On January 8, I published
How They See Us: Unmasking the Religious Right War on Gay America on Scribd. My goal at the time was to create a simple understanding of religious right anti-gay propaganda by the use of graphics, visuals, and information I gleaned from my
blog.
I’m happy to report that five months later, while not on the radar of the mainstream lgbt media, the book has become a huge success.
As of right now, How They See Us has drawn over 20,000 readers, making it the number one political book as well as the number five non-fiction book on Scribd.
A lot of the credit is owed to the book’s supporters who consistently either talked it up to their friends, tweeted it on a daily basis, or embedded it on their blogs. And recent events has shown that this book is needed.
Remember last month when Michigan Republican leader, Dave Agema, posted what he called “facts about homosexuality” on Facebook. 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 my 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.
And with marriage equality quickly gaining support and popularity, there seems to be this false dichotomy going around that Christians are being victimized for speaking against marriage equality. Two weeks ago, an article on CNN’s webpage asked that question. The article was okay but it nevertheless still gave 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.
My next goal with How They See Us is getting more copies into the hands of people who can use them. I am currently creating a hard copy edition of How They See Us which I intend to distribute at pride festivals free of charge. I also intend 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 on present-day religious right anti-gay propaganda or how so-called “pro-family” groups routinely cherry-pick science to demonize gays. And that’s a real shame. Hopefully, How They See Us can help to change that.
How They See Us is available for free and can be downloaded from here.