Peter Sprigg, the family values activist, has said that homosexuality should be criminalized.
From The Advocate:
Sprigg, a senior fellow for policy studies at the antigay [Family Research Council (FRC)], appeared on the program [Chris Matthews’ Hardball] to debate the repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy with Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.
As Sprigg mounted an increasingly illogical defense of the policy based on discrimination, Matthews pressed him on the question: “Do you think we should outlaw gay behavior?”
“I think that the Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas which overturned the sodomy laws in this country was wrongly decided,” said Sprigg. “I think there would be a place for criminal sanctions against homosexual behavior.”
“So we should outlaw gay behavior?” asked Matthews again.
Yes,” said Sprigg.
In 2008, he said in an interview that the United States should export homosexuals.
Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association (AFA) is another US Christian who revealed the depth of his intolerance for gays this week:
[We should] impose the same sanctions on those who engage in homosexual behavior as we do on those who engage in intravenous drug abuse, since both pose the same kind of risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. I’d be curious to know what you think should be done with IV drug abusers, because whatever it is, I think the same response should be made to those who engage in homosexual behavior.If you believe that what drug abusers need is to go into an effective detox program, then we should likewise put active homosexuals through an effective reparative therapy program.
Fischer felt unjustly accused by “the leftwing blogosphere” of wanting to imprison gays, so issued this clarification:
My position is that homosexual behavior represents a severe threat to public health, and is even more dangerous to human health than intravenous drug abuse. Because of the health risks involved, curtailing homosexual behavior should be as much a public policy concern as curtailing intravenous drug abuse.
Fischer doesn’t want to lock up homosexuals (necessarily). He just wants to force us into reparative ex-gay therapy.
And then there’s Colorado-based Andrew Wommack Ministries, whose Uganda representative defended the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill by promoting the myth that its measures are aimed solely at protecting the young and vulnerable:
If you will read CAREFULLY you will see that this bill is aimed the ACTIONS of people that are endangering the lives of innocent people. This bill proposes accountability for actions that cause harm, especially to children and minors, and the spread of HIV/AIDS. In addition, I believe it is clear that the main aim of this bill is to protect children and minors (with an emphasis on males) that have no protection against sexual crimes under the current laws. Further, it is aimed at upholding the moral and ethical fiber of family-rights in THIS country. Finally, this Bill is dealing with the issues that are related to a Third-World Community. These issues are so very different from the Globalized mold Western activists and the press are trying to suggest that Uganda squeeze into.
Many US conservative Christians may appear moderate compared to the overtly violent, institutionalized homophobia of Uganda, but when the surface is scratched away, the truth shows.
Bryan Fischer looks overweight. His eating habits are obviously putting him at risk for contracting heart disease, the number one killer in America today.
[We should] impose the same sanctions on those who eat to much fat as we do on those who engage in intravenous drug abuse, since both pose the same kind of risk of contracting a deadly disease. I’d be curious to know what he thinks should be done with drug abusers, because whatever it is, I think the same response should be made to those who eat to much fat.
I have been saying for years that the real aggenda of these armband kristians is to re-criminalize LGBT identity.
@PAUL: LOL..sooo true. Your response illustrates the point that either these right-wing conservative nominal Christians are either extremely inconsistent or, more likely, they’re not really interested in the “public good”, but are driven more by their fanatical literalist understandings of the bible which they seek to impose on everybody else. This is actually a very frightening post that should seek to motivate us all (especially those of us on the religious left) to do all we can to stop these people from gaining any more political power for this is their vision of a theocratic “christian” America – this is the way they would have things if they were in power. Finally, it also demonstrates the wisdom of our founders to enshrine our rights in a Constitution so that the minority would be protected by law and not subject to the mob such as in the prop 8 and Maine votes. With dangerous idiots like these out there we’re not going to win our rights except through judicial action. These people are not willing to dialogue or have their minds changed. Plain and simple.
