The
Homosexual Agenda Revealed
|
The
issue of homosexuality has been the religious right's best
fund-raiser for its organizations ...
Anthony
Benfante |
A
handful of anti-diversity radicals have taken it upon themselves
to inform the world about the Homosexual Agenda, as well as the
Homosexual Lifestyle.
Our
top notch team of investigators and scholars are driven in our
effort to uncover the real Homosexual Agenda/Lifestyle. Inquiring
Conservative minds want to know this stuff. We respectfully request
your assistance in clarifying this vital concern for them.
If
you are a bonafide real honest-to-goodness Gay or Lesbian homosexual
and would care to share your personal Homosexual Agenda and/or
Lifestyle story, please E-mail: The
Homosexual Agenda
Every effort will be taken to maintain your confidentiality. Only
your message and your first name will be
displayed on the webpage. You must leave your - Name, City, State
and Profession - to be published on this page.
Coming
Soon ... the Radical Right Agenda Revealed
Real
Stories by Real Homosexual's
Sure my life has great style - very trendy, I'd like to think...let's see, I pay my taxes and my mortgage and my utility bills. I work as the director of a non-profit organization and I own a small business and I teach at the local university. I live with my partner and our son and we all fight over who is in the bathroom the longest and who lost the cordless phone. I mow my grass and sow my garden when the weather is good and push around snow when it is not. I let the dog and cats in and out, in and out. I have great, loving friends who I spend time with whenever I can. I belong to civic groups and volunteer on non-profit boards and participate in capitalism by buying stuff. I love my life and my wife and my kids.
I also worry that the nasty boy across the street will spray paint anti-homosexual remarks on my house. I worry that my son will be attacked at school for having two moms. I worry that I am not as effective at my job due to the homophobia that exists, albeit covertly, in my professional community. My partner and I have tricked the legal system into "allowing" us to share our family name. I have to leave my country of origin, the so-called bastion of freedom, to exercise my right to civil marriage. I keep my passport up to date and think about the complexities of immigrating to Canada. I moved from Ohio in order to avoid the impact of its hate-filled constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. I think about Jewish Germans and how they felt in the 1930's and wonder if I'll have to flee in the dead of night or be marched off to a concentration camp.
Karen
Wheeling, West Virginia
I take strong issue with the continual use of the reference to a "gay lifestyle'' in Andrea Robinson's July 1 article Black vote could decide final outcome on gay rights. As a teacher, I simply do not know how different my lifestyle is from most other teachers, gay, straight or otherwise. I go to work during the school year and teach my classes. When I come home I do what most other teachers do: Clean my home, cook my meals, pay my bills and do my schoolwork.
My lifestyle is different from other people in other professions. I am certain that my lifestyle is not like that of emergency-room physicians or firefighters. My lifestyle is not different because of my sexual orientation, but differs only with respect to my chosen occupation. Would you refer to a black or Jewish lifestyle?
My sexual orientation only affects a very small part of my life. I have been in a long-term relationship with my partner for over 14 years. I would venture to say that our joint lifestyle is not very different from other long-term couples, except for our sexual preference and our private intimate moments.
Gay women and men have the same goals and desires in life as anyone else. All we are asking for are the same civil rights and protections that any other group expects: freedom from discrimination and the right to achieve in life to our fullest potential.
I know I have a life. I do not know how much style it has.
David Goldman, Teacher
Miami Beach
My gay life-style is total abstinence. That has been the case now for so many years that I am confident that I would qualify to have my virginity restored.
It confuses me to read such phrases as, "The gay lifestyle," as if there were only one. Presumably if there is only one gay lifestyle, there is only one non-gay lifestyle!
