The indiscriminate weaponization of the term ‘anti-gay’
Folks around the world rightly recoiled in horror when it was revealed that the Muslim nation of Brunei would enact a Sharia-based law condemning gays to be stoned to death.
Major news outlets reporting on the story used the term “anti-gay” to describe the neanderthal measure. Here are some of the headlines from the last few days:
- Los Angeles Times: L.A. city leaders call for a boycott of 2 hotels over Brunei’s anti-gay laws
“Anti-gay,” however, is the same term that mainstream media, progressives politicians, and other high-profile liberals in the western world use to describe anybody who disagrees with the never-ending stream of newly discovered gay and transgender rights.
Florists, photographers, and bakers whose consciences prevent them from celebrating gay nuptials are not holding rocks in their hands, ready to take aim at LGBT customers.
Jack Phillips is not the Sultan of Brunei. He is a religious man who had always enjoyed friendly relationships with his gay customers until same-sex “marriage” proved to be a powerful wedge issue in politics. Yet his good name has been tarnished with the same label applied to those who want to kill gays: “Anti-gay.”
Reuters, Slate, the Daily Beast, and others have described Phillips as “anti-gay.” NBC, The Washington Post, Forbes and others repeatedly refer to the attorney group that defended Phillips, the Alliance Defending Freedom, as an “anti-gay” hate group.
Likewise, religious adoption agencies which cannot in good conscience view genderless marriage to be the same as marriage between a man and a woman — who believe every child has a right to a mother and a father — are likewise deemed “anti-gay.” Many have been forced to shut down for standing up for the pro-child stances.
Let’s be clear: A wedding cake denied is not stone grasped in the sweaty palm of a murderer, ready to take aim at trembling gay man or lesbian. Nor is a missing bouquet of flowers. Nor is an orphaned child placed with a loving mother and father instead of a gay couple. Gays have plenty of other secular vendors they can easily turn to get what they want.
Journalists, opinion writers, politicians, and activists have indiscriminately tossed around the term “anti-gay” in recent years in order to diminish the social standing of Christians and religious organizations while attempting to establish the moral superiority of gays and all things LGBT.
It’s hard to respect such folks whose loud voices have dominated the public square. Thinkers on the left are either not smart enough to recognize difference and degree, or they simply blindly take their marching orders from groups the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) without thinking.
SPLC and HRC are not about the best interest of all; they are about fundraising through fear mongering. SPLC can’t even detect a difference between the Ruth Institute, which helps survivors of the sexual revolution, and an actual “hate group” such as the KKK.
A government legally murdering gays and lesbians is truly “anti-gay.” Christians who peacefully coexist with gays but who can’t join in celebrating gay nuptials are not.
Next thing you know, Brunei will be officially denying wedding cakes to gay couples.