Of course, Mr. Fischer’s explanation of how keeping “sodomy” a felony solves all the problems of the culture wars is quite telling:
It’s quite clear that Mr. Fischer thinks that the proper classification for sodomy is a felony. The thing is, our penal system doesn’t usually punish felons with fines or probation. Felons usually spend time in prison.
As such, I find Fischer’s claim that he never said homosexuals shouldn’t be locked up in prison rather disingenuous. Because putting them in prison is exactly what we do with felons, and he clearly wants homosexuals to be labeled as felons.
Leaving aside everything else, someone might point out to Fisher that there are no legal sanctions on “intravenous drug abuse” as such.
We have legal sanctions on certain drugs that are commonly injected–heroin, cocaine, steroids, etc. But the legal sanctions focus on the drugs themselves, not the method of delivery. Heroin is just as illegal if you snort it rather than shoot it up, while syringes are perfectly legal as long as you have them for a legitimate use like insulin injections.
So, even ignoring the offensiveness of Fisher’s equating gay people and drug addicts, his argument doesn’t stand up on his own terms.
I’m tired of hearing all this protest against Gays and Lesbians……I am not one of them… But how long has this been going on…In all of the past wars they fought side by side with them all. they gave their lives just like all the straight guys. so what is the big deal… Just another issues for the politicians to argue about… And what are the main issues that we really have to concentrate on and solve..
So now we have to wait for congress to vote on this…forget it ,,,It will be lost in the shuffle, like so many other things.
Sorry ,,,Washington stinks…Al these issues wil go on and on.and nothing will be accomplished…
I like your show and watch it every night. Keep up the good work
Whenever I see or hear homosexuality being compared to addictions or the kinds of behaviors that require betrayal, assault or non consent, I really REALLY want to frackkin’ scream!
I think that those of faith, and SAY they are committed to BEING deeply engaged in their religious belief, seem to let that speak for themselves and don’t expect much else, like character, consistency and how they treat people in reality to have consequences.
Even in answering to the very God they say they believe in. They should ESPECIALLY be held more accountable, since they KNOW they demand to have more influence. And with that, comes great responsibility.
Behavioral issues like addictions and adultery, require altered states and/or the betrayal of trust and exclusive intimacy.
These are negative because, in the first place the consequences result in counter behaviors or serious pain inflicted on those on the receiving end of it.
There are no lessons required in how one is to feel or respond when these occur.
Whereas, how to respond to gay people is a taught, artificially engaged situation.
I doubt anyone would naturally or consequentially be THIS or SO hostile and paranoid about a gay person but FOR being taught to be and reinforcing that education with the most fear inducing, squirm worthy attacks on the entire character of gay people.
The most reprobate hetero, has more freedom and rights than the most exemplary gay person.
That flies in the face that heterosexuality actually IS a moral virtue, or an example that gay people don’t have any. That is to say, heteros don’t have to show they are virtuous or decent, but Sprigg doesn’t have to care about that, does he?
And allowing for the suspension of belief and understanding that virtually NOTHING said about gay people is exclusive to gay people.
When children are together, even if they are born very selfish little beings, they see DIFFERENCE, but they just don’t see menace and unfairness coming FROM that difference.
It’s in teaching children that difference=inferiority and menace that is so diabolical.
And we SHOULDN’T have to be defending gay folks on such an elementary and prurient level.
People as old as Sprigg and his ilk, can only speak from what they’ve insulated themselves from.
It’s a lot easier to think yourself superior when you surround yourself with so little diversity, and talk AT people, instead of WITH them instead of participating in a forum that equally welcomes and respects different ideas and experiences.
In not recognizing when gay people ARE seeking peaceful and legal means in which to live, indeed telling it as just the opposite, is to take leadership in fear and exploitation, rather than implementing the VERY thing that WOULD reveal the truth once and for all.
Of COURSE he supports a system that would utterly segregate, silence and intimidate gay people.
Because the more opportunities and experiences that gay and straight lives have together, people will learn for themselves that HE’S full of shit.
Then where would he be?
Who would believe him?
And what would he do with his life?
Segregation and fear have worked well before. No reason he should abandon such time honored, if not morally honored activity.
