Advance Australia Fair - Building Sustainability, Justice and Peace
Workshop - Women, GLBT and the rise of the Religious Right
Saturday 30th July 2005

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Michael Kelly

Rainbow Sash Movement

It’s very good to be here, I don’t know how prepared I am. By the way, one of the issues around putting that sort of blurb about myself out there is that what the religious right tends to do with gay people, particularly gay activists, those dreadful people. They smear us as crazy demonic people who are hell-bent on destroying church and society and family, and so every now and then it’s good to put out your blurb and say, “well actually, this is who I am”, and they don’t quite know what to do with that.

What I want to do first is make some connections between gay issues, the religious right and the broader agenda. They often talk about the ‘gay agenda’ and there’s a very strong and complex anti-gay agenda that they have. Then I want to give a few ideas about the way in which the religious right says it’s going to tackle, or ‘outreach’ to gay people. Then I’m going to look at the comparison between an anti-gay speech and anti-Jewish speech and anti-Communist speech from the 1950s and the very close parallels, showing the same mindset. And then, trying to compress all of this, but it’s important stuff. And finally, the woman who is going to become the poster girl of the anti-gay marriage push, which will get stronger in this country, Dawn Stefanovich, who just happens to have grown up in a same sex, so she says, home in the 1950s and 60s. Her letter is an absolute textbook case of all the accusations leveled against gay people. And it’s referenced by all the major sources in the religious right. It’s a put up job. She may be a real person, but she is a very convenient person. And it’s making its way around the Catholic circles as well.

A few years ago I read a document by a Catholic group called Human Life International (HLI) called ‘The Gay Agenda’. The blurb in the front was written by a Benedictine priest and theologan and it had this quote: “gay activists are the shock troops for the culture of death”. Now, just a few connections before I unpack that statement. This organisation includes people like Father John Harvey, who is well known among Catholic circles as the priest who knows what to do about homosexuality. He is consulted by the Vatican, by all the major right wing cardinals throughout the world, including George Pell. He’s written a book called the truth about homosexuality. He’s the man. In 2001 HLI held an international conference in Clayton, Victoria, at which George Pell spoke and he celebrated the final mass, John Harvey was one of the speakers there. The connections between John Harvey and far Right wing Christian and so-called psychological groups in the US is very well documented. He gets a lot of his stuff from National Association for Reparative Therapies for Homosexuality (NARH). Discredited in the psychological and psychiatric communities in the US, they provide the statistics, the so-called cures, the way to deal with homosexuals for the religious right in the US. They are also a part of the resource that Harvey uses, and they publish things like “gay activists are the shock troops of death”. And when I saw these things adding up back in 2001 I thought this was very interesting, how much power will people like Pell have? And then I saw this very interesting thing in the last federal election. Howard comes out opposing gay marriage, not that there was a huge push for it in the country anyway, and even though the laws already define marriage in ways that don’t allow for gay marriage, he comes out with this ban. It is partly an attempt to whip up a certain kind of agenda; as a way of engaging in wedge politics; as a way to get the religious right activated to be scared of gay people wanting to get married and to vote for John Howard. But it also suits people like George Pell and Peter Jenson, the Catholic and the Anglican Archbishops of Sydney. Peter Jenson is a far right wing evangelical who thinks all this stuff about homosexuality too.

Not so long after that, four archbishops, two in Melbourne and two in Sydney come out with a combined statement opposing, what? - The Labor Party’s education policy. These are quid pro quos. This is backscratching going on. I’m not saying that there are not fervently held beliefs behind this, but it’s the politics, the behind the scenes deals that are being done at very high levels.

The Catholic side of this is an interesting phenomenon because it’s quite a fringe group within the Catholic church as opposed to the Religious Right which is a bigger, more complex body in the Protestant churches. But that fringe group holds enormous power within the hierarchy of the Catholic church. Just a few days ago a survey was published saying that two thirds of Catholics do not believe that homosexuality is immoral. But amongst the third are people like George Pell who are running the show and they make other people scared to speak up, especially if they hold any kind of office.

The other thing I want to unpack before I move on, is the ‘culture of death’, and why it is very important that the gay issue is seen as crucial. When it says “gay activists are the shock troops of death,” what they’re saying is that the whole of the ‘gay agenda’ –

• gay marriage,
• legislative reform,
• anti-discrimination legislation,
• programs in schools to educate for tolerance,
• so-called gay pressure on psychological associations to redefine homosexuality as not being an illness,

right through to the so-called attacks on the family, will lead to the destruction of the family unit and the destruction of civilisation as we know it. That’s no exaggeration that’s how they talk and how the Pope talks these days.

