Wayne Besen - Author, Activist, Columnist, Public Speaker

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

by Wayne Besen

(Witchdoctor Warren Reinstated By Magellan)

If you are gay, now is time to waltz into your walk-in closet and make a choice. You can dust off your boxing gloves and prepare to fight for your rights or, you can stay silent and redecorate your closet because this is the lonely, miserable space you may inhabit in the near future. I've been fighting for equality since 1988, and this is the first time I believe we are going backwards and actually losing the battle.

The biggest mistake gay people and their allies tend to make is the naive assumption that there is a cosmic force of good moving Americans toward inevitable acceptance of homosexuality. But equality is a hopeful destination - not predestination - with history teaching us that the fist of fanaticism often stops the forces of freedom.

If the gay rights movement is crushed and active persecution of homosexuals dramatically escalates, we can look to April 2005, as the flashpoint that marked the beginning of the end.

Just last week, two companies supportive of gay rights - Microsoft and Magellan Health Services - capitulated to demands by anti-gay agitators fearing they would unleash the wrath of "values voters".

In a stunning reversal of historic support, Microsoft abandoned the gay community at a crucial moment - when the Washington State Senate debated a bill that would have prohibited discrimination in employment. The measure failed by one vote. Microsoft's appeasement came after Dr. Ken Hutcherson, pastor of Antioch Bible Church, harassed the software company, threatening a boycott.

"I told them I was going to give them something to be afraid of Christians about," Hutcherson told the New York Times.

Trying to soft peddle its micro-brained decision, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made matters worse by explaining that he didn't want to offend Christian conservative workers at the company.

"What message does the company send to its employees who have strongly held beliefs on the opposite side of the issue?" Ballmer wrote in an E-mail to 35,000 employees.

Well, Steve, Microsoft's new message legitimizes the deplorable right wing stance that firing homosexuals is a valid viewpoint if you mask such discrimination in the guise of religious belief.

Maybe it is time for the gay community to mount a massive protest outside Microsoft's Redmond, Wash., headquarters. Gay rights groups perfected the art of rowdy street theatre. We should show the fundamentalists how it is really done and give Microsoft a reason to be afraid of homosexuals.

In an equally disturbing surrender to neo-puritan pressure groups, Magellan Health Services reinstated "reparative therapist" Warren Throckmorton to its National Professional Advisory Council. Throckmorton was initially booted from the company because of his work as an anti-gay therapist.

And, to add insult to injury, the new no-hope Pope believes homosexuality is an "intrinsic moral evil" and an "objective disorder." Unfortunately, his archaic beliefs are being celebrated by many religious zealots in the U.S. looking to justify their mean-spirited bias.

On whole, the nation is becoming more accepting, but the whole nation isn't calling the shots. Instead, a powerful clique of right wing theocrats is attacking the very institutions that hold this nation together. Sen. Bill Frist spoke on Sunday via satellite to a rally designed to end judicial independence, abolish the filibuster and breach the wall separating church and state.

It is important to note that victims of neo-puritanical supremacy are not limited to the gay community. At the Air Force Academy, 55 complaints of religious persecution have been filed in the past four years, with "Christian" cadets allegedly calling some of their Jewish counterparts "Christ killer" and " Filthy Jew".

The treacherous tide has turned, and in our sink or swim moment we are drowning - along with other minorities - in the awesome conservative wave that has consumed this fearful nation. There is no lifeguard on the way to save us. Our only life preserver is our own courageous action and it is inexplicably in short supply - like rafts on the Titanic.

We are getting shafted because we have become polite to a fault and passive to the point of pathetic. On Capitol Hill we are no longer outsiders, but outcasts. In ACT-UP founder Larry Kramer's new book, "The Tragedy of Today's Gays", he writes, "I hope we all realize that of Nov. 2, 2004, gay rights in our country are officially dead and from here on we are going to be led even closer to the guillotine."

It is easy for critics to dismiss Kramer as a Cassandra, or even crazy, because he is so often screaming and ranting. But maybe it is the rest of the gay community that is nuts for not yelling louder and fighting harder as we get steamrolled by a right wing juggernaut that relentlessly works to strip us of our legal rights and our basic humanity.

32 Comments:

i couldn't agree more and have said for YEARS that the anti gay rhetoric that pat robertson and jerry fallwell spew on a daily basis only serves to increase the violence against gay people. I can't wait to read in the FBI statistics (now that they keep statistics for gay hate crimes, which also goes WIDELY unreported) and compare them to before and after all these state amendments banning gay marriage, basically saying to everyday dumbuck joe that it's now governmentally sanctioned to hate gay people..I wonder if that has any correlation between the suicide rate amoung gay men and women? Do ya think they have any connection at all?