I understand it really doesn’t take any special courage, or higher moral principle to treat another human being AS a human being and assume that their NEEDS are no less, no more than my own.
This guy hates to be humble, or think that he’s not so superior or especially smart and morally strong.
He just keeps saying it and isn’t challenged on whether there is any substance to his assertions.
He’s a moral gnat. An intellectual roach.
No offense to gnats and roaches.
But you get my meaning.
He sure wouldn’t want to be in the same room with THIS here big mouthed black woman. He knows where he stands, it’s just he doesn’t want anyone to recognize that it’s made of quicksand.
Extra! Extra! Read all about it!
Anti-gays hate queers so much they’ll say anything except the truth! anything.
Yawn.
this *is* a scary post.
and Regan, great comment/food for thought.
Why else do I and many others refer to these fanatics as the “religious reicht”?
They’re nothing more than latter-day National Socialists, and their propaganda films like Gay Rights, Special Rights and versions of Der Sturmer do nothing but help in that comparison!
Remember, folks… the clerics were the ones who held society in an iron grip of oppression, using a combination fear, myth, ignorance, and scapegoating in order to retain their power.
The extreme conservatives opposed *every* advancement in science and technology, because it threatened the power, which was like a drug to them — they’ve been slowly being weaned away from it through the centuries, but the religious conservative is like a junkie — shaking from withdrawal and will to anything to get their fix: lie cheat, steal, murder — whatever!
It’s time our religious allies on the left take off the gloves and start denouncing and confronting their perverted cousins and force them to look at the cost of human lives their hate and prejudice causes.
Maybe a few autopsy pictures of kids who’ve thrown themselves in front of trains, buses and semi-trucks; or those who’ve blown their head off or sliced their wrists — all because they believed the lies and hate spewing from the mouths of bigots and hatemongers like Mr. Fisher and his ilk.
Marlene, I feel your heartfelt passion…that alone could make us sisters.
I can’t help but think of all the families with holes where the gay child had been.
Lawrence King and Sakia Gunn were too young to vote, drive a car…live to their full potential. But they were good young people, on their way to being good citizens, had they been given the lives they had and deserved to live.
Jaheem Harrera and Carl Walker-Hoover and ( Ahmed Nastoh, ten years ago) committed suicide because anti gay bullying became too much to bear.
To say nothing of the parents of gay children who abuse them for NOT being the hetero child they expected and wanted.
It’s THIS behavior towards the tenderest among us that deserves to be responded to with outrage and a challenge to the status quo.
When the loud rallies and impromptu protests manifested in the streets here after Prop. 8 passed, the response of the anti gay was as if this was an obnoxious tantrum over something trivial.
Even the brutality of the killings of Matt Shepard and other young men and women, barely out of their teens didn’t move gays and lesbians at large to form into violent vigilante factions.
So for the most part, even how gay people have responded to these things has been so unfairly judged.
What happened to these young people, and all the other indignities of careers lost, property and pensions lost, children taken away, family of origin abandonment are HARDLY trivial. And why the opposition would think it would be regarding gay people is part and parcel of just how dehumanized gay people have become in their estimation.
Each protest, each rally, virtually every response has been a matter of legal due process. Legally socializing, legal and forthright litigation or face to face meetings and panels.
Every citizen has a right to having their grievances addressed by the government, the tragedy is the government trivializes those grievances too.
The indictments on every single thing gay people do as if the opposition wouldn’t behave that way if it were THEM, begs the utmost and strongest challenge.
The opposition doesn’t have to do what they are doing at all. ESPECIALLY because these unConstutional and spiteful things aren’t, won’t, and didn’t happen to THEM.
Regan — The *only* time I remember when the LGBT community turned violent after a murder, was during the White Night riot after Danny White literally got away with murdering Mayor Moscone and Harvey Milk.
As much as i hate to admit it, that MFing SOB finally got the justice he deserved by his own hand. White should’ve been sentenced to life w/o parole.
