Former Congressman Barney Frank has his copy of 'How They See Us.' Get your free copy now.
As we begin another week in the midst of all this drama regarding the so-called culture war, I thought I would talk about something near and dear to my heart.
For over a year, I have driven you all crazy and I appreciate your patience and support but now we are almost at the end of one part of a journey.
My online booklet, How They See Us: Unmasking the Religious Right War on Gay America is less than 4,000 hits from reaching 1,000,000. It’s a remarkable achievement fueled by all of the support I received from the netroots. And it’s very timely. Things have changed tremendously since January of last year when I published this booklet. Thanks to the recent Hobby Lobby decision, the anti-gay religious right is gaining traction with their bogus “religious freedom” argument.
Granted, we can still count on them to accuse lgbts of attempting to “recruit children” or being “oversexed all-around public health menaces. However, just like the Klan tried to retool its reputation by claiming they are not “anti-black,” just “pro-white,” the anti-gay religious right is cleverly retooling their arguments by saying they aren’t anti-gay, just “pro-traditional marriage.” They also claim that they are unfairly being
targeted for not “celebrating” the so-called “gay lifestyle.”
Of course we know the truth.
Their “religious freedom” or “religious liberty” argument is another tactic in a long line of tactics and arguments going back decades And the goal has always been the demonization and stigmatization of lgbt individuals in order to deny the lgbt community our God-granted right to equality.
They will never own up to what they have been doing. They won’t bring up any of the anti-gay lies, homophobic language, or willful scientific distortions they have been guilty of throughout the years. And let’s be honest about something – neither will the media, particularly the Washington Beltway media.
If the lgbt community is waiting for a latter-day Edward R. Murrow or Walter Cronkite to swoop in and save us by exposing the religious right, we are going to be waiting for a pretty long time.
That job belongs to us, i.e. the recipients of all of their anti-gay vitriol. And that is the purpose of How They See Us.
If you haven’t already, check out How They See Us. It is short, but graphics intensive booklet, which I consider a definitive history on anti-gay propaganda. Download it, and above all, PLEASE share it. Our desire for full equality is noble and true, but we have to deal with crafty enemies who hide their homophobic animus behind Scripture and the claim of “deeply held religious beliefs.” It’s a lie and using their own words and images, How They See Us proves it.
You can read an embedded copy of How They See Us directly on the Scribd site or go to this second site where you can download an adobe acrobat copy.
If you desire to fight back against homophobic lies, then realize that knowledge is the first key. Passing along this knowledge is the second one.
(And just to clear things up, this booklet is free. I don’t get a dime for it. I created it because I am tired of talking about lgbt equality on the terms of the religious right. I'm tired of not having a good resource on hand to call out anti-gay propaganda. The lgbt community – particularly lgbt youth – should have something like this. We all should have had something like this a long time ago.)