Monday, July 30, 2007

The Real Reason Focus On The Family Mocks Hate Crimes


I think Ex-Gay Watch is correct in it's analysis as to why the Christianists are so frantic over the Matthew Shepard Act. For gays to have federal legal protection sends a very strong message to the public that being gay is not a choice, but rather an inherent part of a person. This message guts the Christianist use of the "choice myth" for political and fundraising purposes. Hence the high level of hysteria:
We’ve heard gross distortions of this legislation apparently designed to scare people with the idea that, if it passes, free speech will be curtailed, pastors will be jailed, and innocent little grandmothers will be arrested for standing on a lonely street corner doing nothing more than offering tracts to passersby.
The actually at the heart of the matter: Focus, et al, simply can’t allow sexual orientation to be codified into federal statutes as real and fixed, even as a byproduct. After all the time and money they have spent trying to convince us that homosexuality is nothing more than a behavior, and a sinful one at that, it is against their self-interests to allow the obvious to make it into law. So in another example of the ends justifying the means, they use fear and lies to deny another vulnerable group the same protections against violent hate crimes that they themselves enjoy as members of a protected group by virtue of their religion.

1 comment:

zooplah said...

Hmm. I had a long post about the hypocrisy of the religious right: lying to make it seems that what the Bible literally says isn't totally ridiculous in this day and age. But it turns out I wasn't logged in and Blogger... well, Blogger sucks and though I'm now logged in, my original post is in oblivion.