That’s what they’re talking about when they’re talking about the culture of death. But in their mind the culture of death is also – abortion rights, rights to contraception, the morning after pill, and then the whole so called feminist agenda of women’s rights, divorce rights, all these kinds of things come in their mind under the banner the culture of death. Euthanasia, taking out Teri Sciavos feeding tube, we’re getting a bit of this now with Maria Korp, taking out her feeding tube. It is always the culture of death that is looming, has enormous power. They have this mentality that they’re the beleaguered ones even though they hold this incredible power, they’re the ones under pressure.

The culture of death that is moving through western society wants to destroy everything, life, marriage, babies, families, and all the rest of it, and the gay activists are the shock troops. They’re quite clear that the so-called gay agenda is the front line and if they lose that then the barbarian hoards will sweep through western culture without anyone to stop them. So from their mentality, and this is evident in their literature, the gay issue is absolutely pivotal. And that’s why they’re pulling out all stops in the US against gay marriage.

They’re having some success but not as much as they want. A friend of mine pointed out recently that two thirds of people in Kansas are against gay marriage. Shock horror, isn’t that awful? But then he thought: that means that one third of people in Kansas are for gay marriage. That’s incredible! The anti-sodomy laws in the US which would jail people for having aural or anal sex, including heterosexuals, but were never enforced, where only struck down last year or the year before throughout the US. This is very recent stuff and a third of people in Kansas think gay marriage is OK. These are very amazing changes which of course for the religious right are a total disaster. So I just want to say that the gay issue is not just a special rights issue within the liberal community, it is the do or die issue for the religious right and they’re going to pull out all stops. You’ll see in some of the language some of what they’re doing.

“Gay activists are the shock-troops for the culture of death” - this line that brings in all kinds of connections through the Religious Right, the Catholic church, Pentecostal churches, and then the whole culture of death mentality which includes women’s rights, reproductive rights, even the right to be free of bullying. In this letter from Dawn there is a line referring to stuff going on in the US at the moment to restrict bullying in schools as actually infringing on the free speech of committed Christian children who want to tell the truth about homosexuality. They are opposing anti-bullying measures in schools as we speak. For them this is not really about protecting children, but this is the horrible gay activists and the people who support the culture of death, the nazi feminists, or ‘feminazis’ is the expression they use. It’s one of their attempts to change the culture in schools and get their agenda pushed forward.

Of course “we love homosexuals” they say in every breath, but we’ve got to stop them. They don’t like to be called homophobes, in the same way they don’t like to be called racist, they’re very sensitive to these issues. So on the one hand they say “we’re not homophobic”, and on the other hand they’ll say, as George Pell did in opinion pieces in the Age in 2001, four times, “We condemn homophobia”, and “gay adults recruit and seduce youth”. They are quite hysterical in their defense of themselves as not being homophobic and yet in the same breath saying that homosexuals are filthy disgusting perverts, who live a disease ridden life. They are developing some sophistication around how they need to look.

This is what’s happening in Australia. If you read the web sites, it’s not as hysterical here as it is in the US, but if you dig, you’ll find it. I did a search last night on the Salt-Shakers, one of the rabidly anti-gay Christian groups. You read their stuff and they are saying, “we love homosexuals” but “we condemn homophobia”. If you go to one of Peter Stokes’s articles and read through it you will find all the stuff around disease and the stuff around children. It’s all in there, but they know they have to present a certain kind of image of being friendly, supportive and caring of homosexual people. Even people like George Pell have shut up a bit about homosexuality because it doesn’t play. We now talk about families.

Didi Herman wrote a book called The Anti-Gay Agenda and one of the things she notes very clearly is that sort of speech around the 1950s speech against Communists, and is very close to the deep anti-Jewish diatribe. And it’s quite amazing to read some of the stuff she shows in her book, the religious right in the 1950s in the US talked about being swamped by a culture of peversity and sex, and the breaking down of the family. Then it was Communists and now its homosexuals. Just some examples and they’re all referenced, comparing the right wing stuff about homosexuality with stuff in the Eternal Jew, one of the most notorious films from the Nazi era:

