“Before a judge and a jury, anti-gay charges are presented by more than a dozen public figures who have attacked God’s gay children in television specials and on nationally distributed video tapes. The most recent biblical, medical, psychiatric, psychological, and scientific evidence is presented to combat the myths and lies often used against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons by anti-gay religious leaders and institutions. Come and hear the evidence and decide for yourself!” via SoulForce.org

Homosexuality On Trial in 11 Parts with 9 Charges

1. COURTROOM INTRODUCTION
2. Homosexuals Are Sick
3. Homosexuals Are Sinful
4. Homosexuals Are A Threat To Society
5. Homosexuals Are A Threat To Marriage And Family
6. Homosexuals Are A Threat To The Church
7. Homosexuals Should Be Banned In The Military
8. Homosexuals Use Sex Education Classes To Mislead And Recruit
9. Homosexuals Demand Special Rights
10. Homosexuals Choose This Tragic, Ungodly Lifestyle
11. JURY’S VERDICTS

Gay Rights Media presents this SoulForce advocacy video solely as a public service and has no affiliation with Mel White or SoulForce. Donate to SoulForce.

Scientists including Richard Dawkins are campaigning to get the government to issue a formal apology for the 1952 prosecution for homosexuality of Alan Turing, the great computer scientist and mathematician. Turing was punished via chemical castration and later committed suicide.

“Thousands of miles away from the United States, being subjected to extreme humiliation by my own military leadership, I did not feel hatred. I felt fear. Fear they would hurt me and no one back home would ever know. I had no gay friends to talk with and no gay personal life. I was only 18 years old, and I was afraid if I told anyone, I would be kicked out for being gay.” ~Joseph Christopher Rocha

The definitive satirical guide to never losing an argument, especially one about the wrongness of homosexuality.. especially those.

[CAPTION: My friend and I were leaving the Gay Pride Festival in Minneapolis, MN (6/27/09) and came across a group of Somalian kids who asked my friend if he was gay. When he answered "yes", they proceeded to harass him and me with verbal threats and even throwing rocks at my friend at one point.]

[CAPTION: Alex Wilson is kicked by a school integration protester after refusing to run from a mob near Little Rock Central High.]
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Ignorance and fear are at the heart of evils of all kinds. Two of them are racism and homophobia. Others include sexism and anti-semitism.

First, no one speaks for god and the bible is not the literal truth. Anyone who claims otherwise in the first case is a liar and in the second is a hypocrite.

Third, think of the images of black children walking into a newly desegregated school with men and women protesters all around pointing to passages in the bible. Think of the preachers and leaders just a couple decades ago who denounced interracial marriage as unnatural, immoral and against God’s plan. The phrase some of them used was ‘purity of race’. I would imagine the KKK still use these supremacist ideologies though majorities have finally, finally decided to abandon them. The Supreme Court ruled that banning interracial marriage was unconstitutional only in 1967!

[CAPTION: Teen-agers storm Baltimore's City Hall in protest against school integration, 1955.]
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Fourth, majorities now are shamefully making the same mistakes of their ancestors when it comes to NOT evolving their treatment and understanding of a minority section of society. In this case it’s not a race but a sexuality which the majority is refusing to upgrade to full human status.

Look above in these posts and you will find phrases used by those who wish to keep homosexual people defined as subhuman. These phrases can be matched almost word for word to the phrases used by whites opposing full equality for blacks during the african-american civil rights movement. These phrases, just as in the case of racism, are based always on supremacist ideologies. We are superior; they are not. We have god on our side; they do not. We know what’s best for society and children; they do not.

