A number of conservatives believe that there is a vindictive wing of the LGBT community and that it is out to get the religious right. Though these fears may be overstated, you get a situation every now and then that suggests this idea is not entirely crazy.
Consider, for example, the following passage from a recent Rolling Stone profile on LGBT mega-donor Tim Gill (emphasis added):
Recommended Stories
More broadly, for Gill and his allies, nondiscrimination is the new front of the movement: a campaign that pits LGBTQ advocates against a religious right that responded to marriage equality by redoubling its efforts. The election of Donald Trump, who claims to support gay rights but stocked his administration with anti-LGBTQ extremists, has only emboldened those looking to erase the gains of the past decade. Gill refuses to go on the defense. “We’re going into the hardest states in the country,” he says. “We’re going to punish the wicked.”
Hold on now.
Gill, whose remarks came in reference to recent state-level religious liberty legislation, was clearly co-opting biblical language. He was not actually referring to religious liberty proponents as “wicked.” That said, it’s difficult to look at his comments and not detect a whiff of vengefulness.
Feel free to dismiss the idea that there are revenge-obsessed LGBT militants, but this is a genuine fear among certain conservative groups, and things like Gill’s remarks add fuel to that fire.
It’s his remarks. It’s the costly, business-crushing lawsuits leveled at Christian bakers and florists because they choose not to cater gay weddings. It’s things like a reporter for an Indiana-based ABC News affiliate driving 25 miles from her office to find a pizzeria that wouldn’t cater a same-sex marriage.
One may pooh-pooh the right’s fear of supposed pro-LGBT activists hell-bent on getting the religious right to submit, but it’s worth understanding that these worries are based on some troubling real-life events. Whether things like Gill’s comments are being blown out of proportion seems like a different argument for a different day. For now, the purpose is to explain why some on the right feel the way they do about this.
The easiest way to sum this up would be to paraphrase something a colleague once said:
The culture war over gay rights is over. The LGBT community won. It’s only a matter of time now before all 50 states adopt legislation specifically honoring same-sex unions and protecting self-professed members of the LGBT community.
Gill and his compatriots know this. They know they are the victors in this war. That is why remarks like his feel so unsettling.
“Punish the wicked” is not the sort of thing you would expect to hear from someone genuinely invested in tolerance, equality and justice.
It’s the sort of thing you expect to hear from someone who is scrubbing the battlefield of survivors.
(h/t Bre Peyton)