• Gays control everything – Jews control everything
• Jews are one percent of the population - Gays are one percent of the population. They control radio, television, Hollywood. Sound familiar? They are more politically powerful than other Americans
• Jews are richer and more educated - Gays are richer and more educated. They have better jobs, They have more money. That’s a big thing at the moment. You don’t need special rights because you’ve got plenty of money.
• We are an educated elite. Gays are wealthy extremists, they live in luxury.
• In fact one of the US Senators said at a hearing recently – “You’re saying people have more money therefore they’re an elite and don’t need special rights” talking about the gays stuff to the religious right “this is exactly what they said about the Jews” So even he’s noticing.
• Insidious Jews spread disease like rats – disgusting gays are disproportionately diseased. Many sexually transmitted diseases are linked to gays. Gays are more diseased than straights. These are all subheadings, all referenced, I don’t have time to read them all.
• Jews are criminals. They’re only 1 percent of the population but they’re responsible for most of crime because they’re involved in all sorts of cartels and shady dealings.
• Gay’s are one percent of the population but they’re responsible for a third of child molestations. Gays practice illegal behaviors and commit 80% of peodophile attacks on boys. The gay lifestyle is criminal, gays are like kleptomaniacs, adulterers, murderers – George Pell said that on radio.
• Jews are abnormal, homosexuals are abnormal.
• Jews are unnatural, pathological and perverted, gays are unnatural pathological and perverted.
• Jews threaten children – gays threaten children. Gays want to recognise pedophiles as prophets says The Family Research Council. There is an undercurrent of pedophilia in gay culture, gays want to have sex with children.
• Jews threaten Christians. Jews thinks Christians are heathens and want to destroy Christian culture. Gays threaten Christians. We are often accused of hating Christians. We ultimately want to outlaw religion they say. This is part of our agenda, to make it illegal to be a Christian and to think Christian things, and to treat homosexuals the way that Christians want to treat homosexuals. Already in Canada, the Catholic church is talking about being persecuted by civil society because of gay marriage.
• Jews are like rats, this is from the Eternal Jew too. Where ever rats appear they bring ruin, by destroying mankind’s goods and food-stuffs.
• And this is from the Gay Agenda, which was shown to the joint chiefs of staff in the USA. “(Gays) are like rats, skulking in their closets, copulating in mad frenzies, they are unable to control their appetites. Sniffing around the doors of school class rooms for fresh prey, young prey, they are perverts and hedonists and will make fine kindling in hell. But before then god gives them what they really deserve, disease. They must be stopped here on earth.” That was a fundamentalist Christian preacher shown to the US joint chiefs of staff.
• Judaism is a so-called religion but its kind of Satanic. Jews are like Satan worshippers.
• Jews spread like a tide. They spread from Eastern Europe like an irresistible tide.
• The churches have to stand against the tide of gay relativism and libertinism in our culture. Germany declared a war on Jews, the Family Research Council declared a war on gays. Ultimately, it says, rather the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe than our annihilation from the Eternal Jew.
• Exterminate gays. Paul Cameron who is referenced all the time in right wing religious culture, but his research has been discredited over and over again, actually said in 1985, “unless we get lucky medically, in three or four years one of the options discussed will be the extermination of homosexuals. And he said that in an interview with the Surgeon General C. Everett Cooper in 1983.

So you see, it’s the same kind of mindset paralleling all the way down the line and it’s the same sort of talk about Communists. On the one hand we’re anarchic, which is a word the Pope just used, and on the other hand we are highly organised, we’re controlling everything, politics, the psychological societies, we’re infiltrating the schools. All this sort of stuff is the kind of stuff they said about Communists and Jews. Now it’s gays.

I just would like to finish by reminding you of two things again.

This culture of death stuff, and the gay thing they think they can win on. Its very hard to win on women’s rights and stuff like that because women are 50% of the population, apart from anything else, mind you, they’re having a good go of it.

But gays are seen as a small percentage of the population, who right minded people can be taught that gays are perverted and diseased and dangerous and all that kind of stuff. And so they believe that there’s change that they can convince the majority this tiny minority should be controlled and legislated against. The real agenda behind that is to stop this wave of the so-called culture of death and they see women’s rights as a part of that same tide. This is just the front line of it. So there’s no point in saying, as some people do, that the gay issue is only a small issue, because it’s the flag issue, the "constructed diseased other" who can be demonised.

That’ll do for the moment, we can talk more during the discussion.

Thanks.

Community Action Against Homophobia

Australian Marriage Equality national campaign

Rainbow Sash movement Ph 0412 073 081 (Geoffrey Baird)

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