The same thing happened after the Rodney King fiasco, too. Too many times an oppressed people finally said enough. What should’ve happened was a non-violent protest in both cases, because the violence only set back both movements.
But the other scenario I forgot *was* the murders: Gwen Araujo, Angie Zapata, Matt Shepard, Brandon Teena, etcetera…
Shove these bigots in a chair and force them to look at those horrific scenes. Force them to look at the cost their words of hate, and bigotry are.
I wonder how fast society would act if it were gangs of LGBT teens out there looking for “breeders”, and unsympathetic police and the courts dismissing their assaults, telling them they deserved it for not keeping to their side of town, or for being “out” with their perverted sexuality.
You’d be surprised how many light bulbs go off above the college students I talk to when I bring up this scenario.
Absolutely Marlene!
The fuel that feeds the beast is enabled by separation. There is so much investment in maintaining gay people at a complete distance, the folks we’re talking about let things like this go until they are confronted with something more graphic and inescapable.
And by then they resent it.
Yet, they won’t own just how low their levels are (and gay folks have no way of knowing what they are), that offense is taken by a look in their direction. By witnessing casual affection between gay folks. By having to share the same bathrooms or gyms and restaurants.
The sign is invisible, but the unspoken and sometimes spoken attitude just screams “straight only”! with equal facility.
So a gay person would have to wonder: how was I supposed to know YOU were a Christian and you’re supposed to discriminate against me? Where’s the sign telling me to avoid you?
So there are straight folks who resent gay folks for ‘not knowing their place’.
Of course, there IS no ‘place’ that a citizen is supposed to be living in that doesn’t respect their freedoms and rights unless they’ve committed a serious crime against another citizen.
I didn’t experience Jim Crow (thanks to my parents and grandparents), but I see the impossible dichotomy of public hostility and delicate sensibilities that is so similar I respect my elders all the more for their patience and dignity and fortitude to get me and my generation safely forward.
The perception of assault and discomfort tilts so wildly, it’s like standing on a raft in a stormy sea.
These people are crazy.
And their crazy kills children and the most harmless among us. And they want to infect everybody with it, and demand that the government enable and maintain the crazy as if it’s been a good thing.
And that’s the worst part.
There isn’t even any betterment to show to rationalize their support of such crazy.
Their want their crazy to teach that this kind of human sacrifice however brutal, shows morality and civility in our nation and it’s consciousness.
It is to make one lose their breakfast over the self deception and mob delusion of that.
What really curdles my gourd, Regan is when you see people like Ken Blackwell (former Ohio Atty General/election fixer), Clarence Thomas, and other conservatives of African heritage dismiss and denouce the bans on marriage equality as not being equal to miscengenation laws, and the discrimination TLBGs face as not true discrimination because they claim we can hide our sexuality, but they can’t their skin colour.
First of all, I’d like these people to tell a greiving spouse their relationship discrimination isn’t equal to what interracial couples faced. No doubt many of them would have either loose or missing teeth, not to mention broken jaws.
Second, the discrimination against TLBGs is different that what blacks faced during the Jim Crow Era, but it’s still discrimination! A racist is invariably going to be heterosexist as well, not to mention the everyday bigot. If he can’t find a ni**er to lay his baseball bat upside their head, a f*g or d*ke will do just as well.
As to the sexuality/skin colour argument, it seems these gentleman forgot about the practice of “passing”, ie light-skinned blacks who had more European features trying to pass themselves as white or Cuban.
How many stories have their been of TLBGs being forced by society and family to pass for straight? There’s no difference whatsoever!
I feel you girl. Clarence Thomas is married to white woman. If the Supremes had gone another way in ’67, he might not be legally married to her.
And if he thinks that miscegenation has no equivalent in what the LGBT have to deal with, then he’s assuming that there weren’t people who think he’s the equivalent of a monkey and his wife is engaged in bestiality.
Miscegenist mentality had the same dehumanizing attitudes and thought blacks were no more mature or moral than straight people think of gay folks now.
The point isn’t whether you can hide your qualities, but that you’re compelled to AT ALL and the consequences when you don’t.