Yours very truly,
Frank
Fiji
My homosexual agenda for tomorrow:
wake up
make bed
shower
make coffee
eat breakfast with my partner
check email
make the boys' beds
do any leftover laundry. (and this is where it gets really exciting!)
work out (10 minute warm up, 1 hour stretch, 1/2 hr solid dance,
maybe 45 minutes, if I've got any new choreography inspired)
Pick up the kids from their dad (or wait for him to drop them
off). Maybe take them to the park if it's not raining....
Help my partner cook dinner
check E-mail again
fall into bed around 11
Melissa
Dance Instructor
Traverse City, Michigan
I am a homosexual, I am in a relationship,
have a job, a mortgage, pay my taxes and do not have a criminal
record.
I take care of my family and friends, look
out for my neighbour and treat people with dignity, respect and
a caring attitude.
There are many in the Church who practise
bigotry, sexism, selfishness, judgement and greed and call themselves
Christians. Alan Clarkson speaks of cooperation, selflessness,
truth, humility, fair play and justice. These are not virtues
unique to Christians. They have been around a lot longer than
that. I have high standards of myself and have sound morals and
ethics. Homosexuality does not equal immorality.
The Church needs to look in its own back
yard before criticising and laying judgement on people based purely
on their sexuality.
Let people in glasshouses ...
Garry
Remuera, New Zealand
6 AM Gym
8 AM Breakfast (oatmeal and egg whites)
9 AM Hair appointment
10 AM Shopping (preferably at Macy's or Bloomingdale's)
12 PM Brunch
2 PM 1) Assume complete control of all Federal, State, and Local
governments in the United States and abroad.
2) Destroy all healthy marriages.
3) Replace all school counselors in grades K through 12 with agents
of Colombian and Jamaican drug cartels.
4) Bulldoze all houses of worship.
5) Secure total control of the Internet and all mass media.
6) Be fabulous while doing it all (of course).
2:30 PM Get forty winks of beauty rest to prevent facial wrinkles
from the stress of world conquest.
4 PM Cocktails
6 PM Light dinner (soup, salad with balsamic vinegar dressing,
Chardonnay)
8 PM Theater
11 PM Bed
Hope this helps in planning your day!
(If you haven't figured it out yet this is a joke)
John
Los Angeles, California
Billing Specialist
Agenda of a self-professed and church-going
Christian and sister of a lesbian:
Every time a hurtful or discriminatory remark is made about homosexuals,
gently and calmly ask from where they get their information.
When the Bible is brought up, talk about
God's overall message of love and grace for all people. How we
are all God's children. How throughout time we are reinterpreting
individual passages of the Bible, and how extracting individual
verses and examples is dangerous and misleading. Bring up how
slavery is not only discussed but advocated. How when women are
menstruating, that they are considered to be unclean and unfit
to enter the temple, and how anything upon which they sit becomes
unclean in the sight of God. How women should remain quiet in
the temple. How disobedient sons are to be taken to the city gate
and stoned to death. How having multiple wives is expected and
acceptable. And ask how we can say these are no longer applicable
to us in today's society, but other verses are to be believed
and adhered to and used as the means for discrimination and hatred,
and even to justify acts of violence. Don't let down.
If necessary, ask if they personally follow every guideline the
Bible sets forth for us.
Ask if they personally know anyone who is gay. Tell them that
stereotypes are not an honest depiction of how most gays &
lesbians live their lives everyday. Tell them that they are just
like us - only discriminated against.
Tell them how proud I am of my sister, who lives in a rural area
treating those whom other doctors will not. Tell of the sacrifices
she makes living hours away from support of family & loved
ones.
Talk about several of my colleagues. How dedicated and talented
they are. What truly decent people they are.
Just talk. Keep talking gently and kindly. Try, always try, to
open some minds a little wider.
-Suzanne
Richmond, VA
Today January 8, 2001, I have an agenda.
Since I am a 19 year old lesbian, I suppose I can call this my gay agenda. This morning I planned
to wake up, make my girlfriend some coffee, and then go find a job. These
are at least the things I accomplished today. The rest of my agenda got overlooked
by my sony playstation where I spent the rest of my day.