[CAPTION: Autherine Lucy's enrolled at the all-white University of Alabama in 1956. Students, adults and even groups from outside of Alabama shouted racial epithets, threw eggs, sticks and rocks, and generally attempted to block her way. Protestors here were University of Alabama Students burning desegregation literature.
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Fifth, homosexuals are an easily understood group of people. Nature exists along a spectrum. Sexuality exists along a spectrum. Homosexuals and bisexual people fit along the same spectrum as heterosexual people. This is reality. Heterosexual people are the great majority of people. They always will be. The existence of homosexual people never has nor never will be a threat to the propagation of the species. Homosexual people, like so many small minority groups of people, have long been misunderstood, mislabeled, mischaracterized, misdiagnosed and mistreated. Society has no more to fear from us than they do from the left-handed.

[CAPTION: In 1956, Clinton High School in Knoxville, Tennessee, was set to be the first high school in the South to be integrated after the Brown decision. Protests and riots ensued until several white citizens escorted the African American students to class, as shown here. One of the escorts was badly beaten afterwards.]
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Sixth, most people are cowards when it comes to standing up and opposing a widely held belief. If homosexual people were rounded up and sent to ‘reparative therapy’ camps, many people would gladly give up their friends, family, colleagues and neighbors if thier church and political leaders told them it was God’s Will. But fortunately, many heterosexual people have moved past the neurosis of their ancestors and are able to see us as fully human, natural and normal. It is they who have stood with us and who have helped spread the word that these anti-gay attitudes are best left in the Dark Ages.

[CAPTION: The integration of Central High School, Arkansas, 1957. Hate filled spectators taunt and shout.]

Finally, now in 2005 it is no longer ignorance which fuels the greatest opposition to gay lesbian civil rights, it is fear. Most people today who oppose the redefining of gay and lesbian people as fully human know exactly what they’re doing. Most know of the overwhelming evidence which refutes the supremacist ideologies propping up their anti-gay views. Most know enough history to recognize that they’re taking part in an age old custom, that of a majority stigmatizing, ostracizing, denigrating, dehumanizing, segregating, restricting and criminalizing the existence and character of a small minority group of people. The people who take part in this old game know exactly what they’re doing. They are not ignorant in this way.

[CAPTION: An infamous anit-gay church in Topeka, Kansas includes many children in its protest activities held all over the country. The indoctrination of these children has obviously begun. The front row of children has been superimposed on the back row to create one image from two photos.]

But neither are they afraid of gay and lesbian people. What they are afraid of is standing up against tradition (no matter how cruel) and the leaders which defend it. These people cower shamefully behind the pulpit and willingly comply with the dictates of the flawed men who lead them. They will follow their cowardice to their graves just as the confederates did when they fought first to leave the union and then to defend their cherished slavery. ‘Purity of Race’ then has transformed into today’s ‘Sanctity of Marriage’. Jim Crow is being reborn as One Man One Woman. The wicked Jesse Helms has been replaced by the wicked Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and James Dobson. The racist white majority has evaporated but reappeared as the homophobic evangelical majority.

(Written in response to posts made on a local political web forum in Louisville, Kentucky. The posts were made as part of a topic I started entitled: America’s Gays and Lesbians Tell Their Stories.)

Also see: Letter from Birmingham Jail — “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr., April 16, 1963.

Insanity. Religious insanity. This is what happens when the priestly class takes over a country. Absolutely vile. Thugs in robes. A disgrace. The anti-gay industries in the USA are only moderate because they must be, not because they believe any differently than these people.

Dear Professor Katz,

Your arguments are reasonable and should be more widely considered if only the following were not true:

1. Homosexuality, just like heterosexuality, is innate. One, therefore, cannot unlearn it. A heterosexual or homosexual choosing celibacy nevertheless remains a heterosexual and homosexual respectively. The ex-gay movement and those who profess to have changed are no different than past examples of the jew or light-skinned black person masquerading as christian or white to avoid bias, marginalization and/or even violence within oppressive villages, states or countries.

2. The potential for a homosexual person to equal a heterosexual in all areas of life other than reproduction is easily observed in the world around us. Homosexuals who are not suppressed by unusual negative forces (from family, church, school, communities and government) often live prosperous, monogamous, generous, dignified, contributing, law-abiding, creative, nurturing, meaningful, exemplary lives.

