I know it is politically incorrect to compare our opponents to Nazis. But all one has to do is look at the 1994 propaganda video, Gay Rights, Special Rights, to see how much they hated us. Is there any doubt that they wanted to destroy our families and ruin our lives, if not snuff out our existence? As far as I am concerned, we are very fortunate that we made it through this period and continued to make such enormous progress. After all, they really did go for broke and threw the kitchen sink at us — trying to convince Americans that we were sick perverts with designs on their children. (There are still many groups who do spout the same garbage today)
Just watch how they demonized us and made us appear lower than dirt covered feces. This diabolical and dishonest video would have made Joseph Goebbels proud. Make sure you take note of the way so-called “ex-gays” were expertly used to make our enemies appear less mean-spirited. This specific movie is one reason that I got in the business of exposing the hypocrisy of so-called “ex-gays.” Indeed, this video is why I did not hesitate to photograph John Paulk in a gay bar. I never forgot his appearance in this hate movie.
Let us never forget how the “ex-gay” myth was exploited in the effort to destroy us.
Also listen to the audio from the infamous propaganda video: The Report: The Gay Agenda.
Horrible!
What incredible crap and despite all reason and logic people bought into it.
Maybe in light of facts, it’s not so politically incorrect, Wayne. The Nazis had their own centerpiece propaganda film, “Der Ewige Jude,” (The Eternal Jew), which was produced in 1940. Here’s a link to the Wikipedia article on it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eternal_Jew_(1940_film)
The parallels are frightening. It’s as if they used the film as a guide to produce and script “Gay Rights, Special Rights.”
I remember Gay Rights, Special Rights from when it first came out from Jeremiah Films.
It is an appalling film, but there is one aspect of it that we don’t like to talk about: the framing device that makes it so effective is footage from gay pride parades.
This comprises most of the visuals in the film, other than talking heads, are outlandish sexual public displays, sadomasochism, bizarre dress, nudity and drag – all helpfully displayed for their videographers at gay pride events. This was the same framing device used in the predecessor film, “The Gay Agenda,” which played a key role in getting the Joint Chiefs of Staff to publicly rebel against Pres. Clinton’s plan to lift the ban on gays in the military.
There is a group of gay men who obstinately insist on their “right” to behave in the most depraved and offensive manner. They really don’t care what the consequences are or who else is hurt by their self-indulgence. They love the attention, and if their self-indulgence winds up perpetuating discriminatory policies for 2 decades or destroying a gay kid’s self-esteem, well, they don’t much care.
Their usual justification is that placing any limits on their public conduct is akin to imposing a “Leave It To Beaver”-type conformity on all gay people. They also insist that anyone who objects to public displays of nude sadomasochism is anti-gay and would be against us no matter how they conducted themselves. These is patently self-serving lies. Don’t kid yourselves. The extreme conduct at these events is even today recorded and used against us to good effect. It is less effective today because gays are more widely known in other contexts. But in more conservative areas, and in other parts of the world, these images have devastating effects. If we started stigmatizing this selfish behavior, perhaps by booing, in the same way that we stigmatize homophobia, we might see a positive change.
DJ: Have you ever been to Mardi Gras, or Gasparilla, or The Mummers Parade? Why is this behavior acceptable at those celebrations for straight people, yet when LGBT people do the same things, it’s the basis for moral outrage (and moral panic)? Clearly a double standard.
I dressed up like church Lady and went to the Traditional Values headquarters and got a free copy–to use in lectures against them. It was a hoot!
I strongly agree with DJ, If you want respect, you need to act respectfully. A good measure: if you don’t want your parents or your children to see it;it’s probably inappropriate.
PJ: we are the minority and held to a different standard a double standard. If a straight person does it they’re a pervert… If a gay person does it they’re a homo…
Look no further for evidence of the double standard then recent luka rocco magnotta bull… He was bisexual but the press couldn’t get over the fact he murdered a man… and he is a man… and sleeps with men… therefore the “GAY porn star necrophiliac killer” in the headlines… If he were a straight man it would of been “porn star necrophiliac killer” in the headlines…
That is why I make sure I always have the relative moral high ground and always strive to be better then my straight family members in their field of expertise then hold them to the same standard.
DJ, here’s something to consider:
Here in Tulsa, Oklahoma we have our yearly Pride celebration – with (as far as I know) absolutely none of the ‘hedonistic’ behavior you describe. If anything, our Pride parade is completely pastoral – you know, booths with informative tracts, gay and lesbian couples strolling around (often with their kids) and then of course, the parade itself – a completely harmless affair with, again, none of the behavior you describe.
Yet, several anti-Gay churches here used videotape ‘evidence’ of the ‘sodomy and sin’ of Gay and Lesbian folks… what was that ‘evidence’? Would you believe that footage of gay dads pushing baby strollers, or lesbians on motorcycles? Yep. These churches screeched about ‘gay indoctrination!!!’ showing happy kids with their gay and lesbian parents. They screamed about ‘dykes on bikes, abandoning their God-given roles’ just because some lesbians enjoy riding and working on their Harleys and Yamahas.
