She Speaks
by Deb Taylor

Ed. Note. The editor uses the term “queer” to include lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgendered persons.  Its usage is not intended to be derogatory.

If case you have not kept up with the latest shenanigans of the Radical Religious Right (RRR), let me fill you in (I hope you haven’t just eaten). Please accept the following clip-and-save highlights as evidence of just how far extremists will go to advance their mean-spirited agendas:

• Reverend Pat Robertson warns the city of Orlando that its support for a gay-pride celebration was inviting the vengeance of God. He later states that the fires in Florida are an example of holy punishment.

• Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott says homosexuality is a sin and compares it to alcoholism, kleptomania, and sexual addiction.

• Gary Bauer, the head of the Family Research Council, complains repeatedly that ''as the homosexual movement has come out of the closet, there seems to be an expectation that everybody else is supposed to go into the closet.''

• Fifteen religious conservative groups buy full-page ads that run in three national newspapers defending those who have spoken out against homosexuality. The ads--called "The Truth in Love Campaign" question the origins of homosexuality and urge homosexuals to abandon their "lifestyle."

• Reggie White appears in one of the ads illegally wearing his Green Bay Packers uniform. In the ad, White claims that he has been the target of hate speech: ''I've been called homophobic. I've been called stupid. I've been called unintelligent, and I've been called a nigger by so-called gay activists. (In response to White’s actions, Packers president Bob Harlan faxed a letter of apology to Elizabeth Birch, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign. "As an organization, we regret the use of our uniform in [that] advertisement. Please accept our apologizes," Harlan wrote.)

• The ads give press to Exodus International, an association of ministries that claim to help gays go straight. In case you haven’t heard, the well-known “funny” about Exodus is that the co-founders, Michael Bussee and Gary Cooper, quit the organization after falling in love with each other. The two later had a ceremonial gay wedding.

• One ad claims that ''Christians'' are being persecuted: ''For years Christians have taken a stand in the public square against aggressive homosexual activism. We've paid a heavy price with sound-bite labels like ‘bigot' and ‘homophobe.’''

I see this as the Year of Talking Without Thinking. And the RRR has taken this idea to new levels of unbelievability.  Make no mistake: the anti-gay campaign brought forth by the RRR to the Republican party is going to get much worse before it gets better, because it has become heavily infiltrated with these religious conservative extremists.

Does this mean we hide in our closets for the next few years?  No, although the thought is tempting (does anyone have land in Colorado?).  I feel we need to use this time to give ourselves a reality check—a self-awareness check.  The RRR seeks to tear us down.  If we are insecure about our sexual identity, then the RRR won’t have to do much or say much to knock us down some more.  If we are ashamed of being queer, then our enemies don’t have to expend much of their energy to destroy us.

Additionally, we really need to build a strong community of queers and queer-supporters here in Manhattan and at K-State.  We must network as well with our friends in Lawrence, Topeka, Wichita, and other Kansas towns.

The rhetoric of the RRR is mean and wrong and irrational.  These people remind me of how some kids fight.  When one is clearly losing the argument, he switches to personal digs.  The RRR is filled with scared and angry conservatives who feel threatened. We are witnessing their desperate attempts to not let their argument—their narrow view of the world—fall apart.

We need to stand up to them before too many more people begin to take them seriously.  Please join the Flint Hills Alliance as we work to build our community.

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