"Gay agenda" or "homosexual agenda" is a term used by sectors of the Christian religious right as a disparaging way to describe the advocacy of cultural acceptance and normalization of non-heterosexual sexual orientations and relationships. The term originated among social conservatives in the United States and has been adopted in nations with active anti-LGBT movements such as Hungary and Uganda.

The term refers to efforts to change government policies and laws on LGBT rights–related issues. Additionally, it has been used by social conservatives and others to describe alleged goals of LGBT rights activists, such as recruiting heterosexuals into what conservatives term a "homosexual lifestyle".

Origins and usage

Origins

DVD cover titled "The Gay Agenda: The March on Washington" above a set of three pink boot prints marching close together from lower right to upper left
Cover of DVD The Gay Agenda: March on Washington

In the United States, the phrase "gay agenda" was popularized by a video series produced by a California evangelical religious group called Springs of Life Ministries.[1] The first video of the series, The Gay Agenda, was released in 1992 and distributed to hundreds of Christian right organizations.[2] Tens of thousands of copies of the video were sold, it was distributed to the United States Congress, and Commandant of the Marine Corps Carl Mundy Jr. gave it to the other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.[3] In 1992, the Oregon Citizens Alliance (OCA) used the video in their campaign for Oregon Ballot Measure 9, opposing what the OCA called "special rights" for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals.[1][4]

The Gay Agenda was followed by three other video productions made available through Christian right organizations and containing interviews with opponents of LGBT rights, intended to expose the lesbian and gay movement's secret plans for America: The Gay Agenda in Public Education (1993), The Gay Agenda: March on Washington (1993), and a feature-length follow-up to the original, Stonewall: 25 Years of Deception (1994).[2]

Usage in the United States

The term "gay agenda" or "radical gay agenda" has been used by members of the Christian right to refer to efforts to change government policies and laws on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues, for example, same-sex marriage and civil unions, LGBT adoption, recognizing sexual orientation as a protected civil rights minority classification, LGBT military participation, inclusion of LGBT history and themes in public education, introduction of anti-bullying legislation to protect LGBT minors—as well as non-governmental campaigns and individual actions that increase visibility and cultural acceptance of LGBT people, relationships, and identities. The term has also been used by some social conservatives to describe alleged goals of LGBT rights activists, such as supposed recruitment of heterosexuals into a "homosexual lifestyle".[5][6] Columnist James Kirchick writes that the idea of a "homosexual agenda" to subvert American cultural and family institutions largely replaced earlier panic over the "Homintern", an alleged gay conspiracy to undermine the U.S. government.[7]

The term has been used in response to efforts to include protections for LGBT people under local and state anti-discrimination laws,[8] as well as U.S. Supreme Court cases that granted new rights to LGBT individuals, such as Lawrence v. Texas and Obergefell v. Hodges, which respectively held that private acts of consensual sex between same-sex couples and the right of same-sex couples to marry were fundamental rights guaranteed under the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.[9] In his 2003 dissent in Lawrence, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said the court had become embroiled in a culture war by seeking to protect homosexuals from discrimination, writing that the decision reflected a "law-profession culture, that has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda".[10]

Conservative Christian groups such as the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (C-Fam), and the World Congress of Families (WCF) have used the term in their literature.[11]: 15–18  According to its website, ADF has litigated numerous anti–gay rights cases in countries outside the US, in order to combat the "homosexual agenda" which it claims will "destroy marriage and undermine religious freedom".[11]: 9  ADF president Alan Sears published a book in 2003 titled The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today, which argues that overturning anti-sodomy laws would lead to the legalization of pedophilia, incest, polygamy, and bestiality.[11]: 15 

In 2004, Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn called the "gay agenda" the "greatest threat" to Americans' freedoms.[12] In 2005, James Dobson, director of Focus on the Family, said the goals of the "homosexual activist movement" were:

universal acceptance of the gay lifestyle, discrediting of scriptures that condemn homosexuality, muzzling of the clergy and Christian media, granting of special privileges and rights in the law, overturning laws prohibiting pedophilia, indoctrinating children and future generations through public education, and securing all the legal benefits of marriage for any two or more people who claim to have homosexual tendencies.[13][third-party source needed]

