Homophobia: A Mark of Losers Nations and Loser States

I have noted before the growing homophobia that is sweeping Russia where anti-gay propaganda laws are under consideration in a number of many of Russia's major cities. Then, of course, we have the economic and social cesspools of sub-Sahara Africa where it seems as if nations are racing to see which one can enact the most anti-gay legislation. In contrast, most developed nations - the USA being a glaring exception - are increasingly gay accepting. Some countries in South America even deliver better nowadays on the promise of liberty and freedom than the USA. My activist friend Wayne Besen has a column in the Falls Church News-Press that the level of homophobia is increasingly a gauge for whether a nation is in decline or ascendancy. Sadly, employing this measure, the USA is in an accelerating state of decline because of the special privileges afforded Christianists and the unwillingness of elected officials to protect and deliver on constitutional rights of all citizens. The same holds true for states like Virginia and others in the South in particular that support bigotry rather than constitutional rights. Here are some highlights from Wayne's column:

I knew Russia was likely to embrace homophobia the moment I read that approximately 1.25 million Russians have emigrated from the nation in the past decade. Population experts say that the mass exodus is comparable in size to the migration following the Bolshevik Revolution. This one-time superpower is disintegrating into a superstitious country more concerned about angels than economics.

In this politically stagnating and spiritually stifling environment, it is predictable that the city of Saint Petersburg would consider a totalitarian bill imposing fines for the so-called promotion of gay "propaganda." If it were to pass, anyone who committed "public acts" promoting homosexuality, bisexuality or transgender identity to minors could pay up to 3,000 rubles while an organization could pay 10,000 to 50,000 rubles.

Such an outright assault on expression and speech are not the product of a free country and rightfully raised red flags within the U.S. State Department.

Without exception, loser nations are always the most homophobic. Leaders of such lands desperately look for scapegoats to distract the public from noticing their dismal failures. They also find the promotion of religious extremism useful, because it is more difficult to vilify leaders who present themselves as deified.

The LGBT community rarely thrives in backward places that promote ignorance over education and medieval views over modernity. As these intellectual swamps sink, sexual minorities make ideal targets because their members are often isolated and deeply closeted, vulnerable to persecution, and don't have the numbers to fight back.

Russia is not the only loser nation where leaders manipulate the public through virulent gay bashing. Brutal Zimbabwe dictator, Robert Mugabe, called homosexuality un-Christian and un-African last week, and then threatened to severely discipline anyone in a gay relationship.

Even in some advanced nations there is the threat of retrograde preachers who have no qualms about dragging their countries into the gutter for personal riches and political gain.

Homophobia is a mark of failing nations. Even in America, it is the emblem of poor, second-tier states. It is the signpost of inferior cities that perpetually fail to reach their potential and can't figure out why.

It is not that anti-gay sentiment on its own causes the collapse of such places. It is that homophobia virtually never stands alone. It can only flower in corrupt environments that lack basic freedom, devalue education, limit liberty, have huge income disparities, degrade women, discourage religious pluralism, mock intellectuals, and promote superstition at the expense of science.

As a general rule, places that are leaders in passing anti-gay laws are losers in virtually every other category that defines successful, civilized societies.

I believe that Wayne is pretty much on target. His analysis certainly holds true in the case of Virginia and regions of this state which are the most homophobic (homophobic, of course, being a relative term since the entire state is homophobic in terms of its anti-gay legal framework). The more conservative and homophobic they become, the more they spiral downward toward economic collapse. Don't believe me? The map below shows a county breakdown of unemployment. The lowest unemployment figures are for the most part clustered around cities with major universities and more liberal counties. The highest unemployment rates correlate closely with the most conservative and anti-gay areas of Virginia.