Its also the complacencey of the gay community that has made me sick to my stomach ever since these amendments started. We're so used to 'taking it in the ass' from straight people, so we actually get some weird perverse pleasure from all of this discrimination, we can then claim that we are victims of it, and never fight against it. Well I'm sorry gay community, I choose to fight. You can thank me (and all those who fight now)later.
posted by OhTheBill, at 1:01 AM

Besen's piece is depressing, but true. For our survival,it is time for each and every gay person in the country to come out to their families (moms, dads, siblings, kids, grandparents, aunts and uncles). Even the Cheneys had to curb their homophobia once they found out about Mary.
posted by Marc Paige, at 1:03 AM

Thanks for the encouragement, Wayne. I've long felt that rather than keep fighting defensive battles against homosexual activists' political agenda, we should instead initiate an aggressive offense and not only stop your further advance but turn the tide and recapture lost ground.

The Massachusetts decision and subsequent marriage battle forced the appeasement/containment/non-confrontational crowd in the pro-family movement to join the hardball leagues.

National poll numbers against so-called homosexual "marriage" have never been higher, you've managed to spark a real and growing political realignment among African-Americans away from homosexual activists' wholly-owned subsidiary (the Democratic Party), a bipartisan coalition on the Indianapolis city council Monday night solidly defeated the most outlandish special rights ordinance yet proposed, you're losing court case after court case...

...and now you, of all people, acknowledge that the so-called "gay rights" movement for the first time is losing ground.

Your startling affirmation that an unapologetic, unrelenting defense of traditional family values and continued exposure of the truly radical nature and serious public heatlh threat of your agenda is having the desired political and cultural effect is inspiration enough to keep me pushing the envelope at least another five or ten years....and there'll be others who rise to the defense of the truth years after that.

(After Cardinal Ratzinger will come Cardinal Arinze, and so on for another millenia or so...)

The last gasp of your relatively short-lived "movement" will come when the public and the culture finally fully reject your attempts to radically remake society in your own image....and thereafter, all the hysterical, self-pitying predictions of increased "hate," persecution and violence...don't happen.

Simply because most American simply don't care what you do in your bedroom, as long as you don't do it in the next stall at the public library or highway rest area, you're no longer allowed to use the public schools as propaganda stations, and you're no longer allowed to force your agenda down society's throat with total disregard and contempt for the sincerely held religious and moral values of any who dare object.

Mel White said if Bush was reelected, he seriously feared "gay ghetto" concentration camps would become reality in L.A. and San Francisco. So when such hysterical predictions don't happen, your gig is up. When your "poor victim" schtick grows stale, as is already the case, what will you have left?

"Civil rights"? The second generation of the King family will put that one in the ground too.

Sorry to be so long-winded, but reading that you agree with my assessment of the strategic and tactical position of your movement -- i.e., "losing ground" -- was both startling and motivating.

When you get over your obsession with this one particular single issue, there are plenty of other worthy causes on which to expend your energy.

Because, in fact, there IS an inevitability about the outcome of your agenda. The Truth will prevail...and it could, if you'd let it, set you free.
posted by Anonymous, at 3:41 AM

yikes. thanks for writing this- it's so easy to get complacent and apathetic.
posted by matt, at 9:19 AM

Wayne, I, a nobody, am calling for a boycott of MICROSOFT. I hope you will get on board!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, what can we do about our stupid fellow gays who vote Repuglican??

Gil Williams
posted by Gil Williams, at 9:42 AM

It is true. There has always been a core group of gay activists, and a decent number prepared to support from the side-lines, but I've always felt that the majority of gay people are more concerned about which club to go to Saturday night, and which parties to attend, while enjoying the labors of the activists.

Maybe its been this way in every civil rights struggle. But I agree with you, unless we all hit the streets, the telephone, and the ballot box...we will continue to go backwards.

I think the right, despite their claims of a "gay agenda," know that we offer no well organized opposition...hence, we're an easy target.
posted by John, at 12:56 PM

As I have written in the past I like your writing and your thoughts. You have been fighting the battle since 1988. I have been fighting since 1972 and am 75 years old. I am not at all discouraged.

I have seen many reversals. I am quite sure that the extreme views that seem to have taken hold of politicians will implode at some time. Maybe sooner than we think.

In 1978 I was part of the battle against Anita Bryant in St. Paul, MN. We got 40% of the vote. We lost, but I was amazed that we received that many votes. About a decade later, we received 60% and restored the ordinance.

I have learned long ago that American people are basically fair people. New concepts (gay marriage is a really new concept) are difficult, but most people are for the same rights. This is not the whole battle, but I think we have to realize that we take one step at a time.

