The Professional Intolerance Movement: Fading?

Submitted by Pam Spaulding on October 25, 2007 - 12:28pm.

Today The Big Con is proud to welcome one of the first citizens of the blogosphere and one of its most stalwart right-wing watchers: Pam Spaulding. Today she takes time out from guest-blogging for Glenn Greenwald on Salon to find a silver lining in the upsruge in organized homophobia in America: evidence their cause is in decline.  —Rick Perlstein

In an effort to gain passage of Barney Frank's Employment Non-Discrimination Act Of 2007 (ENDA), Rep. Pelosi has urged homo-transgender activists to bombard the offices of 50 Democrats who refuse to make cross-dressers, transsexuals, drag queens and she-males as federally-protected classes. — Rev. Lou Sheldon, head of the Traditional Values Coalition

"The "gay" activists won't leave us alone. They can't. To achieve their revolutionary, egalitarian goal of treating homosexuality the same as heterosexuality in our culture, they and their increasingly radical straight allies are forced to discredit and destroy a lot of good, Bible-based tradition — and turn the hearts of America's children against God's created purpose for sexuality." — Peter LaBarbera, Americans for Truth Against Homosexuality

"Mary Cheney's pregnancy poses problems not just for her child, but also for all Americans. Her action repudiates traditional values and sets an appalling example for young people at a time when father absence is the most pressing social problem facing the nation...Mary's pregnancy is an "in-your-face" action countering the Bush Administration's pro-family, pro-marriage and pro-life policies." — Concerned Women for America's Janice Crouse on Town Hall

One has to wonder when these groups, filled with hate and an unnatural obsession with sex acts, will finally give up the ghost and stop peeping into the bedrooms of tax-paying, law-abiding citizens who simply want to acquire the basic civil rights that heterosexuals take for granted — marriage, the ability to adopt and foster children, the freedom to not worry about being fired if they place a picture of their same-sex partner on their desk.

Wading through the unadulterated homophobia produced by these people on a daily basis can be draining (the photo at left is from a demonstration on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill last month), but it provides an essential insight into a movement that is in decline. The fact is they know this is true; the level of anti-gay rhetoric and misogyny mounts, the shrillness and paranoia in their appeals increases — it's about appealing to the basest instincts in people.

Witness the problems some of these organizations are experiencing.

The crown jewel of the fundamentalist political movement, James Dobson's Focus on the Family, has had to lay off staff.

A conference of international and stateside anti-gay extremists that recently met in Lynnwood, Washington only managed to draw 150 people. Watchmen on the Walls was expecting hundreds to attend to hear its plans to eliminate "enemies of the natural family" — that would be gay folks.

The Family Impact Summit, held in August, featured luminaries of the professional bible beating set — Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, failed Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer, the American Family Association's Don Wildmon, the Southern Baptist Convention's Richard Land, Katherine Harris (just when we thought we'd seen the last of her!), Ohio vote vacuumer Ken Blackwell, Bob Knight of the Media Research Center, as well as "ex-gay" promoters Nancy Heche (actress Anne's mom), and the "ex-gay-for-pay" President of Exodus International, Alan Chambers. There were six panels on homosexuality. The attendance at this event was much lower than expected — only 400 people showed up to listen to headliner Tony Perkins discuss the preservation of one-man, one-woman marriage and the idea that the sexuality of women must be controlled, along with their wombs.

Even with this good news about the lethargy of the faithful, there's no reason to believe that the right wing fundamentalist movement is going away quietly or any time soon. All of the recent bleating by James Dobson about going the third party route if Rudy Giuliani is nominated by the GOP is hot air — he's a power broker, and without a Republican candidate to rally the faithful behind he's marginalized.

Former staff attorney and columnist for the American Family Association, Joe Murray, saw that religious right machinery up close — though from the buckle of the Bible belt, Tupelo, Mississippi, the home of the American Family Association. In an interview with me, he gave some insight into the fear-based thinking in these types of organization:

I believe that the folks at AFA, and countless other groups, view this battle as a zero sum game. Let me make one thing clear — it is not! So long as gays are seen as the enemy, the "Christian" soldiers of the right will never yield in battle, even when their actions border on the absurd, i.e. claiming Matthew Sheppard was not murdered because he was gay.

As for hate crimes, I am absolutely sickened by the propaganda campaign that has found its way onto the political landscape. FRC, AFA, and TVC are already scaring supporters into thinking that the hate crimes law will result in preachers leaving the pulpit and checking into prison. This is absurd.

Now, I do not know the motivations of these folks, and I will not say what is in their hearts, but how can trained professionals really think that the hate crimes bill will shred the First Amendment?

...[I]t is clear that throughout a large portion of the "family values" world there is a fear of homosexuals. This fear almost borders on paranoia, for many believe that gays are out to recruit the young and overrun the culture. Any advance made by gays, thus, is a loss for Christendom.

In the end, what Dobson and the many organizations that profit from fearmongering are all about is holding on for dear life — they need money to fill the coffers and sustain their ability to be professional political "Christians." Their greatest fear is not the average gay or lesbian American, but that the "true believers" out in the hinterlands that may disengage from the political process in 2008 and permanently shut their wallets.