American conservative Christian groups such as the Family Research Council (FRC) have cited fears of a "homosexual agenda" in lobbying against extending hate-crime legislation to cover acts motivated by bias against a person's sexual orientation or gender identity,[14] as well as public-school curricula about homosexuality introduced in an effort to reduce bullying.[15] In 2010, the FRC produced a graphic labelled "Homosexual Agenda" which consisted of the phrases "Innocence", "Family", "Local Community", "Public Health", and "Parental Authority" struck out with red lines.[16][third-party source needed]

American conservative Christian organizations have continued public screenings of videos alleging a homosexual agenda as of 2022.[17]

Usage outside the United States

Africa

American Christian right organizations that are losing acceptance among Americans have had more success promoting the notion of a gay agenda in Africa. Examples include Human Life International, American Center for Law & Justice and Family Watch International. Zambian scholar Kapya John Kaoma considers these organizations colonial powers, working to expand American dominance of Africa.[18] In Africa, fear of a "Western gay agenda" is frequently used by opponents of LGBT rights.[19]

The concept was used in a series of talks in 2009 by American evangelical Christians in Kampala.[20][21] A speaker at one such workshop said, "[Parliament] feels it is necessary to draft a new law that deals comprehensively with the issue of homosexuality and [...] takes into account the international gay agenda."[21] The eventual result of this campaign was the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 (nicknamed the "Kill the Gays Bill"), which imposed the death penalty for homosexual behavior; this was altered to life imprisonment after the loss of foreign aid was threatened by other countries including the U.S.[20]

In 2021, the Ghana Catholic Bishops' Conference called for LGBT rights organizations to be kicked out of their office space in Accra because of the belief that they promote the homosexual agenda.[22]

Europe

In Hungary, László Toroczkai, former vice president of the far-right political party Jobbik, has complained of the perceived "homosexual agenda".[23] Toroczkai introduced a law banning public displays of affection by gay people in 2017.[24]

Central America

Before decriminalization of homosexuality in Belize, the LGBT and anti-AIDS organization United Belize Advocacy Movement (UNIBAM) was lambasted in the Amandala newspaper and by American evangelicals who accused the group of trying to bring the "gay 'agenda'" to the country.[11]: 19 

International organizations

In 2019, two prominent Roman Catholic cardinals – Raymond Leo Burke and Walter Brandmuller – wrote an open letter to Pope Francis calling for an end of "the plague of the homosexual agenda" to which they in part attributed the sexual abuse crisis engulfing the Catholic Church. They claimed the agenda was spread by "organized networks" protected by a "conspiracy of silence".[25]

Speakers from many nations inveigh against the perceived homosexual agenda at the World Congress of Families annual summit, a focal point of the worldwide "pro-family" movement.[26]

Responses

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The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) describes the terms "gay agenda" and "homosexual agenda" as a "rhetorical invention of anti-gay extremists seeking to create a climate of fear by portraying the pursuit of civil rights for LGBT people as sinister".[27]

Some writers[who?] have described the term as pejorative.[28][unreliable source?] Commentators have remarked on a lack of realism and veracity to the idea of a gay agenda per se.[29][30] Such campaigns based on a presumed "gay agenda" have been described as anti-gay propaganda by researchers and critics.[who?][31][32]

At a press conference on December 22, 2010, U.S. Representative Barney Frank said that the "gay agenda" is

to be protected against violent crimes driven by bigotry, it's to be able to get married, it's to be able to get a job, and it's to be able to fight for our country. For those who are worried about the radical homosexual agenda, let me put them on notice. Two down, two to go.[33]

Satire

Smiling man in sunglasses at an outdoor rally, displaying a hand-lettered sign which reads, "Free Hugs from a Militant Atheist with a Gay Agenda"
A man satirizing the concept of a gay agenda at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

A satirical 1987 essay by Michael Swift entitled "Gay Revolutionary [ru]" appeared in Gay Community News, describing a scenario in which homosexual men dominate American society and suppress all things heterosexual. The opening line, which read "This essay is an outré, madness, a tragic, cruel fantasy, an eruption of inner rage, on how the oppressed desperately dream of being the oppressor", was omitted when the essay was reprinted in Congressional Record and cited by later religious right publications.[34] The essay has often been cited by conservative Christian authors as proof of a secretive conspiracy to corrupt American youth and subvert the nuclear family, particularly the following paragraph:

We shall sodomize your sons, emblems of your feeble masculinity, of your shallow dreams and vulgar lies. We shall seduce them in your schools, in your dormitories, in your gymnasiums, in your locker rooms, in your sports arenas, in your seminaries, in your youth groups, in your movie theater bathrooms, in your army bunkhouses, in your truck stops, in your all-male clubs, in your house of Congress, wherever men are with men together. Your sons shall become our minions to do our bidding. They will be recast in our image; they will come to crave and adore us.[35]

