” the anizatn claims to promote are falsehoods about AIDS as a “gay plague, ” furtherg the myth that people who are gay were rponsible for the Holot, that the ernment is promotg LGBTQ behavr, and that pro-LGBTQ anizatns are anti-Christian hate groups. He has pared homosexualy to addictn, and has falsely asserted not only that there is “a disproportnate cince of pedophilia” among gay men, but also that a proposed equaly bill California was tend to actively promote an LGBTQ “liftyle” to children. Per the Courage webse, the group seeks to “ensure that no one will have to face the problems of homosexualy alone, ” exhortg s members to forego lovg relatnships favor of chasty, service, and equent mass attendance.

The group seeks to “promote and fend the Biblil view of marriage and fay” by spreadg falsehoods about LGBTQ “recment” efforts and a nebulo LGBTQ “agenda, ” as well as providg a theologil gloss for anti-gay legislatn proposed the Uned Stat, Uganda, and elsewhere. Natnal Organizatn for Marriage: NOM was formed 2007 by Maggie Gallagher (a nservative lumnist) and Robert Gee (a polics profsor at Prceton Universy and -thor of the “Manhattan Declaratn”)to advote agast gay marriage.

HOW GAY RIGHTS ORGANIZATNS WORK

More recently, the anizatn has tried to appear more morate, emphasizg that “Gays and Lbians have a right to live as they choose, ” while hasteng to add that “they don’t have the right to refe marriage for all of .

For this reason, the anizatn has drawn fire om the Amerin Psychologil Associatn, om the rearcher on one of their foundatnal papers–who has sce disavowed his own rearch – and om the prs, who pot out that the ex-gay anizatn has a spic lack of ex-gay members.

Posive Approach To Healthy Sexualy (PATH): Recently rebrand om s former name, Posive Alternativ to Homosexualy, PATH lls self “a non-prof ecumenil aln of anizatns that believe tradnal fay valu based upon time-honored Biblil prcipl, ” and stat that s goal is “to promote healthy sexualy and tradnal fay valu, adherg to the sacred venant of marriage between one man and one woman. As an atheist gay who regards marriage as part of the baggage of heterosexual society which I have e to rpect but n never fully share, I am tempted to say a plague on both your ho, " he wrote the Daily Telegraph source, Getty ImagImage ptn, The historian David Starkey: "I'm torn on gay marriage"Actor Rupert Everett perhaps gave the most lourful argument agast, a 2012 terview the Guardian.

GAY RIGHTS

"Society gave legal and stutnal exprsn to what many hold to be te - that gay and lbian people should have the same rights to formalise their mment to each other and enjoy the social and legal benefs that oppose-sex upl have, " said the Lord Bishop of Exeter to the Hoe of Lords 2013. The Supreme Court lg earlier this year legalizg same-sex marriage natnwi has ntued to raise qutns about how the cisn will affect relig groups – pecially those that rema opposed to allowg gay and lbian upl to wed.

) (not to be nfed wh the Prbyterian Church Ameri, which oppos same-sex marriage) and the Epispal Church have wrtled wh the issue for years, often as part of a larger bate on the role of gays and lbians the church. In the 25 years sce was found, has brought 10 s before the US supreme urt, cludg some of the most nsequential s of the last on ntraceptive and gay is, “an aggrsive, strategic legal group that is about Christian supremacy and hegemony the US and the world, ” said Frerick Clarkson, a senr rearch analyst wh Polil Rearch Associat.