Slogans of anti-gay ideology
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Anti-gay slogans are themes, catchphrases, and slogans traditionally used to condemn or disparage homosexuality. They often work together to create an anti-gay ideology. In the modern West they are regarded by most as manifestations of homophobia.
These slogans, along with scriptural prohibitions, have a long history, with some dating back at least as far as Classical Greece 2500 years ago. They range from the demeaning and pejorative to those expressing antipathy on religious, medical, or moral grounds. They may also use terms of invective like "fag" or "faggot".
These slogans are still used to convey opposition to homosexuality. They reflect the spectrum of opinion among those who oppose homosexuality and full acceptance of gayness in society. It is important to note that opposition to homosexuality and "homosexual acts" is by no means monolithic; a proponent of one of these "slogans" may find other "slogans" to be mean-spirited, offensive, and/or unsupportable.
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[edit] Themes
Some concepts and arguments against same-sex desire and practices have been repeated over the centuries, though the importance of specific arguments has varied from culture to culture. For example, preoccupation with child abuse is a largely modern concern, and the importance of Biblical arguments rises and falls along with the influence of Judeo-Christian beliefs.
[edit] Declaration that same-sex desire is unnatural
This particular charge dates back to Plato, who argued in the Laws I 636c and VIII 841d that homosexual sex was "against nature" (para phusin). This argument was echoed by Paul of Tarsus, in a claim to the same effect in the Epistle to the Romans. In recent times the discussion has been framed in psychiatric rather than philosophical terms, with the claim that it is a sexual perversion.
Though the psychiatric establishment once medicalized same-sex desire, that position has been revised, and homosexuality was later removed as a medical disorder from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).[1] Recent work by biologists has shown same-sex sexuality to be widespread in nature (see: animal sexuality) as well as in human society, leading gay rights advocates to assert that opposition to same-sex desire would itself be against nature.[citation needed]
However, according to one rebuttal of this argument, held by, among others, The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, there are some behaviors exhibited by many animals that most would consider unnatural in humans, such as cannibalism.[2]. The counter argument to this claim is that it confuses "unnatural" with "wrong", and that this is therefore simply a restatement of the claim that homosexuality is morally wrong (like cannibalism), not unnatural.[3] These issues are complicated by the polysemous character of the terms "natural" and "unnatural" which can be used in many equivocal ways.[4]
The Roman Catholic Church, among others, uses 'nature' to refer to natural law, which, in their view excludes same-sex sex, along with other actions it sees as immoral.[citation needed]
[edit] Blame for Biblical plagues and natural disasters
Since the Middle Ages, sodomites were blamed for "bringing down the wrath of God" upon the land, and their pleasures blamed for the periodic epidemics of disease which decimated the population. This "pollution" was thought to be cleansed by fire (modelled after the biblical destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah), as a result of which countless individuals were burned at the stake or run through with white-hot iron rods.[citation needed] It should be noted that according to many rabbinical commentaries, it was the stinginess and inhumanity of the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah that brought the destruction of those cities, more so than same-sex sexual relations.
A modern example of this type of thinking was shown by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who blamed gays and lesbians (among others) for indirectly causing the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington of September 11, 2001. On the broadcast of the Christian television program "The 700 Club," Falwell made the following statement (for which he later apologized):
I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'[5]
[edit] Conflation with child abuse
- See also: Gay rights counter-movement
This is an accusation which predates the current era, as it was leveled against pederasts even during Antiquity.[6] More recently, this charge has been phrased as "recruitment", implying that homosexuals are somehow predatory on children, or are "recruiting" in secret. A common slogan is "Homosexuals cannot reproduce — so they must recruit" or its variants. One such example of a similar charge and its underlying argument, offered by the Family Research Council can be found here.
In an Advocate.com interview on his 2000 work, Outlaw Representation: Censorship and Homosexuality in 20th-Century American Art, Richard Meyer discusses this line of attack:
. . . those who attacked Mapplethorpe's work in the late 1980s used this photograph to reinforce long-standing stereotypes of gay men as pedophiles. Although no sexual activity is shown (or even suggested) in the portrait, and although the picture was commissioned by the child's mother who was in the room at the time of its taking, the very fact that Mapplethorpe had photographed a naked boy was enough, at least in the minds of Pat Robertson and Jesse Helms, for the photographer to be accused of child molestation.[7]
Among the counterarguments used to refute the charge are that it is based on the denial of the comparable abuse of young girls by men who prefer the opposite sex, and on the infantilization of adolescents who in a different context would be considered to have come of age. The reports of young people discovering their attraction to others of the same sex at an early age contradict claims that those young people were subject to outside persuasion.[citation needed]
Current studies contradict the idea that homosexuals are paedophiles. Both national organizations for Psychiatry and Psychology and the FBI have concluded that 98% of all pedophiles are heterosexual men and that the remaining 2% of pedophiles include women and not just homosexuals. Child molestors arrested who were members of the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), have been married men predominantly with children who identified as heterosexual.
