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Gay agenda

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The homosexual agenda (or the gay agenda) is a term used by some social conservatives in the United States to describe the goal of increasing LGBT acceptance and equality through public policies, media exposure, and cultural change. The term is most often employed by social conservatives in debates over LGBT rights in the United States. Some believe that this agenda is a secret one.[1]

The term is offensive to many,[2] particularly those who view the goals of the movement to be equal rights. Sometimes those who would be offended by a serious reference to this term still use it satirically or sarcastically.[3][4][5]

Some issues often listed as included in the agenda are hotly debated today in the United States, from same-sex marriage, to anti-discrimination laws, to hate crime legislation, and more. Arguments from sexual morality and religious objections to same-sex relations, as well as civil rights arguments, are common in these discussions.

Use of the term

The term "the gay agenda" was first used for political purposes in 1992 when the Family Research Council published a video series called The Gay Agenda as part of a pack of materials campaigning on homosexual issues and the "hidden gay agenda".[6] In the same year the Oregon Citizens Alliance used this video as part of their campaign for Ballot Measure 9 to amend the Oregon Constitution to prevent what the OCA called "special rights" for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals.[7] Paul Cameron (co-founder of the Institute for the Scientific Investigation of Sexuality in Lincoln, later to be renamed the Family Research Institute) appeared as an expert in The Gay Agenda video, his claims including that 75% of gay men regularly ingest fecal material and that 70-78% have had a sexually transmitted disease.[8] The Gay Agenda was followed by three other video publications; The Gay Agenda in Public Education (1993), The Gay Agenda: March on Washington (1993) and a feature follow-up Stonewall: 25 Years of Deception (1994). All these videos contain interviews with antigay experts and the series is widely available through Christian right organizations.[9]

In 2003 Alan Sears and Craig Osten, president and vice-president of the Alliance Defense Fund, an American conservative Christian non-profit organization, offer another characterization of the homosexual agenda:

It is an agenda that they basically set in the late 1980s, in a book called 'After the Ball'[10], where they laid out a six-point plan for how they could transform the beliefs of ordinary Americans with regard to homosexual behavior — in a decade-long time frame.... They admit it privately, but they will not say that publicly. In their private publications, homosexual activists make it very clear that there is an agenda. The six-point agenda that they laid out in 1989 was explicit: Talk about gays and gayness as loudly and as often as possible... Portray gays as victims, not as aggressive challengers... Give homosexual protectors a just cause... Make gays look good... Make the victimizers look bad... Get funds from corporate America.[1]

'After the Ball'[10] argues that after the radical activism of the "gay liberation" phase of the '70s and '80s, gay rights groups should adopt more professional public relations techniques to convey their message.

The phrase "homosexual agenda" appears in many forums from political commentary to talk radio, and even once in 2003 by the U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote in his dissent in the landmark case Lawrence v. Texas that the "law-profession culture... has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda, by which I mean the agenda promoted by some homosexual activists directed at eliminating the moral opprobrium that has traditionally attached to homosexual conduct.".[11][12]

In 2005 James Dobson, director of Focus on the Family, a Christian non-profit organization based in the United States, and a social Christian conservative commentator in American popular media, described the homosexual agenda as follows:

Those goals include universal acceptance of the gay lifestyle, discrediting of scriptures that condemn homosexuality, muzzling of the clergy and Christian media, granting of special privileges and rights in the law, overturning laws prohibiting pedophilia, indoctrinating children and future generations through public education, and securing all the legal benefits of marriage for any two or more people who claim to have homosexual tendencies.[13]

Also, it refers to diehard fans of the band WHAM!

Opposition to the term's use

Groups such as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, an American non-profit organization, deny the existence of any secret agenda. They state that their major goal is to end discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations and to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons. These groups describe the term as a "rhetorical invention of anti-gay extremists seeking to create a climate of fear by portraying the pursuit of civil rights for LGBT people as sinister".[2] Some members of the LGBT community consider their political goals to be too heterogeneous to be grouped together into one single agenda.[14] Satirist Stephen Colbert poked fun at the concept of a homosexual agenda in reference to hate crime legislation stating:

The liberals are once again pushing their homosexual agenda by reminding us there are homosexuals.[15]


Michael Swift's essay

Some commentators allege a more radical "homosexual agenda", quoting a satirical article authored by Michael Swift which first appeared in the Gay Community News in February 1987. Originally titled Gay Revolutionary, the article describes a scenario in which homosexual men dominate American society and suppress all things heterosexual.[16] The article was reprinted in Congressional Record without an opening disclaimer in which the author states that the essay is intended as "outré, madness, a tragic, cruel fantasy, an eruption of inner rage, on how the oppressed desperately dream of being the oppressor", suggesting it is a satirical piece of literary hyperbole, and is not intended by its author to be taken literally.[17]

Nonetheless, the essay has been repeatedly cited by Christians, and others who describe themselves as socially conservative or philosophically traditional in their world view, as evidence that some (or most) of members of the gay community seek to dominate and destroy traditional American family values.[18]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b Osten, Craig (2003). "Q&A: The Homosexual Agenda"
  2. ^ a b "Offensive Terminology to Avoid". GLAAD.
  3. ^ Finally, the Homosexual Agenda, in Five Words or Less
  4. ^ The Homosexual Agenda
  5. ^ Bishop Gene Robinson, addressing the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America on 14 June 2006, for example, declared that "Jesus is the homosexual agenda in the Episcopal Church".
  6. ^ (Herman 1997) page 67
  7. ^ (Signorile 1993) page 337-339
  8. ^ (Herman 1997) page 78
  9. ^ (Herman 1997) page 80-81
  10. ^ a b (Kirk 1989)
  11. ^ Scalia, Antonin (2003). "John Geddes Lawrence and Tyron Garner, petitioners v. Texas". FindLaw: Lawrence et al. v. Texas (June 2003).
  12. ^ (Cobb, 2006) page 161
  13. ^ Dobson, Dr. James (2005). "Marriage Under Fire".
  14. ^ Bouley II, Charles Karel (2005). "The gay agenda revealed!". Advocate. Retrieved 2007-08-26.
  15. ^ Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report, 2007-10-03, on hate crime legislation
  16. ^ Fordham University: Michael Swift - Gay Revolutionary (the complete essay)
  17. ^ Rainbow alliance, The Gay Agenda: How The Conservative Religious Right Created a Lie
  18. ^ Cindy Patton: "Tremble, Heteroswine!" in (Warner 1993) p143-177

References

  • Cobb, Michael (2006). God Hates Fags: The Rhetorics of Religious Violence. NYU Press. pp. 208 pages. ISBN 0814716687.
  • Herman, Didi (1997). The antigay agenda  : orthodox vision and the Christian Right. University of Chicago Press. pp. 242 pages. ISBN 0226327647.
  • Kirk, Marshall (1989). After the ball : how America will conquer its fear and hatred of gays in the '90s. Doubleday. pp. 398 pages. ISBN 0312023723. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Signorile, Michelangelo (1993). Queer in America  : sex, the media, and the closets of power. Random House. pp. 378 pages. ISBN 067941309X.
  • Warner, Michael (1993). Fear of a queer planet : queer politics and social theory. University of Minnesota Press. pp. 334 pages. ISBN 0816623341.

See also

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