3. The dysfunction and immaturity of the homosexual community has deep roots in the long history of the relentless scapegoating tendencies of religious and governmental institutions. One can find numerous examples of majorities denigrating powerless small minority communities during times of great societal change. Our time would be no different and homosexual people would continue to be sacrificed on the altar of ignorance, fear and xenophobia were it not for the scientific and sexual revolutions and today’s information age. We have learned from science and reason that we are, in fact, full human beings just as we are in need of no reform or therapy other than the exorcism of the internalized homophobia instilled into us by a misinformed society.

Homosexuals have only recently begun the work of establishing a place for ourselves in which we can live free from the stunting influence of rigid ideologies which have taught us to hate our very nature. Addictions, whether sexual or drug related, are a challenge in our community not because we are disordered or flawed human beings but because we have too long been treated that way by those we love, respect and follow during our formative years of youth.

I hope you will rethink your beliefs on this matter, for homophobia causes much suffering to Gays and Lesbians, especially in youth. Just as with the widespread deep conviction, not too long ago, that argued slavery as natural or tomatoes as poisonous or the left-handed as wicked, the belief that homosexuals are fundamentally the same as rapists and alcoholics ought to be abandoned.

It takes courage to stand up against orthodoxy. Too many cowards lead our country these days and use their power irresponsibly for selfish ends. You have a responsiblity to your students, for by promoting homophobia as okay and acceptable you make it easier for them to do violence against others they perceive to be gay, you make it easier for schools to expel their students when their parents are discovered to be gay, you make it easier for murderers to get away with the ‘gay panic’ defense, you make it easier for gay youth to believe their lives are worthless.

There are so many wonderful people around you right now that are likely gay. If you remain unchanged in your outlook, what would you have done with them? If you still believe homosexuals to be immoral people, I would be interested in knowing how complicit you would be in opposing homosexuals and their struggle for acceptance, understanding, compassion and equality.

Would you allow a mob to evict homosexual couples from your neighborhood? Would you stand by silently if ‘out’ teenagers were sent to special camps where they could undergo reeducation? Would you gladly accept legislation barring homosexuals from government jobs including teaching positions? Would you happily point out your homosexual family members and coworkers if legislation passed demanding that all homosexuals wear a pink triangle?

Finally, history shows that once societies step onto the path of scapegoating and dehumanizing a group of people, that path leads only to more and more repulsive places. So I ask, one last time, if you remain
unchanged in your views even after my letter, to what places would you follow the path of homophobia upon which you so willingly, rationally and openly walk?

With earnest sincerity,

Patrick

***

Now that the evangelicals have come to politically dominate much of the geography of this country, they have been moving to
mold our laws to suit their world view. Gay people are the lucky recipients of this new ‘will to power’. But be warned, this
is but the beginning. Now that the evangelicals are emboldened, I foresee them acting more decisively to denigrate and
segregate us. Remember that some amendments took away rights gay couples already had been given. Isn’t it likely that many
evangelicals and their kind will now feel empowered to vilify us even further? I’m not sure what’s next on their agenda for
us but I fear we shall find out soon enough.

Stay vigilant and do not relent in demanding equality and respect under the law. Remember, it is not you and your queerness
which is immoral and shameful, it is the churches and church leaders who have used the power of the pulpit to promote this
new incarnation of segregation. Not suprising given a brief review of history. I cannot stress this enough. Do not be
intimidated by this societal sickness masquerading as ‘moral values’.

Here in Kentucky where one of the anti-gay amendments banning same-sex marriage passed, I feel a renewed sense of outrage and
bitterness. Yet I cannot help but remember that throughout history many groups have had to endure various injustices and
indignities. Our time in that way is not unique in the least.

And although I cannot say how much worse it might get for us nor how long this dark time might last, I do believe that in the
long view we are assured final liberation. It is not for naught that the evangelicals and their ilk are forced to talk about,
debate with and fight against our growing inclusion in important institutions, rituals and traditions. Whether they like it
or realize it, our ‘gay agenda’ is moving inexorably to success. Remind them of this reality as I often do and you will
assuredly feel better.

