I get so sick and tired of the lgbt community and our allies debating the issues of marriage equality and bigotry on the terms of the anti-gay right.
The recent nonsense is coming from Brandon Ambrosino of The Atlantic who wrote a piece entitled Being Against Gay Marriage Doesn't Make You a Homophobe.
Needless to say, Ambrosino's piece has launched a back-and-forth argument which does nothing to address the real issue of anti-gay bigotry. The irony is that he has a point but arguing that point keeps us all from getting down to the real issue of how homophobia fuels arguments against marriage equality and anti-gay bigotry.
Opposing marriage equality doesn't make you a homophobe. Disagreement with homosexuality and even ignorance about the lgbt community doesn't make you a homophobe. It's how you voice that disagreement. Now this is homophobia:
All of these flyers and mailers are the products of organizations (National Organization for Marriage, Americans for Truth, The Traditional Values Coalition) who oppose marriage equality and lgbt equality in general. And all of these organizations have appeared on news programs and talk shows.
How many times have these organizations been asked to address these defamatory flyers (as well as their rhetoric regarding the lgbt community) as opposed to the perfunctory question of "Isn't opposing gay marriage bigotry?"
What we need is an overhaul of the entire process of engaging anti-gay groups.
The recent nonsense is coming from Brandon Ambrosino of The Atlantic who wrote a piece entitled Being Against Gay Marriage Doesn't Make You a Homophobe.
Needless to say, Ambrosino's piece has launched a back-and-forth argument which does nothing to address the real issue of anti-gay bigotry. The irony is that he has a point but arguing that point keeps us all from getting down to the real issue of how homophobia fuels arguments against marriage equality and anti-gay bigotry.
Opposing marriage equality doesn't make you a homophobe. Disagreement with homosexuality and even ignorance about the lgbt community doesn't make you a homophobe. It's how you voice that disagreement. Now this is homophobia:
All of these flyers and mailers are the products of organizations (National Organization for Marriage, Americans for Truth, The Traditional Values Coalition) who oppose marriage equality and lgbt equality in general. And all of these organizations have appeared on news programs and talk shows.
How many times have these organizations been asked to address these defamatory flyers (as well as their rhetoric regarding the lgbt community) as opposed to the perfunctory question of "Isn't opposing gay marriage bigotry?"
What we need is an overhaul of the entire process of engaging anti-gay groups.
3 comments:
We sure do! First thing is to inform TV news programs of the kind of people they invite. GLADD's Accountability Project has a long list of these people and what they say off camera. You created this great piece on these people and what they have said and done to us as well.
The American people NEED to know what is going on in the background. Interviewers NEED to grow a pair and speak up during live air time catching them in their own lies, mis-information and just plain hate.
"Then Raushenbush hauled out a familiar argument: 'Let's just be very clear here —if you are against marriage equality you are anti-gay. Done.'
"As a gay man, I found myself disappointed with this definition—that anyone with any sort of moral reservations about gay marriage is by definition anti-gay. If Raushenbush is right, then that means my parents are anti-gay, many of my religious friends (of all faiths) are anti-gay, the Pope is anti-gay, and—yes, we’ll go here—[[**first-century, Jewish theologian Jesus is anti-gay.**]]"
(Brackets and emphasis mine.)
Ambrosino's an idiot. if that's what he thinks Jesus's position on same-sex relations was he needs to read his Bible and while he's at it, if that's what he learned at Liberty University, I suggest he come north to New Jersey and spend a couple semesters at Drew Theological Seminary and learn what exegesis really means.
Opposing Equal Marriage may not make you a homophobe, but it sure as hell makes you a bigot. If we aren't willing to stand up for that truth, we've given away the store.
I wish I knew how to push back against the kind of propaganda the Religious Right is generating. I have a bad feeling that, if we elect a Republican next time around, the pendulum will swing against gay rights, and swing HARD.
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