What’s the point of this? Simple – these people will use ANYTHING to demonize us… how could a happy gay (and fully clothed to boot) couple pushing a baby stroller be ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’ or ‘gay indoctrination’? Yet that’s exactly what these people did.
At the same time, Tulsa has a thriving downtown bar/club scene – with about 90% of those catering to an almost exclusively straight clientele. On Friday and Saturday nights it’s completely common to see hetero couples staggering down the street, making out, and engaging in all the hedonism you could possibly imagine – and no one blinks an eye. As long as they’re not driving or getting into fights, the police don’t care. And this doesn’t even describe festivals like Saint Patrick’s, or Mardi Gras.
No – I’m not going to hold myself (or the LGBT community) to a standard that is impossible to meet, while giving everyone else a free pass.
It’s just a variation on the ‘gay guys are rabid sexual bedhoppers and that’s bad but straight guys can ploink as many girls as they want and that’s fine’ meme – it’s wrong, insulting, and just perpetuates that double standard.
Thanks to everyone for sharing their view on this topic:
@PJB863
Yes there is hetero debauchery at Mardi Gras. But no group has ever claimed that Mardi Gras is a civil rights event or that it has a serious political and social message. It is extreme revelry and that is how people take it. The gay equivalent might be the NYC Halloween Parade. There is gay debauchery on display there, but it doesn’t matter very much, because no one has ever claimed that the Halloween Parade is a gay event, let alone a serious political event, nor anything other than a wild party.
By contrast, we tell the public that our gay pride parades are commemorations of Stonewall and a vehicle through which gay people express their political and social aspirations and demands. When people tune into that and see public nudity and sadomasochism – to the wild approval of the viewing crowd – a number of them will reasonably conclude that this is the vision that gay people have for society. This is a false message that hurts gay people and benefits no one other than a few attention-seekers and exhibitionists. This, IMO, is pure selfishness because the people who suffer the consequences of this acting out are not the exhibitionists, but the rural gays and lesbians or the gay kids who then get tagged by association.
@Oz in OK:
Thanks for sharing that. Of course there will be people who will go after us no matter what we do. I have no doubt that Bryan Fischer or Peter LaBarbera would find some reason to attack us even if we all wore conservative business dress.
But it is simply not true that it doesn’t matter how we act or what we do. How we act impacts how people see us. Tens of millions of Americans are nowhere near Fischer or LaBarbera on the homophobia scale. They are trying to figure out how to process gay people: are we like Jewish people or Black people or some other minority group, are we like adulterers and drug addicts, individuals who engage in unwholesome and corrupting behavior?
Those who don’t know us try to find the right analogy. They might listen to the claims of each side. But nothing is more persuasive than seeing gay people themselves validate the claims of the anti-gay side. When these genuinely confused Americans tune in to their TV and see us prancing down the street in the nude like it is the last days of Pompeii, you can be sure that it affects them. The pastor on TV said we were sexual radicals who wanted to overthrow all traditional morality and damned if the parade footage doesn’t “prove” that point. If they saw gay moms and dads walking down the street with strollers, no matter how strenuously the anti-gay side might try to twist it, it simply is not going to get the same negative reaction. There’s a reason that our adversaries go to great effort to get the most sexually outlandish footage for their ads and videos. They know full well that parents with strollers won’t do it. (Although, as the above video shows, it is even more effective to get the footage of public nudity and sex and THEN show footage of kids at the same event.)
Wow, where is all this “debauchery” and “nude sadomasochism” happening? I didn’t see any of it at our local Pride events…
“Wow, where is all this “debauchery” and “nude sadomasochism” happening? I didn’t see any of it at our local Pride events…”
I didn’t see anything like that when I went to SF Pride either. Maybe there’s some special-access event that DJ and Porno Pete go to that they confuse with the general Parades and events.
DJ, I will not live by that double-standard, and I won’t ask anyone else in the LGBT community to do so either. If you’re willing to try to live your life to the homophobes’ standards, then I wish you well (and good luck). They will always – and I mean ALWAYS – find some reason, some excuse to demonize us while willfully ignoring the ‘Sodom and Gomorrah for straight people’ that goes on all the time.
@Oz:
As I said, I am not concerned about what the extreme homophobes might say. I am concerned about how these extreme displays impact millions of people in the center who are genuinely trying to figure gay people out and who reasonably draw conclusions based on what they see at the gay pride parade – our own representation of ourselves. You may not care about that. It may be more important to you that a handful of exhibitionists have their fun no matter the consequence. I don’t agree.
Also, as I said, it is not a double standard. You hold the Halloween Parade to the same standard as Mardi Gras, but you hold the Gay Pride Parade to the same standard as you would any other civil rights event or important political event. There is a reason that the film above starts off by juxtaposing our marches against the 1963 civil rights march. It is because we want to call our pride parades civil rights events but then act like they are Mardi Gras parties. We should either rename these events to reflect that they are nothing more than revelry or we keep the name and conduct ourselves accordingly.