Religious Right Rallies for Gay-Rights Battles

While mainline denominations struggle this summer over homosexuality as a theological issue, Religious Right activists are increasingly addressing it as a public-policy matter. Consider the protest targets of religiously oriented conservative groups in this month alone:

• The Thirteenth National Lesbian and Gay Health Conference, scheduled for July 24–29 in New Orleans. The event received an undesignated $25,000 federal grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which the CDC says was to be used for AIDS-related workshops. Critics contend the money was used for other parts of the conference. According to a preliminary program released last month, topics at the conference include “Creating Mythologies and Rituals for Queer People,” “The Lesbian Erotic Dance,” “SEXCESSful Teen Outreach,” and “Eroticizing Safer Sex for Women.”

• A Public Broadcasting System showing of Tongues Untied, an explicit film about the trials faced by black homosexual men, which was scheduled for July 16. According to conservative groups, the movie received a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) production grant. It was originally shown at the San Francisco International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, which also received an NEA grant, and is now receiving more tax support through publicly funded TV.

• Two gay-rights bills in the California state legislature. Rallies are being held across the state to oppose the bills that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in housing and employment and would allow homosexual couples to register as “domestic partners.”

The ‘Gay Nineties’

People for the American Way (PAW), the liberal lobby created to counter the Religious Right, charges that conservative Christians are making this the “Gay Nineties” in their “preoccupation” with the homosexuality issue. “Homosexuality has emerged as a central, unifying concern of the Religious Right,” said a recent PAW mailing.

For once, Concerned Women for America (CWA) president Beverly LaHaye agrees with a PAW assessment. “Everything we are doing right now is turning out to be a homosexual issue,” she says. “We are now being consumed by it.”

Much of the activity has taken place on state and local levels, where gay-rights legislation is being considered by city councils and state legislatures. LaHaye has been a frequent speaker at rallies opposing such legislation, and her CWA state affiliates have been active in the battles.

Focus on the Family has also been active on issues involving homosexuality, but vice-president of public policy Tom Minnery says their activities have been in “reaction against the onslaught of the gay-rights agenda.” Focus on the Family is particularly involved in school-related battles, such as fighting sex-education courses and textbooks that promote “the normalization of the gay lifestyle,” Minnery says.

Minnery emphasizes that his organization’s attention to the issue has been prompted by the many calls and letters they have been receiving from concerned supporters. “I don’t think anybody from the Religious Right sat around in a closed room and said, ‘Well, this is our strategy for this year, to pick fights with the gays,’ ” he says, “if it’s a rallying point, it’s because traditional values are being attacked, and people are rallying to defend them.”

However, in the view of Jim Smith, director of government relations for the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission (CLC), there has not yet been enough conservative action on the issue. “The average evangelical Christian doesn’t want to have to confront this debate,” he says. “That’s discouraging and disturbing, because it demonstrates a lack of understanding about just how serious the homosexual movement is in promoting its agenda.” The CLC has focused its efforts on the tax support that federal agencies have been providing for homosexual-related activities.

Hating The Sinner

Not surprisingly, PAW is sharply critical of this new attention to homosexual issues. Public policy chairman John Buchanan says he is especially disturbed by the tone of much of the debate. “When hate talk comes from the pulpit and from religious leaders, it’s not only wrong in terms of intolerance, it can also be dangerous,” he says, noting the rise in hate crimes against gays. “Many of the messages [come out] hating the sinner as well as the sin, assuming it to be a sin in the first place,” he says.

LaHaye acknowledges the need to be “sensitive to those who are really hurting and looking for answers.” “We minister to them,” she says. However, she is uncompromising in her opposition to “militant, radical” homosexuals who are out to “attack” the family. She says her speeches have been interrupted by gay activists shouting and blowing whistles, and she has received threats from some gay groups. She now travels with a security detail.

Both sides have won victories in the debate over homosexuality, but much has been left unresolved, both ecclesiastically and politically. And virtually all participants agree the battle is probably only just beginning.

Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.