Thank you straight people for being concerned
with my agenda.
Emily
4:30a.m. wake up and do morning routine
4:45am make lunch to take to work
5:00 read a magazine, book or get online and email partner who
lives 2 hours
away.
5:15am go to garage, start up truck and head for work, 25 minutes
away.
5:45am arrive at work, sit and read book before its time to clock
in.
6:00am-2:00pm (or 4pm if i work overtime). work 8 hours, take
breaks, eat
lunch, clock out.
2:00pm head for the ymca to begin 1-2 hours exercise regime, play
racquetball, lift weights, play basketball, etc., maybe sit in
sauna if the
mood strikes me. if I'm in the mood, i might snowshoe for an hour
or so
along the trails.
4:00pm if necessary, run errands, visit friends, socialize, otherwise
i head
home.
4:30pm arrive home to my two cats begging to be fed and played
with.
5:00-9:30pm now the fun begins. i will do any of the following
during this
time: wash dishes, snowblow my driveway, do my filing, do laundry,
read a
book/magazine, talk on the phone, be in the internet, read other
homosexual
agendas and see if my is really all that different from others,
maybe if I''m
really ambitious, i will clean house.
9:30pm at the latest, I go to bed, and believe it or not i start
my day all
over again at 4:30am.
the only difference here is on the weekends. I am usually visiting
my partner
or she is visiting me and we try to do nothing but play and have
fun.
I know this is really scary for some to understand, but really
our lives are
no different than anyone else's, except when others want us to
be different
so they can spread their fear and paranoia to others, and need
something to
bitch about.
Leslie
Postal Worker
Traverse City, MI
I never knew of the gay agenda until organizations
like the American Families Association lead by the hate monger
Gary Glenn and other hate groups who hide behind religion and
the bible told us there was such an agenda.
But anyway, my agenda includes:
Item one - peace, love and happiness for all;
Item two - tolerance and acceptance for all living creatures,
be they plant or animal;
Item three - support for the weak and help for the poor;
Item four - doing something nice for someone just because I can;
Item five - smiling alot;
Item six - taking time to smell the roses;
Item seven - sleeping late at least once a week;
Item eight - spending as much time as I can outside under the
sun, moon, and stars.
Item nine - being with my dogs, all three of them;
and Item ten - supporting my community.
And of course I have to include on my agenda lots of swims in
the bay, hikes in the dunes, walks in the woods, kisses for the
dogs, long spring evenings on the beach at sunset and chance happenings
with glorious rainbows.
Jim
Non-profit Human Services Agency Director
Northwestern Michigan Region
7am: wake up (thankful that I have woken
up). bathe, eat, collect all I will need for day, Feed fish.
8am: 1-hour commute to work
9am-4pm: fight for equality for all people (often extends to evening
and weekend hours) with a break for lunch.
4:30pm: foreign language class, to improve myself and my ability
to work with people different from me.
7--9pm: Depending on day, could be laundry, host a cable tv show,
do homework, facilitate a support group, work my shift at a second
job, read, dance class, return phone calls, dinner, work on an
art project.
9-11pm: see my beloved, talk about our days and our dreams. Feed
fish.
11pm: To sleep, perchance to dream.
Heather
Ypsilanti, Michigan,
Human Rights Activist
Get up
Go to work
Work
Leave work
Pick up dry cleaning
Attend Church meeting
Exercise
Do dishes
Sleep
Laura
Retirement Plan & Benefits Administrator
Milwaukee WI
0700 - wake up, shower, walk and feed the
dog, drive to work
0800 - perform various duties supporting US Air Force communications
1200 - sometimes take lunch
1500 - grit my teeth as coworker makes some homophobic joke
1501 - wonder if coworker realizes that gay men and women have
died in battle for his freedoms
1502- back to work
1730 - work day over, drive home
1830 - walk dog, feed dog, feed me, relax
2300 - sleep
Pretty Scary, eh?