[edit] Dissipation of vital force
This argument has been phrased since antiquity in agricultural terms, as "casting one's seed on sterile rocks."[citation needed] There was a recognized need for producing more children, generally to keep society going through the traditions of the family and farming. The concern was that more non-procreative sex would "ruin" the participants, reduce society's growth, and perhaps even contribute to social collapse.[citation needed]
It is not clear then why chastity ("casting no seed at all") is, by those same societies, generally seen in a positive light, even when it was imposed on those people.
A possible counter-argument is that there are multiple examples of non-procreative heterosexual sex (as well as masturbation), such as relations between people past the age of conception, commercial sex, and sex in which birth-control measures are used.[citation needed]
And finally, there is a very real question as to how many people the Earth can support. In earlier centuries, few children survived infancy, but current medicine now allows most to lead healthy lives, meaning that fewer pregnancies may be needed. And arguably less procreative sex can relieve population pressures.[citation needed]
[edit] Association with effeminacy in men, and masculinity in women
This accusation seems to be based on the generalization that all those who engage in same-sex relations are also gender variant, a contention which is not sustained by research in the field.[citation needed]
[edit] Homosexuality as a sin
A number of Christians interpret Biblical texts to imply that same-sex sexual intercourse is sinful. Many mainline churches are very divided over the issue of same-sex marriage and religious blessing of same sex unions where they can bless same-sex love but not same-sex sex acts. These individuals and congregations believe that such sexual acts as anal sex and or oral sex are forms of sexual immorality that should be advised against. One slogan is the commonly used phrase "love the sinner and not the sin." Other congregations, including the Metropolitan Community Churches, commonly affirm homosexuality and believe that neither homosexuality or homosexual sex acts are a sin.[8] Some conservative churches reject the idea of a homosexual orientation and view homosexuality as being an urge towards sinful homosexual behavior and thus something everyone may experience from time to time. Many slogans, including some listed in the next section, have been used by religious opponents of homosexuality, particularly by Rev. Fred Phelps, founder of the godhatesfags.com website and Westboro Baptist Church. These controversial slogans have included "God Hates Fags", "Fear God Not Fags", and "Matthew Shepard Burns In Hell".[9] Another slogan is "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve".
[edit] AIDS as a gay disease
A common theme of anti-gay slogans is that AIDS is a gay disease which is somehow deserved. One example is the slogan "AIDS Kills Fags Dead", a parody of the advertising slogan "Raid: Kills Bugs Dead", the tagline used in television advertising for the SC Johnson insecticide. It thus implicitly identifies gay men with vermin fit for extermination.
The slogan appeared during the early years of AIDS in the United States, when the disease was mainly diagnosed among male homosexuals and was almost invariably fatal. The slogan caught on quickly as a catchy truism, a chant, or simply something written as graffiti. It is reported that the slogan first appeared in public in the early 1990s, when Sebastian Bach, lead singer of the heavy metal band Skid Row, wore it on a t-shirt.[10] A variant of this is "AIDS cures fags", a role reversal which makes homosexuality the disease and the inevitable death from AIDS the "cure".
The phrase has been used by religious opponents of homosexuality. It was for example seen in 1998 at the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a victim of anti-gay violence, when a group led by Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church staged a protest.
Data from the Center for Disease Control show that among males in the United States 56.8 percent of those cases are likely to have contracted the condition through homosexual sex.[11] Worldwide, however, the epidemic has touched primarily people engaged in opposite-sex behaviors, and medical evidence indicates the disease is propagated not because the sex of the partner is the same as one's own, but as a result of unhygienic sexual behaviors (such as unprotected relations with multiple partners concurrent with an absence of protective techniques). Large numbers of straight women who are HIV positive were in monogamous relationships with their husbands, but were infected due to their husbands' infidelity or I.V. drug use. HIV is most commonly transmitted through direct contact with blood. AIDS often enters the body though infected semen coming in contact with the blood of another individual. Some practices, such as anal sex, are particularly prone to transmit HIV.
[edit] See also
- Pro-gay slogans and symbols
- Gay rights opposition
- Homophobia
- Homosexuality and morality
- List of gay-related topics
- Hate speech
- Fred Phelps
[edit] References
- ^ American Psychological Association: Sexuality
- ^ The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property. "Defending a Higher Law". [1], page 89
- ^ The Liberarian Party of Virginia, Opponents of same-sex marriage use flawed arguments, by Michael Hugman
- ^ Skeptic's dictionary, "Natural"
- ^ CNN report of Falwell's speech
- ^ Lucian. Erotes
- ^ Miller, Tim. Taking on the Antigay Censors. advocate.com, 2001. [2]
- ^ MCC. "MCC's International Statement on Marriage Equality" Metropolitan Community Church. [3]
- ^ Dunn, Katia. "What If God Were Gay?". Portland Mercury. [4]
- ^ Michael Musto. "La Dolce Musto", village voice, 2000. http://www.villagevoice.com/nyclife/0022,musto,15284,15.html
- ^ HRSA fact sheets: Men Who Have Sex With Men and HIV/AIDS. The proportions vary between ethnicities: HRSA fact sheets: Hispanics and HIV/AIDS
