Beginning in 1977 the anti-Gay movement was kicked off when Anita Bryant, claiming to be a Christian, put her energies into organizing the first concerted anti-gay group which soon morphed into a movement. Bryant’s group was ominously named ‘Save Our Children’. If you want to get people on your side making them worry about the ‘children’ is a go to tactic extremists favor. Having opened the door in 1977 to the irrational impulses of anti-Gay hysteria it was only a year before the tree of hate bore its fruit.
“Gay activist Harvey Milk, elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, is (was) assassinated on Nov. 27 (along with Mayor George Moscone) by right-wing religious zealot Dan White, a former city supervisor who had resigned in protest after the board passed a gay-rights ordinance.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center has provided a timeline of the hate agenda of the religious right directed against Gay people. The timeline is at the hyperlink where the quote is from. The revealed history is a chilling condemnation of a movement motivated by intolerance and stoked by irrationality and fear.
By 1979 Jerry Falwell had rallied the ranks of the intolerant with the formation of the ‘Moral Majority’. The purpose of the ‘Moral Majority’ was to infiltrate the political infrastructure in every aspect of political life from local governments all the way up to the national level. It has been immensely successful by appealing to fear, prejudice and the more base human emotions.
The progression of hate and misinformation stemming from the religious right has from its inception aligned itself with extremists like Tim LaHaye. LaHaye, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, was a ‘trainer’ associated with the John Birch Society. LaHaye is credited with calling Gay people “militant”, organized” and “vile”. Thoughts which seem to have been reverberating in Dan White when he fired the opening volley in the war against Gay people murdering Gay activist Harvey Milk and the Mayor of San Francisco, George Moscone.
The path of intolerance trod by right wing religious extremists is littered with texts from the Old Testament which give them authorization for their activities.
The task of every minority group in the U.S. in achieving parity of liberty has been arduous. Much of the intolerance and obstruction to social equality has been at the hands of Protestants beginning with the Pilgrims. While Roman Catholics were among the first groups to suffer the wrath of Protestant terrorists who historically had hated Catholics and burned their churches many Roman Catholics have joined hands with their former Protestant persecutors to persecute and vilify Gays. Religion and politics indeed do make strange bed-fellows.
The conjunction of right wing demagogues with political power along with the religious right has brought a midnight as dark as the superstitious Dark Ages to the landscape of American life. When it comes to discovering the source of intolerance in society we find the usual time honored suspects; the political and religious right.
The unholy alliance of religion and state is as deadly to freedom as a virus for which there is no cure. The only remedy the persecuted have is to appeal to the basic premises of liberty found in the constitution. The right to be Gay and to be married is a principle revealed in the constitution and upheld by the USCS. The religious and political right’s opposition to the constitution and the highest court of the land marks them as not really being in favor of liberty and justice for all. As we were told by the great war President G.W. Bush(tongue in cheek) the people who attacked us on 9/11/2001 did so because they hate our freedom. It’s clear from the news that those on the political and religious right also hate our freedom as Americans.
In the last few days the eyes of the entire world have been focused on the State of Kentucky and Kim Davis a government employee charged with, among other things, the issuing of marriage licenses to qualified applicants. Ms. Davis has refused to do her job saying her right wing Christian religious beliefs forbid her. She has cited her fears of staining her conscience. The hell with human rights!
The sideshow of religious intolerance has always been a part of American life. Whether it be, the heathen natives, Roman Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Black, Gay and transgender citizens the religious and political right have been the prime movers. When intolerance raises its ugly head look to the ‘right’ and you’ll see the usual suspects.