10/27/98
It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the Gay Left can
mobilize its forces to exploit a news event for maximum political
advantage. The hugely-publicized murder of a homosexual man in
Wyoming has provided radical gay activists with a pretext to
deploy their legions of troops and dupes to once again mount the
barricades and proclaim that homosexuals are an oppressed
minority group entitled to victim status under state and federal
law.
It's the same old lies from the same old liars, with their
predictable (to the point of boredom) tirades denouncing this
state and nation as a homophobic hell on earth where gays and
lesbians are in constant jeopardy of eviction, physical assault,
and job loss due to rampant anti-gay prejudice. And for anyone
who reads the Portland Press Herald, the entire exercise in
falsehood and exaggeration just wouldn't be complete without
columnist Bill Nemitz dispensing his heterophobic two cents'
worth.
But first, let's be clear about several matters: whoever murdered
the gay college student in Wyoming should be executed, regardless
of the motivation for the crime. And the sadistic morons from
Rev. Phelps' church -- the anti-gay demonstrators who show up to
demonstrate at the funerals of homosexuals -- should stay home
and get a life. They are the mirror image of the radical Gay
Left, and if Phelps didn't exist, gay activists would have to
create something just like him.
As for Nemitz, he is a good soldier who faithfully regurgitates
the party line of gay activism. In his October 16 column, Nemitz
repeats the scandalous falsehood perpetrated by Attorney General
Andrew Ketterer and his lieutenant Steve Wessler, that our state
is caught up in a "rising tide of violence toward
homosexuals." There is not a flyspeck of evidence to support
this whopper of a lie, but that minor point has never deterred
Nemitz and his ilk from trashing Maine's well-deserved reputation
as a peaceful, tolerant state with an exceptionally low crime
rate.
The wretched rhetorical excess of gay-rights advocates in Maine
was turning loony even before the murder in Wyoming. Doug Allen,
speaking on behalf of the Peace and Justice Center of Eastern
Maine, wrote in an op-ed piece in late September: "Tens of
thousands of homosexuals in Maine know that if others learn of
their true sexual identity, they can be assaulted physically or
verbally and they can lose their jobs, housing," and blah,
blah, blah.
I've got news for Doug: most of the neighbors of these "tens
of thousands" of gay Mainers already know, and frankly don't
care much about, the so-called sexual identities of the people in
their communities. I don't know of a single small business owner
or landlord who is the least bit interested in punishing any
employee or tenant for private sexual behavior. The wacky idea
that Maine people would tolerate or participate in violence
against their gay neighbors is so hideously paranoid and divorced
from reality that Mr. Allen would appear to be a good candidate
for professional help to reign in his hallucinations.
There's a method to this madness.
Nemitz and Allen are laying the groundwork for yet another
attempt by gay activists to hijack minority-equivalent status
under the Maine Human Rights Act -- the perennial "gay
rights" bill. The likelihood is that the Legislature will
place the measure on a statewide ballot for voter approval two
years from now. In the meantime, if there's not enough
"hate" against gays, gay-rights advocates plan to
manufacture some.
Staged hate crimes, particularly those involving homosexuals,
have cropped up all over the country in the past few years. This
is a coldly calculated strategy designed to evoke public sympathy
for gays as helpless "victims," and grease the skids
for passage of state and federal laws granting
minority-equivalent status based on sexual orientation.
Colby and Bates Colleges have been the scenes of bogus hate-crime
incidents concocted by the Gay Left in its relentlessly dishonest
campaign to paint Maine as a hate state. Internet email traffic
on gay-activist web sites in Maine is clogged with instructions
on how to report incidents of simple name-calling to the AG's
office so they can be logged in as "hate crimes." The
inflated statistics will be presented to the Legislature as
evidence that Maine needs a gay-rights law to stem the tide of
anti-gay violence.
The Big Lie will not be overcome by the Big Right‚s
sanctimonious and irrelevant lectures about "sexual
sin." Effective opposition to civil-rights fraud must be
grounded in a rigorously rational refutation of the basic premise
of the gay-rights movement: that homosexuals are an oppressed
minority group entitled to the same legal status and benefits as
truly disadvantaged racial and ethnic minorities.
Gays are not the enemy in this battle; gay activists are. The
debate isn‚t about gay sex; it's about wholesale fraud and
deception practiced by a tiny minority within the gay community.
Moralistic condemnation of gay sexual behavior -- the politics of
disgust favored by so many religious conservatives -- misses the
mark entirely, and plays right into the hands of gay activists
eager to posture as "victims" of homophobic hatred.
If the Gay Left is ultimately successful in hijacking minority
status, the culture war is over, and the Religious Right can shut
down its opulent offices inside the Beltway, pack up its donor
lists and databases, and go home. First Amendment guarantees of
religious liberty and free speech will be shredded by swarms of
litigious locusts, backed by the full power and might of
government, alleging "discrimination against a protected
minority group.
Time is running out for opponents of gay rights to get their act
together.
| Lawrence Lockman of Seboeis Plantation is chairman of Concerned Maine Families PAC. His email address is ldlockman@telplus.net |