Scott
Communications Specialist
Washington DC
| 12:00am-6:59 am |
Answer pages from worried
patients who are sick, or have sick family members |
| 7:00am |
Let dog out, feed dog
and animals, call partner who lives 2 hours away to wish her
a good day and talk about our next weekend together. Put the
trash out, feed the turkeys and birds. Put on rainbow earing
so that gay patients may notice and will feel welcome in my
office. |
| 8:00am |
Do rounds on patients
in the hospital. Comfort a dying patients family, teach a
new mom how to care and feed her new baby. |
| 9:00am |
Begin day in office;
see 30 plus patients. Answer phone messages from patients,
deliver good and bad news, finish charting and paper work.
Wish I could be totally open about who I am at work. |
| 12:00pm |
Lunch (sometimes) |
| 6:30pm |
Attend committee meeting
at hospital |
| 8:00pm |
Get home, play Frisbee
with the dog, feed animals and myself. |
| 8:01pm |
The office closes, start
answering pages. |
| 9:00pm |
Check email, call partner,
do laundry and dishes. |
| 10:00pm |
Plan for vacation for
girlfriend and I . try to find a place that is safe for us
to travel and be ourselves and show the same affection for
each other that straight people are able to in public (hold
hands, walk close together, sit close together, maybe even
kiss each other) with out the risk of harassment or harm. |
| 11:30pm |
Bedtime, fall asleep
wishing girlfriend were here, wonder about the irony of treating
and caring for some of my patients that are openly hostile
to others they perceive different than themselves. Wonder
how they would treat me if they didn't know me as their Doctor
and met me as an openly gay person. Fall asleep. Answer pages.
Fall asleep. |
Doctor Julie
Community Health Physician
Northern Michigan
I Wake up to the alarm clock around 7:30
a.m.
Let the dog outside
Feed dog and cats
Eat a simple breakfast
Play with pets
Go to work
Hide who I really am for the rest of the day to avoid personal
assault, being fired from my job ... or worse.
Type on computer
Answer phone
Work on computer some more
(repeat as necessary)
Go out for a quick lunch
Type on computer
Answer phone
Work on computer some more
(repeat as necessary)
Back home
Let dog outside
Return phone calls left on my answering machine
Play with pets
Feed pets
Make dinner
Eat dinner
Clean kitchen
Do laundry
Clean litter box
Read E-mail
Write yet another check to daughter at University
Sit down in living room
Read books and magazines
Turn on television
Decide nothing worthwhile is on - turn off television
Turn on stereo, listen to music
Log onto computer and read more about the homosexual agenda, then
maybe visit a couple of lesbian websites and chat with other women
who are sitting at home doing pretty much the same thing as I
am
Go back to living room
Read some more
Watch news
Let dog outside
Go to bed . . .
. . . and dream of a world where all people are respected and
enjoy equal rights and equal wages to heterosexual self proclaiming
christian white men.
Michelle Lynn
Marketing Consultant
Traverse City
Gay, lesbian and bisexual people have a
life, not simply a lifestyle. What exactly is the "straight lifestyle"?
Of course there isn't any one way to describe the life of a heterosexual
person, and there is no one way to describe the life of a gay,
lesbian or bisexual person, either.
Heather
Human Rights Activist
As
you can clearly see, most bonafide real honest-to-goodness Gay
or Lesbian homosexual's are too busy living their everyday human
lifestyle (remarkably similar to the lifestyle of non-gay people),
to even have much time for a Homosexual Agenda. In reality Gay's
and Lesbians are employed alongside non-gays; gays and lesbians
have families, friends and loved-ones, just like non-gays; gay's
and lesbians are real people, with real loving hearts, and are
contributing in a valuable way to our society and culture.