The term is sometimes used satirically as a counterfoil by people who would normally find the term offensive, such as the spoof agenda found on the Betty Bowers website,[36] and as the name of a stand-up comedy show in Prague that is a fundraiser for AIDS relief efforts.[37]

On a 2007 episode of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart defined the gay agenda as "gay marriage, civil rights protection, Fleet Week expanded to Fleet Year, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) assistance for when it's raining men, Kathy Griffin to host everything and a nationwide ban on pleated pants".[38]

Reappropriation

Some LGBT activists seek to reappropriate the term "gay agenda" for their own use.[39]

In 2008, openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson declared that "Jesus is the agenda, the homosexual agenda in the Episcopal Church"[40] and that the "homosexual agenda [...] is Jesus".[41]

A political action committee (PAC) named Agenda PAC was inspired by the notion of the gay agenda. The PAC is led by LGBT politicians including Malcolm Kenyatta and Megan Hunt, and advocates for greater LGBT political representation.[39] American rapper Lil Nas X thanked the "gay agenda" in his acceptance speech at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards.[42]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Alvarado, Cheney; Churchill, Lindsey (2019). "Radical Gay Agenda". In Pierceson, Jason (ed.). LGBTQ Americans in the U.S. Political System: An Encyclopedia of Activists, Voters, Candidates, and Officeholders, Volume 2. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. p. 351. ISBN 978-1-4408-5277-0.
  2. ^ a b Herman, Didi (1997). The Antigay Agenda: Orthodox Vision and the Christian Right. University of Chicago Press. pp. 80–81. ISBN 0-2263-2764-7.
  3. ^ Colker, David (22 February 1993). "Anti-Gay Video Highlights Church's Agenda". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  4. ^ Staggenborg, Suzanne (2016). Social Movements (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 157. ISBN 978-0-1993-6359-9.
  5. ^ Alvarado & Churchill (2019), pp. 351–353.
  6. ^ Sources:
  7. ^ Kirchick, James (31 May 2022). "The Long, Sordid History of the Gay Conspiracy Theory". Intelligencer. New York. Homophobia still had a conspiratorial tinge, to be sure, but the fearsome machinations of the 'Homintern' were updated to that of a 'homosexual agenda' whose goals (equality in marriage, military service, and the workplace) were now out in the open.
  8. ^ Cobb, Michael L. (2006). God Hates Fags: The Rhetorics of Religious Violence (annotated ed.). NYU Press. p. 119. ISBN 978-0-8147-1668-7.
  9. ^ Alvarado & Churchill (2019), p. 352.
  10. ^ Kranz, Rachel; Cusick, Tim (2005). Gay Rights (revised ed.). New York: Facts on File. pp. 131–132. ISBN 978-1-4381-2549-7.
  11. ^ a b c d Beirich, Heidi (July 2013). Dangerous Liaisons: The American Religious Right & the Criminalization of Homosexuality in Belize (PDF) (Report). Montgomery, Ala.: Southern Poverty Law Center.
  12. ^ Moulitsas, Markos (5 May 2005). "Kissing the tarantula". The Guardian. To the newly elected Republican senator from Oklahoma, Tom Coburn, the 'gay agenda' is a more pressing danger than terrorists flying planes into buildings and killing allied troops in Iraq. 'The gay community has infiltrated the very centres of power in every area across this country, and they wield extreme power ... That agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today,' he said during the 2004 campaign. 'Why do you think we see the rationalisation for abortion and multiple sexual partners? That's a gay agenda.' 
  13. ^ Dobson, James (n.d.). "Marriage Under Fire". Focus on the Family. Archived from the original on 6 October 2005.
  14. ^ Thompson, A. C.; Lee, Patrick G. (6 February 2017). "Claims of 'Homosexual Agenda' Help Kill Hate Crimes Laws in 5 States". ProPublica.
  15. ^ Eckholm, Erik (6 November 2010). "In Efforts to End Bullying, Some See Agenda". The New York Times.
  16. ^ "Washington Update". Family Research Council. n.d. Archived from the original on 28 October 2010.
  17. ^ Vaughan, Carson (15 July 2022). "Minds polluted? Film claims teachers are 'grooming' students. Experts say it's filled with falsehoods". Flatwater Free Press.
