18 Anti-Gay Groups and Their Propaganda | Southern Poverty Law Center

Contents:

• 'THE MISTN OF CAMERON POST' SHOWS THE DANGERS OF "GAY CONVERSN" CAMPS
• ABC NEWS: HUNDREDS OF CHRISTIAN ANTI-GAY ‘CONVERSN CAMPS’ FOR KIDS ‘OPERATG ACROSS THE COUNTRY’
• HISTORY OF THE ANTI-GAY MOVEMENT SCE 1977
• 18 ANTI-GAY GROUPS AND THEIR PROPAGANDA
• RSIA'S LGBT 'CONCENTRATN CAMPS': PRISONS FOR GAY MEN IN CHECHNYA, REPORTS SAY
• ‘THEY STARVE YOU. THEY SHOCK YOU’: INSI THE ANTI-GAY POGROM CHECHNYA

'THE MISTN OF CAMERON POST' SHOWS THE DANGERS OF "GAY CONVERSN" CAMPS

Stark was a teen boy who gaed attentn 2005 after he posted about his fay planng to send him to "a fundamentalist Christian program for gays" on "gay nversn" — be through a mp or otherwise — still exists today. Unrver at a so-lled gay nversn mpABC News' Brian Ross tak to plac that many claim no longer exist -- Christian mistri or mps where gay teens are sent by parents who want their children to change their 10, 2017. Pl Cameron, former psychology stctor at Universy of Nebraska, begs publishg psdo-scientific pamphlets "provg" that gay people m more serial murrs, molt more children, and tentnally spread diseas.

ABC NEWS: HUNDREDS OF CHRISTIAN ANTI-GAY ‘CONVERSN CAMPS’ FOR KIDS ‘OPERATG ACROSS THE COUNTRY’

At the first Congrsnal heargs on anti-gay vlence, Kathleen Sarris of Indianapolis tells of beg stalked and asslted by a "Christian soldier" who held her at gunpot, beat and raped her for three hours, explag that "he was actg for God; that what he was dog to me was God's revenge on me bee I was a 'queer' and gettg rid of me would save children. Callg lbians and gay men "the ultimate enemy, " Dannemeyer acc straight people of "surrenrg to this growg army whout a shot, " and predicts gay rights will "plunge our people, and ed the entire Wt, to a dark night of the soul that uld last hundreds of years.

One of the anizers, Tony Mar, hon a "special rights" argument, claimg that gay people are ordately wealthy and polilly powerful, and neher need nor serve the rights they "mand. The battle over gay marriage is igned when the Hawaii Supreme Court l that nyg same-sex upl marriage licens vlat "basic human rights" guaranteed the state nstutn — unls the state legislature n show a "pellg reason" to prevent gay marriage. The Pk Swastika: Homosexualy the Nazi Party, by fundamentalist activists Stt Lively and Kev Abrams, claims gays weren't victimized the Holot, but stead helped mastermd the extermatn of Jews.

The Southern Baptist Conventn announc a boytt of Disney parks and products bee the pany giv surance benefs to partners of gay workers and allows "Gay Days" at s theme parks. The lg puts an end to 20 years of state and lol ballot iativ aimed at strippg gays of anti-discrimatn protectns, leavg same-sex marriage as the ma issue for anti-gay anizers. A aln of fundamentalist groups led by Coral Ridge Mistri sponsors "Tth Love, " a ln-dollar advertisg mpaign promotg "ex-gay mistri, " which e discreded psychologil methods to "cure" gay people.

HISTORY OF THE ANTI-GAY MOVEMENT SCE 1977

"Teletubbi" rtoon character Tky Wky is "outed" as gay a "Parents' Alert" Jerry Falwell's Liberty Journal, which asserts, "He is purple — the gay-pri lor; and his antenna is shaped like a triangle — the gay-pri symbol. On "The 700 Club" two days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Jerry Falwell blam the tragedy on "the Pagans, and the abortnists, and the femists and the gays and lbians who are actively tryg to make that an alternative liftyle. 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.

18 ANTI-GAY GROUPS AND THEIR PROPAGANDA

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.

In a 2007 open letter to the Rsian people, he asserted that “homosexualy is a personaly disorr that volv var, often dangero sexual addictns and aggrsive, anti-social impuls. 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.

RSIA'S LGBT 'CONCENTRATN CAMPS': PRISONS FOR GAY MEN IN CHECHNYA, REPORTS SAY

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.

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.

The AFTAH se repeats bog claims like the ia that a proposed bill California would “promote cross-drsg, sex-change operatns, bisexualy and homosexualy” to krgartners and other children. 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.

‘THEY STARVE YOU. THEY SHOCK YOU’: INSI THE ANTI-GAY POGROM CHECHNYA

” More recently, while hostg Amerin Visn’s “The Gary DeMar Show” December 2009, Joel McDurmon, the group’s rearch director, agreed that the Bible do ll for killg homosexuals. 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. 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.