For
those gay and lesbian individuals who actually do find time for
an Agenda, it is unanimously agreed by all the homosexual's who
participated thus far in our study that they only wish to live
in peace and enjoy the same basic Human Rights as every other
citizen enjoys in the United States: The rights of gays should
be no less nor more than the rights of all other citizens.
In
terms of the Homosexual Agenda 'Gay Rights' simply means that
gays should be afforded the same rights as non-gay citizens in
the United States.
Civil
Rights, or Civil Liberties, seek to embody these human rights
into law, turning them into positive rights that can be claimed.
Every person has an equal right to be free from interference by
the state and others, in aspects such as freedom of speech, freedom
of contract and freedom of association.
If
Gay Rights are rights that only belong to gay people by virtue
of being gay, i.e. they belong only to members of a particular
group rather than to all individual human beings, they cannot
be human rights because they do not meet the necessary criteria,
notably the universality principle. Thomas Sowell has discussed
how the black civil rights movement shifted from demanding equal
rights to special rights in his book Civil Rights.
2. It is not the role of the law to impose morality.
This
has been one of the biggest debates in political philosophy, between
liberals and moral majoritarians. John Stuart Mill in On Liberty
articulated the principle that people should be allowed to do
as they pleased unless they do harm to others: the harm principle.
This principle has been used extensively to promote equal rights
for gays, e.g. in the Wolfenden Report. As the time Mill was strongly
opposed by James Fitzjames Stephens. A more recent debate was between
Lord Patrick Devlin, who thought that the law should express condemnation
of that deplored by the majority of people, against Oxford philosopher
H.L.A. Hart, who took a more liberal position. In such debates,
gays have sided with the liberal view that it is not the role of
the state to impose a particular conception of the good, even one
endorsed by the majority. The law exists to enable people to go
about their business, as long as they do not interfere with the
rights of others. Ronald Dworkin expressed this principle of liberal
neutrality as: No person is entitled to elevate his/her beliefs
about how others should act above those of anyone else. It is very
important to emphasise that for the state to allow an action is
not to favour it.
3. Maximise the private.
The
distinction between private and state (usually expressed as 'public')
is extremely important in a free society. Unfortunately the definition
of the private has become narrowed to include only the person's
home, and sometimes not even that. The distinction between private
and public should be ownership, not who goes there. 'Public' should
mean government owned, not open to the public, as in a bar or
club. Private property means that government has no right to interfere
with that property unless someone's rights are being denied. A
wide definition of private and a narrow definition of public (state)
is the best protection for gays. The alternative is that government
can legislate and interfere in areas open to the public e.g. at
the Stonewall Inn, or sexual activity in cinema clubs, or sado-masochistic
sex on private property (Operation Spanner). Those who control
the power of the state will use it for their own purposes and
preferences.
Anti-Discrimination Laws
Anti-discrimination
laws would outlaw discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation
in employment, housing and 'public' areas. This was proposed in
the US federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), and exists
in many US states and local jurisdictions. The Labour party conference
in 1983 endorsed the idea, and many gay activists want this proposal
to be at the forefront of gay campaigns.
Such
laws should be opposed on the grounds that they would threaten
civil liberties, society in general, and gays.
1.
The Threat To Civil Liberties
Firstly,
they attack freedom of association, the freedom to associate,
and not to associate, with whomever we choose for whatever reason,
good, bad or none. These reasons can be criticised but if some
motives are made illegal, then one is no longer free. Anti-discrimination
laws would force a Catholic to rent his property to someone whose
activities he views as abhorrent. A fundamentalist school would
have to hire homosexuals against their deepest beliefs (the cause
that brought Anita Bryant into anti-gay crusades). A gay bar owner
could not employ only gay barmen and women. Gay clubs could not
exclude straights. Do not believe that these laws would only apply
against straights. In Provincetown, Massachussetts, a male gay
bar was refused a renewal of its alcohol licence because it excluded
women and straight men, as was a lesbian bar in New York for its
policy. In San Francisco a gay landlord was prosecuted for prefering
gay men to women as tenants. The principle of freedom of association
does not defend anti-gay discrimination, but recognises that bigots
have rights too.
