The U.S. Christian Right and the Attack on Gays Ai | HuffPost The World Post

Contents:

• 10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED
• GAY RIGHTS VS. FREE SPEECHSUPREME COURT BACKS WEB DIGNER OPPOSED TO SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
• WHY ‘GOD AND THE GAY CHRISTIAN’ IS WRONG ABOUT THE BIBLE AND SAME-SEX RELATNSHIPS
• THE U.S. CHRISTIAN RIGHT AND THE ATTACK ON GAYS AI

10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED

They do not harbor the same feelgs for everyone the followg list of those the Bible says will not her the kgdom of God: “the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexualy, nor thiev, nor the greedy, nor dnkards, nor revilers, nor swdlers” (1 Cor 6:9–10). The urt found 303’s ADF’s rightwg advocy extends further, however, as the anizatn has donated to more than a dozen anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortn found that the ADF donated $85, 000 to the Child and Parental Rights Campaign, a group which, acrdg to a Poli report, helped Florida Republins shape the state’s so-lled “don’t say gay” law, which prohibs discsn of sexual orientatn and genr inty group has also sued two school districts Florida over issu relatg to the rights of trans youth. In recent years, the LGBT rights movement has wnsed a sea change Amerin attus toward the gay muny and, along wh , a seri of dramatic policy and legal victori — most notably marriage equaly — that would have seemed unthkable jt a ago.

It currently reprents former Atlanta Fire Chief Kelv Cochran, who was termated by that cy’s mayor after allegedly failg to clear his self-publitn of a book, which scrib homosexual acts as “vile, vulgar and appropriate, wh the cy’s Board of Ethics as mandated by the cy .

GAY RIGHTS VS. FREE SPEECHSUPREME COURT BACKS WEB DIGNER OPPOSED TO SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

Over the years, Liberty Counsel has bee known for the vilent anti-LGBT rhetoric of s spokpeople, who have lked homosexualy to pedophilia, claimed that is a perversn that will stroy Wtern civilizatn, and asserted that same-sex marriage will spread disease. ” In 2013, staff attorney Steve Crampton said: “When you nsir that the life of the average homosexual is not ntrolled by reason, not ntrolled by the will, ’s really a life ntrolled by this lt, this passn, that has kd of overwhelmed them, and so you have kd of the sence of a lack of self ntrol. Liberty Counsel has reprented opponents of same-sex marriage and those who oppose bans on the psdoscientific and harmful practice known as “ex-gay” therapy, which claims to “cure” homosexualy (already, four stat have banned the therapy for mors).

"We basilly looked at the tradn and began to unrstand that the Jewish value of Kevod HaBeriyot, the digny of every dividual, is equal to or even tak precence over some of our olr tradn around attus toward homosexualy, " Blumenthal says. 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.

WHY ‘GOD AND THE GAY CHRISTIAN’ IS WRONG ABOUT THE BIBLE AND SAME-SEX RELATNSHIPS

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. 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. 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.

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.

THE U.S. CHRISTIAN RIGHT AND THE ATTACK ON GAYS AI

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.

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.

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.