They always say we’re calling them names and refusing to engage their arguments, but when a gay conservative states that Kirk Cameron’s horrific anti-gay views are not hatred, I have a hard time not believing that it isn’t simply self-loathing:
Now, I do not share Kirk Cameron’s view that homosexuality is “unnatural” and believe this view shows an incredible ignorance of the history of human behavior and of artistic and mythological representations of human relationships.
That said, there is a difference between expressing a view colored by a fundamentalist faith and manifesting animus to those who do not live by the strictures of that faith. In expressing his (very) un-PC views (and, in my mind, narrow) opinion on homosexuality, Cameron has never adopted a hostile (or hateful) attitude toward gay people.
“A view colored by a fundamentalist faith” is, indeed, in this case, “manifesting animus!” It IS hostility, just as the missives sent down from hate groups like the Family Research Council and the American Family Association are hostility. One need not be actively beating the hell out of a gay person in an alley to be expressing hatred for us.
The question is not so much why Mr. Cameron holds these views, but why Ms. Curry would compare them to “hate speech.” Couldn’t she have questioned them using different language, asking instead why he believes homosexuality to be unnatural, possibly rebutting him with evidence of social tolerance for homosexuality in, say, the ancient Near East and classical Greece?
Because that would be stupid and irrelevant. Kirk Cameron’s anti-gay statements are, in and of themselves, hate. The fact that he holds fundamentalist religious views which prop up his anti-gay hatred is of no consequence, as it tends to be fundamentalist religious views which inform animus toward minorities of all kinds.
We are not the ones with something to defend here, and it’s the belief that there is some “civil discourse” to be had on the subject that slows down full acceptance of LGBT people. The Kirk Camerons of the world need to be called to answer for their irrational, uninformed bigotry, because they inject their “deeply held beliefs” into the public discourse, and their messages of hate reach vulnerable gay kids. So please, no, Ann Curry doesn’t need to talk about the “evidence of social tolerance for homosexuality in…the ancient Near East and classical Greece.”
The mainstream of America finally supports full equality for gay people. The argument is finished.
As I pointed out at Gay Patriot today — when you tell me I’m a threat to society, my own family, Kirk’s family, your family, indeed, every family and to civilization itself — you are expressing Hostility! There’s no two ways about it. It’s impossible to be a danger to and destructive of civilization itself and it not be hostile. Egad, how can one “love”, as Kirk says, people who are destroying your family and our society and the entire civilization itself.
“Cameron has never adopted a hostile (or hateful) attitude toward gay people.”
Bull. He stated that we’re destroying society, and that we don’t deserve to have the same rights heterosexual people do. How is that not hostile and hateful? How self-loathing and/or ignorant do you have to be to think that’s an acceptable “difference of opinion”?
Jim:
You are so right. Why on earth would they love us if they believe we are ruining the world? There is a major disconnect with their rhetoric.
The sad part is how they are so willing to lie there and take the abuse. I’m wondering whether it’s masochism or the logical conclusion of the “I got mine, screw everyone else” mentality.
From his writings, it appears that Gay Patriot aspires to be the next Roy Cohn.
I really don’t think these xtian types believe they are capable of hate. Which is surprising because they fully believe their god is capable of hate, so why do they think they are above it?
Evan: I’m glad you can suffer through reading that gay patriot crap. What a wearisome job you must have at times.
“The question is not so much why Mr. Cameron holds these views”
“asking instead why he believes homosexuality to be unnatural”
The very next sentence…
Wayne/Evan – the continuous mis-use of the word ‘love’ by fundamentals has become tiresome. This is a cover for their bigotry. It’s time to call them out on it. Love is more than a word, or even an emotion. Love is action. If ‘christians’ love us, but not our sexuality, then show it. Calling us a “threat to family and country” is hate.
And where is his evidence? Equality has been around here in Canada since 2005. I don’t see our society crumbling and falling apart.
And where are all these ‘gay friends’ speaking out on his behalf?
As a so-called Christian, his deceitful and disengenuous rhetoric is abhorant and, demonstrates why Christianity and organized religion has become redundant.