Homophobe compares gay equality to chicken pox

Scott Lively

Very few individuals epitomizes the vileness and absolute absence of moral integrity of the religious right more than Scott Lively.

For the uninitiated, Lively is a long-time foe of the gay community who wrote a discredited book linking gays with the Nazi Party. However, his reputation for homophobia reached new depths after he and a bunch of other American homophobes traveled to Uganda and stoked the country up against the gay community by pushing the false notion that gays are trying to "convert" children.

We all know what happened next. Now Uganda is attempting to pass an ugly bill which would make homosexuality a crime punishable by death.

The blowback from the international community over this infused Lively with a schizophrenic approach towards gay equality. There are times when he claims to want to get away from the entire war over gay rights. And then there are times when he hits the homophobia full throttle.

His recent appearance in Springfield, Missouri was very much part of the latter:

Standing next to a sign reading “Human Rights Commission is a Trojan horse for the gay agenda,” Scott Lively told his audience of nearly 70 that a culture war currently raged between those fighting for sexual anarchy and those fighting for family values.

And with the chairman of the mayor’s human rights commission listening intently in that audience, the noted anti-homosexual rights activist and president of Abiding Truth Ministries exhorted listeners to kill a proposed ordinance extending civil rights protections to gay, lesbian and transgendered people.

“Don’t let this anti-discrimination ordinance go through,” said Lively during his Friday night presentation at The Library Station on North Kansas Expressway. “It’s like chicken pox. It’s in your system forever. You’ve got to kill this thing before it goes in.”

. . .Lively, who said he paid his own way to Springfield to share this message, argued that homosexual activists have capitalized on what he called the black civil rights movement by bundling their rights with those he called “legitimate ethnic minorities” and riding their coattails to social legitimacy.

“Since when is sodomy a civil right,” said Lively, who lives in Springfield, Mass. “It’s a ridiculous, preposterous notion! There’s absolutely no correlation between sodomy and skin color.”

The grand irony of Lively's talk is when he said that the city should have a "family first commission." Of course we all know that if this were the case, Lively wouldn't necessarily think that gay families should be a part of this commission.

It would seem, however, that Lively's talk may have backfired on the folks attempting to keep the ordinance from passing. According to the article, George Davis, chairman of the Mayor's human rights commission was there, but he walked out after hearing Lively's words. And apparently he wasn't one of the only ones. Davis, however, pointed out the myriad of contradictions in Lively's talk:

Davis pointed out that Lively repeatedly said that sex should take place only within the confines of marriage, but he opposed allowing gay and lesbian people to marry. He said Lively argued that society should fight to protect families, but he didn’t believe gay and lesbian people should be able to adopt. He said Lively seemed to suggest that Springfield was overrun with gay activists, but continually asserted to the audience that they were in the overwhelmingly Christian and conservative majority.