Secondly,
they undermine freedom of expression. Anti-gay discrimination
will occur, but employers and workers will not be allowed to express
their true motives and will find other excuses to act. Employers
would become legally responsible for the speech of their own employees,
as in the case of the Irish worker compensated for the anti-Irish
jibes of his fellow workers. Of course employers should seek to
create an environment in which all workers feel able to carry
out their works in a relaxed and comfortable environment, but
it should not be the job of the employer to seek to regulate the
speech of his or her workers unless it affects the business.
Thirdly,
they are an attack on private property rights. One should set
own one's rules on one's own property. In the famous US Supreme
Court case, Hardwick versus Bowers, Hardwick was found guilty
of anti-sodomy laws in his own home. Local anti-gays tried to
prevent a lesbian retreat in Mississippi. Freedom of association
and respect for privacy can only be protected by property rights,
which allow individuals to carry out acts between consenting adults
free from invasion. The recognition of private property rights
is one of the great safeguards for gays, which they threaten at
their peril.
Fourthly,
they deny the free exercise of religion. A church which believes
that homosexuality is a sin should not be forced to employ someone
who does not accept a basic principle of the church. Church members
and others of course could (and should) advocate that the church
should change its position on homosexuality. However the church
should be allowed to exercise its religious principles, as long
as it does not seek to translate them into law simply because
they are its principles. Laws would bring the state into the doctrinal
affairs of the different churches and cause intense resentment
amongst them.
2.
The Threat to Society
Firstly,
it will damage the economy. Unemployment is the biggest economic
problem facing not only Britain but every western society. Most
economists agree that a major factor in unemployment is what they
call rigidities in the labour market. These are things which discourage
employers offering work and workers accepting it. Anything which
raises the cost of employment reduces the number of employment
opportunities. One example is the minimum wage which will discourage
employers from taking on inexperienced workers whose job productivity
is difficult to predict. Another discouragement is employment
legislation which makes it more difficult to sack a worker. If
it is difficult to remove workers, then employers will be more
cautious in taking on new workers. The fear of litigation if a
gay claims to have been sacked on grounds of sexuality will discourage
employers from offering employment.
This
is not to advocate or defend discrimination. Discrimination has
a price in the labour market because the employer is not employing
the best, and will lose out to his competitors. This argument
is developed in detail by the Chicago economist Gary Becker in
The Economics of Discrimination.
Secondly,
it undermines the political system. Such laws will contribute
to what Arthur Schlesinger describes as the Balkanisation of politics.
Government becomes a battleground between special interests seeking
to use the power of the state to further their own interests.
In the process, the public interest is ignored. Every group seeks
to get its nose in the public trough, regardless of the cost to
the rest of society. Special interest legislation divides society
by emphasising differences in interests rather than common interests.
This argument is developed more fully by public choice writers
such as the Nobel Prize winner James Buchanan, and Mancur Olson
in The Rise and Decline of Nations.
Thirdly,
they will make the UK a more litigitious society. There is now
considerable concern in the US with the massive costs in litigation,
which raises the cost of products,services and employment considerably.
(See Walter Olson, The Litigation Explosion.) There is
now a strong movement for tort reform to reduce the problem. Anti-discrimination
laws create yet another basis for additional litigation. Already
considerable sums have ben awarded in the UK to those who claim
some sort of discrimination, but little attention is given to
who pays and the broader costs to society.
Fourthly,
such laws will lead inevitably to quotas, government mandated
preferences for government favoured groups. Despite claims to
the contrary, and sometimes explicit references in legislation
banning quotas, they are an almost inevitable consequence of such
legislation .Why? These laws penalise motive, but motives are
difficult to establish. If the motive is illegal , discriminators
will not admit it. Those seeking to implement the laws move from
a concern with 'disparate treatment,' i.e. with intent, to 'disparate
impact' I.e. with effects. The question then becomes how many
blacks or women or gays are employed.
