The Cold War is
alive and well, except now the forces of LGBT equality
are fighting it against the forces of antigay theocracy.
Remember the Cold War? Remember how many Americans
believed the Communists were the ultimate threat to
our way of life because coexistence wasn't enough for
them? Over and over we were told that they wouldn't
stop until they'd taken over and destroyed us.
They
didn't, of course, but now we have the fundamentalist
Christian movement, and as Michelle Goldberg reminds
us in her terrifying and essential new book,
Kingdom Coming, they don't just want a
voice in government. They want dominion. They want
their religious beliefs to become law.
And that's
why they're just as dangerous as the red menace, if
not more so. They tell us over and over that freedom
of religion is an essential element of American
democracy--and we agree. But when the expression of
person A's religion impinges on the civil rights of
person B, then freedom of religion has overstepped its
bounds in a free and democratic society.
The theocratic
menace does not agree, arguing instead that freedom of
religion means the freedom to mistreat and discriminate
against any fellow citizens they disapprove
of--in employment, in housing, in schools,
everywhere. Hard-line rapture righters are going to court to
sue for what they believe is their constitutionally
protected right to express their religion-based
homophobia in public, to deprive gays and lesbians of
equal rights, and to advertise their vile and misleading
"ex-gay" programs. Religion, they say,
frees them from the requirements of a civil society,
such as bans on discrimination or harassment.
In reality,
religious freedom has always had its limitations. The
Mormons had to give up polygamy before the United
States would allow Utah into the union. And
"religious freedom" arguments in favor of
slavery, segregation, and the subjugation of women
ultimately failed to prevent past strides forward in
civil rights.
Fundamentalist
religions do have the right to despise and deplore
homosexuality, or pork, or whatever. But when they take
their hate to the legislature or the courthouse, they
must be barred at the door. Fair-minded Americans need
to join their queer brothers and sisters in fighting
this new Cold War.
Charlie Kirk DID say stoning gay people was the 'perfect law' — and these other heinous quotes