Aggrieved-antigay-relatives group PFOX complains that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry
has been strangely quiet on the issue of equal treatment for former homosexuals. Said [executive director Regina] Griggs, “What about ex-gay rights? Does Kerry support equal access to the public forum for ex-gays? Does he support the inclusion of former homosexuals in the hate crimes bill that he would pass as President?”
PFOX says that in May it asked the Senate offices of John Kerry and John Edwards “to support a resolution on tolerance for ex-gays. Its proof: A photo of John Edwards posing with Jewish exgay activists.
PFOX offers no examples of “intolerance against ex-gays” or of government “favoring homosexuals over ex-gays.” The organization asserts, without any substantiation, that “gay activist groups” define “sexual orientation” to include only “gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders, but not former homosexuals” — or, presumably, heterosexuals.
This is confusing to me. If ex-gay = heterosexual, then why would ex-gays need special rights? Because they can’t marry? Because they don’t have health care benefits for their ex-gay lovers?
Very strange.
Strange? No. Inconsistent? definately.
What these ex-gays whine about is that they are being muted by the queer community from expressing their ‘change’ to mainstream America.
Their claim that discrimination based on sexual orientation excludes discrimination of heterosexuals is ridiculous. Such anti-discrimination law has already been used against a Key West private resort for kicking out an opposite-sex couple.
Why should they be concerned about the rights of a largely imaginary subgroup?
Having worked at HRC for five years, I can say that the Local Law Enforcement Enahncement Act (hate crimes bill)includes heterosexuality in the definition of sexual orientation. So, I’m not exactly sure what PFOX is whining about. Quite frankly, they sound somewhat insane.
Like so much that’s coming out of the right these days, intellectual honesty isn’t the point. They are trying to set up a false equivalency between the right’s intolerance of gays and left’s supposed intolerance of ex-gays.