To
avoid costly litigation, compensation, and bad publicity, employers
impose quotas. Even without legislation, the Bar Council is demanding
5% ethnic representation in barristers' chambers. This destroys
equal treatment because prospective employees are not treated
equally on the grounds of merit but because of certain characteristics.
It is this which has created resentment and backlash against affirmative
action. It may not be the intent of the law to create quotas but
it is an unintended consequence.
3.
The Threat to Gays
Firstly,
they will perversely reduce employment and housing prospects for
gays. If you are an employer making an appointment, you are aware
that you may have to sack the worker in the future, because he
or she is unsatisfactory, or because business requires it. The
employer may be reluctant to employ someone gay, or who appears
to be gay, because the employer faces the prospect that the employee
would claim that he or she was dismissed because of his/her sexuality.
Better to avoid the risk and not employ the person in the first
place. Similarly, one of the biggest fears of any one renting
out property is how difficult it may be to remove the tenants
if they fail to pay the rent or damage the property.
Anti-discrimination
law adds another potential obstacle to removing them. This creates
an incentive to the owner to favour renting to a straight rather
than a gay, providing he/she can find another reason to favour
the straight. It would be yet another example of the perverse
effects of laws leading to the opposite to that which was intended.
Secondly,
they will contribute to a backlash against gays. In 1992 there
were two referendums on gays in the states of Oregon and Colorado.
The former was defeated, while the latter passed. The difference
was that the Oregon proposition sought to condemn homosexuality
in the state constitution, while the Colorado one sought to ban
local authorities from passing anti-discrimination laws for gays.
The moral majoritarian slogan against special rights for gays
resonated with ordinary straights because there was an element
of truth in it, whatever the motivation of its promoters.
Appeals to equal rights will appeal much more to straights that
appeals to special rights, and anti-gays will be quick to blur
the distinction.
Thirdly,
they reduce the self-esteem of gays by creating a victim mentality:
that gays have no power but are dependent on the state to protect
them. There is now a debate between victim and power feminism,
between those who portray women as victims who need the protection
against men, and these who emphasise the power and potential power
of women. The power approach would be best for gays.
The psychology of the victim leads to resentment not betterment.
As Andrew Sullivan of the New Republic noted, "By legislating
homosexuals as victims, it sets up a psychological dynamic that
too often only perpetuates cycles of inadequacy and self-doubt".
Gays are then led to assume that they cannot succeed without special
protection, and straights will assume gays are successful because
of preference not merit. The difference between power and
victim approaches is reflected in the debate on the existence
of the Pink Pound. On the one side are those who emphasise
the existence of substantial economic resources in the hands of
gays, and view gays as success stories. On the other, the victim
gays seek to deny the power of the pink pound and prefer to present
gays as poor and downtrodden.
Fourthly,
anti-discrimination laws rely on the power of government, yet
government has been the chief oppressor of gays. Gays
will always be a permanent minority. It is very dangerous to rely
on laws passed by the majority to protect them. These laws
would legitimise interference in private matters. These
are more likely to be used against gays in the longer term .
The state should be seen as a threat to gays, not an ally.
Conclusion
Discrimination
against people simply because of their sexual orientation exists
and is wrong, but it is not the role of the law to correct every
wrong. Law is not, and has not been, the solution to sex and racial
discrimination and will not be for sexual orientation.
There
is no easy or permanent solution to anti-gay discrimination. Gays
can however seek:
- equality
before law
-
maximum freedom of association
-
social disapproval of discrimination.
Gays
must have equal rights to straights. They are entitled to nothing
less - but also nothing more.
Nigel Ashford
"In
the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies,
but the silence of our friends. "
Martin
Luther King Jr. (1929-1968