COLUMBIA—While not on the radar of the mainstream lgbt media,
an online booklet detailing how religious right groups spread anti-gay propaganda
has quietly grabbed many readers and status as one of the best books that many
in the community hasn’t heard of yet.
McEwen credits the success to how he and other supporters consistently
publicized the booklet by either embedding it on their blogs or tweeting about
it on a daily and weekly basis, thus drawing in readers.
“I believe that if you really want a project to be
successful, you have to work on gaining that success tooth-and-nail,” McEwen
said. “Luckily, recent events have made How They See Us vital to not only
members of the lgbt community but also to our allies.”
One event McEwen points to happened early last month.
A
Michigan Republican leader, Dave Agema,
posted what he called “facts about homosexuality” on Facebook.
These “facts”
were such claims as gays molest children at a high rate and are infected with numerous
amount of diseases.
Many of Agema’s claims had already been cited and refuted in
How
They See Us. And the fact that Agema pulled his claims from an over 20-year-old
piece even proved the basic point of McEwen’s booklet – that the same claims
made now by such groups as the Family Research Council, the American Family
Association, and other so-called pro-family groups are not facts but old lies
rooted in junk science or cherry-picked legitimate science.
Another event McEwen points to is how the new support of
marriage equality is creating a false dichotomy of Christians being supposedly victimized for
speaking against marriage equality.
Last week, an
article on CNN’s webpage asked that question.
McEwen felt that while the article attempted to be fair, the writer did not do
more to expose the duplicity of religious right and so-called morality groups.
McEwen felt the writer should have taken an effort to talk more about the false
claims made about the lgbt community; claims which he feels go way beyond
expressing a religious belief.
“The danger of the article,” McEwen said, “ is that it gives
the inaccurate impression that religious right groups are unfairly victimized
simply for expressing religious opposition to marriage equality. This
mindset totally absolves them of the propaganda they have spread about the lgbt
community before marriage equality was even an issue.”
Now that his book has enjoyed much success online, McEwen
said he is ready to take the next step – getting more hard copies into the
hands of people who can use them. He
said his ultimate goal is to create a national conversation on how religious
right groups pass along homophobic propaganda under the guise of “Christian
expression.”
McEwen is in the middle of creating a hard copy edition of How
They See Us which he intends to distribute at pride festivals free of charge. He said he also intends to
mail copies to certain members of Congress, HRC, GLAAD, and also put the word out
to many pride centers across the nation that the book is available for their
usage free of charge.
“While
articles
have been written which ask the question of whether or not Christians are
being attacked for professing their so-called personal beliefs, there has been
very little media attention and virtually NO mainstream articles focusing present-day
religious right anti-gay propaganda or how so-called "pro-family"
group routinely cherry-pick science to demonize gays. And that’s a real shame,”
said McEwen. “My ultimate goal is to change that.”
How They See Us is available for free on
McEwen’s
blog (to the right) and can also be downloaded from
here.
