Director Jonathan Demme faced down Silence of the Lambs’ gay backlash.

Contents:

• THE GLOBAL BACKLASH AGAST GAY RIGHTS
• TOM HOLLAND’S THE CROWD ROOM GAY SEX SCENE SPARKS APPALLG HOMOPHOBIC BACKLASH
• AFTER YEARS OF PROGRS ON GAY RIGHTS, HOW DID THE US BEE SO ANTI-LGBTQ+?
• BILLIE EILISH RPONDS TO ‘WISH YOU WERE GAY’ BACKLASH: ‘IT’S NOT MEANT TO BE AN INSULT’
• WHEN PRI AND PROFS LLI: COMPANI STGGLE WH ANTI-GAY BACKLASH
• WHEN GAYS DECRIED SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, JONATHAN DEMME BEME AN EARLY STUNT OF MORN BACKLASH
• LGBT LEARS WARN OF LOOMG GAY RIGHTS BACKLASH

THE GLOBAL BACKLASH AGAST GAY RIGHTS

Take the three people who were attacked as they were leavg a drag show Old Town Pasana, or the gay club Brooklyn that was set on fire, or the aths of two Black, transgenr women Chigo, at least one of which was led a murr (the other is still unr vtigatn).

The fight for gay rights—wily regard as “the fastt of all civil rights movements” (over a short perd of time, 20 natns have e to regnize same-sex marriage and an addnal 15 now allow same-sex civil unns)—is no exceptn. A shootg rampage last June at Pulse, a gay nightclub Orlando, Florida, by a terrorist who had exprsed loathg for the LGBT muny, was the adlit asslt ever on the Amerin gay muny and attts to the vicns of this phback. In recent years, there has been a global backlash agast gay rights that ns om the Uned Stat, through many parts of the global South, to Rsia and other parts of the post–Communist opposn to gay rights two stras and reflects what the Pew Rearch Center has lled “the global divi on homosexualy.

” In Wtern Europe and the Ameris, home to the world’s most mocratilly advanced stat and the largt and most sophistited gay rights movements, the gay backlash tak the form of a unter-revolutn signed to timidate the gay muny and roll back gas gay rights. Across Ai, the Middle East, and much of the post–Communist world, the parts of the globe where mocracy, civil society, and human rights are eher short supply or stgglg, the gay backlash nsists of a “preemptive strike” meant to stop the gay rights movement before n ga s footg.

TOM HOLLAND’S THE CROWD ROOM GAY SEX SCENE SPARKS APPALLG HOMOPHOBIC BACKLASH

They were, of urse, opposed to extendg marriage to gay upl, but what tly mobilized them was that Spa’s same-sex marriage law was the first one the world to put same-sex upl on the same legal footg as heterosexual upl: allowg for gay adoptns and accs to reproductive technologi such as vro fertilizatn. The protts were for the most part peaceful, but at least one monstratn May 2013 turned vlent, forcg the police to e tear gas and batons to disperse Lat Ameri, the gay backlash has been felt most profoundly Brazil, where the hight urt led favor of same-sex marriage 2011.

Sce then, Brazilian legislators have retaliated wh a plethora of anti-gay bills that ll for refg the fay to exclu homosexual upl, for tablishg a natnal day of “heterosexual pri, ” and for banng “Christ-phobia, ” or the secratn of Christian symbols.

AFTER YEARS OF PROGRS ON GAY RIGHTS, HOW DID THE US BEE SO ANTI-LGBTQ+?

Although the bills don’t really stand much chance of ever beg law (for one thg, they are of dub nstutnaly), they ntribute to the homophobic culture that unrps Brazil’s massive problem wh gay killgs.

Acrdg to the Group Gay da Bahia, Brazil’s olst and most rpected gay rights anizatn, sce the mid-1980s, when Brazil beme a full mocracy, more than 3, 000 LGBT people have been murred. Its most dramatic maniftatn was untry sger Ana Bryant’s “Save the Children” mpaign, which succeed overturng an anti-discrimatn ordance enacted Da County, Florida, by pictg homosexuals as pedophil. Among many other tactics, Prop 8 proponents pared the fight agast gay marriage “to the battle agast Hler” and urged Californians “not to stand quietly and accept what happened Germany.

Mark Kzlarich / Rters PREEMPTIVE STRIKESIn 2009, the Ugandan ernment bated the world’s most famo anti-gay legislatn, the Anti-Homosexualy Act, universally known as the “kill-the-gays-bill. ” Ostensibly seekg to prevent “foreigners om g to Uganda and spendg lns of dollars to rec children to homosexualy, ” the bill lled to punish by ath those who mted the “offence of homosexualy” and to jail for up to seven years fay and iends of homosexuals who failed to report them to the thori.

