What's at the root of all of this is homophobia becoming "respectable" again.
Those of us who were born a half century or more ago remember how one of the boogiemen images of gay people was that they were child abusers, despite statistics showing how child abuse was overwhelmingly perpetrated by heterosexuals. How homosexuality was classified as a mental illness. How homosexuality was a sin. Some of the more optimistic among us consoled ourselves with the delusion that homophobia was a thing of the past, or at least relegated to the most ignorant among us.
Apparently there a lot of ignorant among us. More than we thought. A lot more.
Just as overt racism resurged after we elected a Black president, and racists felt empowered under former President Trump, the under-the-radar hatred of Gay Americans bubbled to the surface as well. The very fact that Gay Americans can "come out of the closet", that same-sex marriage has been legalized, and there Gay members of the presidential cabinet has not prevented hatred and bigotry from making a center stage appearance.
Recent legislative actions, specifically in Florida and Texas, have, under the cover of defining age-appropriate sex education and classroom discussion, effectively made any mention of the existence of Gay people illegal. Proponents of these actions claim that they are against the "sexualizing of children" and teaching of sexual topics to children to young to understand, which on the face of it doesn't sound terrible, but characterize opponents as child abusers and yes, pedophiles and groomers. A groomer, in the context of sex, is someone who influences a child over a period of time in order to prepare them for, and make them comfortable with, sex with an adult. Yet this is another "solution" for a problem that does not exist. Teachers aren't "grooming" children in the care, nor are they having explicit discussions with first graders about sex. They aren't even, as the homophobes allege, pushing a "homosexual agenda", training, or grooming, if you will, children to become gay. No, what is being prevented is any acknowledgement that Gay people exist. If little Betty asks teacher why Johnny's two dads are holding hands when they pick him up after school, or where Johnny's mom is, teacher isn't allowed to say "Johnny doesn't have a mom and a dad, he has two dads". Or if a child runs into teacher at a Christmas pageant with her spouse, she isn't allowed to tell the child that she is her wife. School teachers are to act as if Gay people do not exist. The assumption underlying these rules is that being Gay is bad, is sinful, is harmful, and any recognition that Gay people live in the community is pushing a bad, harmful, sinful "agenda". And people who don't pretend that Gay people don't exist are pedophiles.
Homophobia, in my observation, is bigotry disguised as religion. Certainly one way to interpret some passages of the Bible is that homosexuality is a sin, but that interpretation is not universal, even among religious Christians. And for some reason the loathing and hatred of the "sin" of homosexuality doesn't extend to the myriad other offenses against God that are found in the Bible. Divorced people, those who cheat on their taxes, or those who drink too much may be subject to lectures from the pastor, or disapproving looks from the busybodies, but there aren't any other categories of so-called sin that have whole segments of society fighting against them. (Of course I'm not talking about offenses against others like murder or larceny). To be consistent, someone who wants to drive Gays into the closet would also do the same for those who don't keep the Sabbath. But if it's religious observance that fuels a stance against Gay people, it should not be the business of government to enforce one group's religious faith on others. We wrote a whole amendment to the Constitution about that.
So religiously motivated bigots have come to an impasse. Constitutionally we can't legislate one religion's beliefs, and we certainly can't pretend that naked bigotry is a good reason for legal restrictions, so we are left we with them convincing themselves (or at least saying that they're convinced) that what is actually happening is sexualizing of children and...pedophilia. It doesn't really matter (to them) if they believe it, as long as they get the job done.
I understand the seriously religiously motivated homophobia. The cult that I belonged to was at one point viscously anti-gay. At the time I went along with the idea that God did not approve of homosexuality because I wanted to do what God wanted me to do, although I never was comfortable with the rabid hatred this belief seemed to engender in some of my co-religionists. One I left that cult, as well as Christianity in general, I had no reason to retain my belief that being Gay was a sin. I changed my mind. Christians who think that they are following God's will be supporting homophobia can change their minds as well, they need to examine whether their sincerely held religious beliefs is a valid pretext for denying other Americans their full civil rights.
Hardcore bigots - I hold little hope for them.
No comments:
Post a Comment