But you will feel better not because that person’s mind has been changed. It likely hasn’t. You will feel better because you
will have refused to recognize their core conviction – the belief that they are morally superior. Remind them that noone
speaks for god though many may foolishly claim otherwise. By confronting this self-righteous delusion and slapping it back,
you will have nurtured your own dignity.

Finally, I just want you all to have no doubt. In fact, I want to remind you that you owe no one an explanation or
justification for your life. It is not militant or obnoxious to confront others for their own beliefs when they affront your
dignity and seek to overthrow your very right to exist and live and love fully. In fact, it is absurd not to do this. Do not
compromise. Do not be polite. Do not be understanding. Be unyielding to those who would segregate you to the margins of
society for that is their ‘final solution’. We queer people have simply awoken to our basic dignity and worth and will not
retreat back into the closeted dark ages of superstitious medieval destructive world views.

With love and good wishes,
Patrick

Shame on that segment of the black community which falsely believe they alone are entitled to civil rights and the demand for equality under the law. It is even more egregious when leaders of the black community purport to speak on behalf of God and morality. They do not, in fact, speak on behalf of God; rather, they speak on behalf of their own ignorance and poor judgement.

Great anger I feel toward those who use the power of their pulpit and the false illusion that they are somehow messengers of God’s will to promote hatred, marginilazation and vilification of a small minority of homosexuals in this country. We homosexuals simply want equality under the law.

The argument that to sanction the legalization of same-sex marriage would be disastrous for society and families is a specious one. This argument is built fundamentally on the belief that same-sex partnerships are impure whereas heterosexual partnerships are pure. This is why the phrase ‘sanctity of marriage’ is no better and no less evil than the phrase ‘purity of race’ was. Both promote the superiority of one group of people over another.

Also, the argument that homosexuality is a behavior and not an inborn innate characteristic is outrageously fallacious. Those who promote this ‘behavior argument’ say that whereas blacks could never choose not to be black – gays could choose not to be gay. This is an attractive and powerfully seductive spin on the choices some minorities make when trying to live along a hostile unwelcoming majority. Time and again, black or gay, some who could pass for white or straight have chosen to do just that. Even some women who desired to be educated found it necessary to pass as men in order to partake in rights and priveleges not offered to them because of inequalities and injustices in the societal beliefs of their time.

The light skinned black family who chose to pass as white during the time of segregation in order to avoid certain injustices and cruelties obviously does not add weight to the argument that being black is a choice or behavior. Likewise, the gay man or woman who chooses to pass as a heterosexual in order to avoid certain injustices and cruelties does not add weight to the argument that being gay is a choice or behavior. When possible, some people simply choose to fit in over all other considerations.

And to the idea that same-sex marriage would be against ‘God’s plan’ – as some churches would have their congregants believe – I say this line of argument is itself evil, immoral and shameful and ought to be fought against mightily by gay and straight alike. Promoting the denigration of a small group of people in the name of God is itself one of the most arrogant, false, and delusional uses of the power of faith that exists. Yet time and time again, history shows that organized religion misuses its influence.

Instead of being on the forefront of enlightening their flock to the diversity of the world and its ever changing mystery, organized religion has forcefully resisted new information and ideas. Organized religion, over and over throughout history, has fought vehemently against those who dare to question its perfection and authority.

Ultimately, it is rather absurd that so many continue to ignore history’s lessons as they apply to the willingness of men to use the power of organized religion to promote their own prejudices and opinions as gospel truth divinely inspired from on high. This temptation to transform evil into righteousness by cleverly invoking the name of God is just as powerful and abused today as it was millenia ago.

Kentucky and US Citizens: vote no to the state and national constitutional amendments which seek to enshrine into law the segregation of the homosexual as inferior, second-class and unequal.

Also see: Throw Rice Not Stones & Shame.org