  18. ^ Kaoma, Kapya John (2012). "Sharon Slater, Family Watch International". Colonizing African Values (PDF). Political Research Associates. pp. v–ix. ISBN 978-0-915987-26-9.
  19. ^ van Klinken, Adriaan (2017). "Culture Wars, Race, and Sexuality: A Nascent Pan-African LGBT-Affirming Christian Movement and the Future of Christianity". Journal of Africana Religions. 5 (2): 217–238. doi:10.5325/jafrireli.5.2.0217. ISSN 2165-5405. JSTOR 10.5325/jafrireli.5.2.0217.
  20. ^ a b Gettleman, Jeffrey (3 January 2010). "Americans' Role Seen in Uganda Anti-Gay Push". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  21. ^ a b Kaoma, Kapya (Winter 2009). "The US Christian Right and the Attack on Gays in Africa". The Public Eye. Vol. 24, no. 4. Political Research Associates. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  22. ^ Neliba, Arnold (23 February 2021). "Church Warns European Union against Pushing Homosexual Agenda in Country". Catholic Information Service for Africa. Nairobi. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  23. ^ "Hungarian top court overturns village's ban on mosques and LGBT displays". TellMAMA: Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks. 12 April 2017. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  24. ^ Benke, Erika (7 February 2021). "The village aiming to create a white utopia". BBC Victoria Derbyshire programme. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  25. ^ "Catholic cardinals urge end of 'homosexual agenda'". BBC News. 20 February 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  26. ^ Provost, Claire (6 June 2017). "'This is a war': Inside the global 'pro-family' movement against abortion and LGBT rights". OpenDemocracy.net. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  27. ^ "GLAAD Media Reference Guide: Offensive Terms to Avoid". GLAAD. 9 September 2011. Archived from the original on 20 April 2012. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
  28. ^ F. Earle Fox; David W. Virtue (2002). Homosexuality: Good and Right in the Eyes of God?. Emmaus Ministries. pp. 269–. ISBN 978-0-945778-01-1.
  29. ^ Bouley, Charles Karel II (22 February 2005). "The gay agenda revealed!". The Advocate. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  30. ^ Sa'at, Alfian (10 March 2007). "Iced Bandung – What Is The Gay Agenda?". Trevvy.com. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008.
  31. ^ Irvine, Janice M. (1997). "One Generation Post-Stonewall: Political Contests over Lesbian and Gay School Reform". In Duberman, Martin B. (ed.). A Queer World: The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. New York University Press. p. 581. ISBN 978-0-8147-1875-9.
  32. ^ Mason, Gail; Tomsen, Stephen (1997). Homophobic violence. Hawkins Press. ISBN 978-1-876067-04-5.[page needed]
  33. ^ "Barney Frank Reveals Gay Agenda". The Advocate. 22 December 2010. Retrieved 4 July 2012.
  34. ^ Halsall, Paul, ed. (2023). "People with a History: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans* History Sourcebook | Michael Swift: 'Gay Revolutionary'". Internet History Sourcebooks Project. Fordham University. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
  35. ^ Herman (1997), p. 85.
  36. ^ "Thanks to Betty Bowers, homosexuals' sneaky little secrets are now revealed to the godly: The Homosexual Agenda!". Bettybowers.com. n.d. Archived from the original on 9 October 2000.
  37. ^ Howlings, Eva (21 January 2020). "Prague's only LGBTQ comedy troupe cracks jokes, topples barriers". Expats.cz. Prague. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  38. ^ Masaki, Lyle (15 August 2007). "Jon Stewart spells out the gay agenda". Logo TV. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  39. ^ a b Riley, John (1 September 2022). "'Agenda PAC' launches to defeat anti-LGBTQ candidates". Metro Weekly.
  40. ^ Robinson, V. Gene (14 June 2006). "'Jesus is the Homosexual Agenda'" (Address at the 75th Episcopal General Convention). Retrieved 5 November 2022 – via Beliefnet.com.
  41. ^ De Santis, Solange (13 July 2008). "Church need not be afraid, New Hampshire bishop tells Putney gathering". Episcopal Life Online. Archived from the original on 17 July 2008.
  42. ^ Exposito, Suzy (12 September 2021). "Lil Nas X wins video of the year at the 2021 MTV VMAs: 'Thank you to the gay agenda!'". Los Angeles Times.

Further reading

External links

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