Up until recently I did not even think the idea would go anywhere, and before I knew it was a NATIONAL issue.

Gay rights laws and ordinance have been passed and state and municipal levels for years. The Congress has yet to pass the employment bill. Yet a great majority of the American people are for it.

Politicians are so afraid that they are always behind the masses.

Cheer up!

Dick Hewetson
San Francisco
posted by Dick Hewetson, at 12:53 AM

We're in the midst of a battle, but we're winning the war.

I didn't say it's a short war - WWII took six years, and included the use of nuclear weapons.

We're not going to "nuke" anyone and I know we're slowly, and sometimes being quite successful.

Seven provinces of Canada allow same-sex marriages.

On February 4, 2005, "HRC:New York [County] Marriage Ruling is Historic Step Toward Full Equality." ((The New York State Supreme Court is a trial-level court, and the Citycouldappeal the ruling to a higher court.))

Watch This:

From The New York Blade, April 15, 2005. The headline is -- "Bloomberg: City recognizes gay marriages."

On March 31, 2005, "Maine Becomes Sixth State With Non-Discrimination Law for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendet Citizens."

There's more, but I have a feeling you get the same stuff I do!

Poor little us! ... Over 20 million GLBTs in the U.S. with over $500 Billions in stocks, bonds, and other property (and this figure is out-of-date).

Have wine; don't whine!
posted by yragnalpac, at 7:49 PM

Damn, I sure wish you were wrong, but sadly enough your right, dead right.
Steve Esker, Driftwood, TX
posted by Steve Esker, at 9:14 PM

Mr Kramer has always been right on even if he didn't always say it in a PC sort of way. He's more on point now then he has ever been. Just close your eyes boys, go have another drink, maybe have some meth and hey....forget to wear a condom and then vote Republican.
posted by sttropezbutler, at 10:58 PM

Yes, it is true we are all too complacent and need to have our voices heard. I, for one, am hopeful, too, that the Neo-cons and right wingers are in the process of melt down and self destruction. We need to remind everyone, not only of who we are, but that the neo-cons want to make this a Christian theocracy not unlike other totalitarian governments, under different religions. The Delayity and the Fristatarians may find that going too far is too far enough even for the average citizen.
posted by Anonymous, at 12:19 AM

PERSONALLY YOU ARE A ARROGANT, DISCRIMATIVE, DISRESPECTFUL SON OF A BITCH, WHO ARE YOU TO TO PREACH WHAT SEX ONE PERSON CHOOSES......NO ONE THATS RIGHT...YEAH YOUR ENTITLED TO YOUR OPINION BUT OTHER THEN THAT DON'T BOAST ABOUT GAYS YOUR PROBABLY A CLOSET CASE YOURSELF
posted by Anonymous, at 2:11 PM

YOUR AN ASSHOLE AND SHOULD KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING GAY, HOMOSEXUAL OR EVEN BISEXUAL YOUR A CLASSIC CASE!
posted by Anonymous, at 2:14 PM

This present political climate IS a great step backward. This backlash to the Mass. decision and the CA marriages has been severe. I think the mistake was the all-out push for gay marriage before more essential, less controversial rights where legally put in place.

However, I don't buy your Apocalyptic vision of the future for gays. I've been out and proud since 1975 and have witnessed the great progress made since that time. Don't forget @ the first gay pride parade in Atlanta in 1975, only a few hundred had the courage to participate and we wore paper bags over our heads out of fear of reprisal. Our bars were routinely raided by police to hassle and intimidate the patrons. The list goes on and on. The list is MUCH shorter now and society's respect and acceptance for gays is light years ahead of what is once was. I live in Tennessee in the Bible Belt, am out in my small hometown as is my partner and all of my friends. We are out and active members of a progressive Episcopal Church and respected members of our community.
The "red state" heartland is not as hostile as most in the gay metro areas would have you believe.
This is NOT the end, but a BIG bump in the road to eventual equality for ALL.
posted by John DeLozier, at 10:02 AM

Nobody likes my idea...but if you're gay and afraid, get a gun. If you want to maintain your rights and stop others from taking your rights, use a gun. The framers of the Constitution knew that and that's why we have the right to keep and "bear" arms. Gays. But people will find some way to call me an idiot or violence monger. Hey, Robert Rudolf bombed a gay bar. We have gay bars in Texas being burned. Tit for tat....tit for tat. I like the lines from "The Untouchables." "If he pulls a knife, you pull a gun, if he hurts one of yours you send him to the morgue...that's the Chicago way."
Don't we have any lone wolves willing to make a statement???
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