BILLIE EILISH RPONDS TO ‘WISH YOU WERE GAY’ BACKLASH: ‘IT’S NOT MEANT TO BE AN INSULT’

Although has yet to go to effect due to an terventn by the Ugandan Constutnal Court, the bill has spawned pyts across Ai, cludg Gambia, Liberia, and ’s “gay propaganda law, ” enacted 2013, has also earned s share of famy. So broadly wrten is the law that, prciple, outlaws pri paras; public displays of affectn by same-sex upl; gay newspapers and magaz; gay-themed lerature, televisn, and films; and symbols of the LGBT muny, such as the rabow flag.

For several years now, the world has been horrified by the ghastly antics of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS), which has been beheadg gays and throwg them om rooftops the terrori that ntrols, such as parts of Iraq. Suzanna Walter, thor of All the Rage: The Story of Gay Visibily Ameri, mak that se, argug that imag of gays beme ubiquo the Amerin media durg the 1990s, and this, turn, led to creased vlence agast LGBT people. The pollg data also show that among the major relig groups, Mlims are the least acceptg of homosexualy and gay rights, followed by Prottant–Evangelils, Catholics, and mastream Prottants.

WHEN PRI AND PROFS LLI: COMPANI STGGLE WH ANTI-GAY BACKLASH

The fdgs would expla why the gay backlash has been most severe the most eply relig parts of the world, such as Ain and Middle Eastern natns, and, among Wtern natns, more pronounced natns wh large Evangelil populatns, such as the Uned Stat and Brazil, than Catholic on, such as Argenta, Ireland, and Spa.

WHEN GAYS DECRIED SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, JONATHAN DEMME BEME AN EARLY STUNT OF MORN BACKLASH

By openly embracg anti-gay vlence and extremely homophobic legislatn, many tocratic regim across the world are dog what such regim have done for centuri to groups as varied as Jews, heretics, and var ethnic mori: spegoatg a socially spised mory as a way to nsolidate power, to jtify nservative polici, and to distract om other ernments of Egypt and Iran, for example, employ anti-gay vlence a way that is strikgly siar to the way terrorist anizatns, such as ISIS, e vlence. Printial ndidate Pat Buchanan electrified the 1992 GOP Natnal Conventn wh his fire-breathg “culture war” speech, which he warned that the “Clton and Clton agenda, ” (that is Bill and Hillary Clton), would brg “homosexual rights” to the Uned Stat.

LGBT LEARS WARN OF LOOMG GAY RIGHTS BACKLASH

Print Donald Tmp, spe his pledge at the 2016 GOP Natnal Conventn to protect LGBT Amerins om vlence and discrimatn, ran on a platform scribed by gay Republins as the GOP’s “most anti-LGBT platform” the party’s 162-year history. In 2011, the Uned Natns Human Rights Commissn, wh the support of the Uned Stat, the European Unn, and several Lat Amerin natns, enacted the Rolutn on Sexual Orientatn and Genr Inty, which lled for the crimalizatn of homosexualy. Soon after, the UN Human Rights Council announced the appotment of a “Gay Czar” to monor LGBT vlence around the ternatnal iativ aim to unrme homophobia by sensizg the world to the fact that spe securg rights once thought to be unattaable, gay people rema among the world’s most vulnerable mori, even some of the world’s most liberal societi.

A rash of laws ncerng the teachg of human sexualy school curricula, banng trans stunt athlet and strippg parents of the right to help their genr-variant children obta appropriate re have popped up numero red stat this same-sex marriage is now part of the fabric of Ameri, nservativ have chosen to explo Amerins’ unfaiary wh trans people and piggyback on parental anger over the perceived overreach of Covid-era school closur, nflatg wh an sid sense of “wokens”, the hop of fdg an electorally viable sluiceway for anti-LGBTQ+ most famo of the anti-LGBTQ+ laws is the piece of Florida legislatn banng stctn on sexual orientatn or genr inty schools between krgarten and third gra, the so-lled “don’t say gay” law. The ernor and his supporters have labeled as a “groomer” anyone who believ children n learn LGBTQ+ people exist, argug that simply by talkg about gay relatnships to a child, you are sexualizg that child. He was followed by Arizona’s ernor, Doug Ducey, who, after barrg mors om genr-affirmatn treatment, wouldn’t even state for the rerd that trans people were Florida lawmaker Michele Rayner-Goolsby, left, hugs her wife, Bian Goolsby, durg a march at cy hall St Petersburg agast the ‘don’t say gay’ bill.

Photograph: Bob Daemmrich/Zuma Wire/Rex/ShutterstockPolicians are supported the media by mentators like Tucker Carlson, who claimed “no one had heard of this trans thg four years ago”, or Charlie Kirk, channelg 1980s fears sayg “gays want to rpt your children” rejuvenated, the right wg is poised to make transphobia and homophobia rnerston of the midterms and 2024 electns, wh promis to liver “don’t say gay” legislatn stat cludg Michigan and New Perks, the print of the Fay Rearch Council, a nservative lobbyg group, veighed agast the ernors of Indiana and Utah for vetog legislatn banng trans women om participatg sports, llg the bills “timely, mastream protectns”.

The Republin US reprentative Marjorie Taylor Greene vowed to troduce a feral “don’t say gay” bill if Republins w the Hoe this November, only to one-up herself days later by tweetg that for people to be pro-trans is to be pro-pedophilia. ”The bs-iendly wg of the GOP that would quietly team up wh Democrats to scuttle rabidly homophobic bills is now outnumbered, and legislators a dozen or more stat that lean even farther to the right than DeSantis are takg, the Natnal Center for Lbian Rights legal director, believ Florida is the tt se for a renewed ph for an aggrsive, Christian-natnalist program. ”The “don’t say gay” bill, Mter not, is very siar to what’s been passed Rsia, tetherg Amerin nservativ to their thorarian unterparts who have succsfully rolled back mocratic norms across eastern Europe.

“I’ve seen this movie before over the last 30 years: The right wg cid to target the LGBTQ muny, whether ’s around marriage or adoptn or trans kids playg sports or bathrooms, ” says the California state senator Stt Wiener, who is gay. “I thought was really important to ph back on the policy level, and to send a clear signal that California and other stat really re about the kids, ” he believ that “don’t say gay” is “patently unnstutnal” but also ntends that relyg on the judicial system to protect human rights may no longer be a sound optn.

But today s reputatn for clivy and tolerance is unr scty – as are s ep ti to the polil tablishment and the lack of LGBTQ reprentatn s ’s workers have been stagg walkouts prott at chief executive Bob Chapek’s lackltre rponse to Florida legislatn dubbed “don’t say gay”.

But their prejudic were laid bare by a tweet om Christa Phaw, prs secretary for Florida’s ernor, Ron DeSantis, that said: “The bill that liberals accurately ll ‘don’t say gay’ would be more accurately scribed as an anti-groomg bill. It has been nmned as “hateful” by Joe Bin and other Democrats who argue that monis LGBTQ, prs secretary of the LGBTQ rights anisatn Equaly Florida and a survivor of the Pulse nightclub shootg 2016, says: “The ‘don’t say gay bill’ was dubbed that by the muny bee is a bigoted, very specifilly anti-LGBTQ piece of legislatn signed to censor classroom speech about our muny. They give to a lot of Democrats, bee they want those Democrats to be on their si too, but they have given a disproportnate amount to Republin legislators, many of whom supported and voted for the ‘don’t say gay’ bill.

The Human Rights Campaign has said will stop acceptg money om Disney “until we see them build on their public mment and work wh LGBTQ+ advot to ensure that dangero proposals, like Florida’s ‘don’t say gay or trans’ bill, don’t bee dangero laws” Whehall and Ey Blunt Jungle Cise. Eric Marc, creator and host of the Makg Gay History podst, says: “Disney has cultivated an LGBTQ-iendly image, both through their cln of LGBTQ characters recent years and wh their employe, so ’s shockg but not shockg that the CEO would have been so flat-footed.

Photograph: APFor s the stud’s output was steadfastly heterosexual even though s creative talents clud gay people such as Howard Ashman, an Osr wner who wrote the lyrics for The Ltle Mermaid and Bety and the Beast before his ath om Aids has been some progrs sce then wh a growg LGBTQ portrayals films and TV shows and the sellg of LGBTQ pri-themed merchandise at Disney stor.

More than 50 years after the famo Stonewall rts, the only Pri Month tradn more predictable than big cy paras June are the perennial plats about the “modifitn” of the gay rights movement. Claimg that a gay person needs to vote for a certa party or suate themselv on a certa pot of the iologil spectm is — to e some of today’s pop psychology terms — gatekeepg and gaslightg. The sire to associate gay inty wh a particular part of the polil spectm don’t reflect the muny’s diversy and n actively alienate people who are not part of that polil group — at the expense of the terts of the muny as a whole.

What was origally known as the “gay liberatn” movement was born out of a wi-rangg cultural ferment on the left the 1960s and early 1970s that also gave rise to the women’s liberatn, anti-war and Black power movements, a cross-pollatn among activists groups scribed Cornell Universy’s archive on the history of gay activism. Given this background, and aid by the fact that their nservative antagonists were generally favor of ee-market enomic polici, gay rights activists durg the 1970s were associated wh a hostily toward palism, markets and rporatns. Pani — often persuad by ternal affy groups formed by their own gay employe — implemented nondiscrimatory hirg l and extend benefs to same-sex domtic partners when virtually no natnal policians were willg to support such polici publicly.