The G.O.P. Tries to Build a Gay Ghetto

[Nevilledog]

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New York Times Opinion
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Conservatives have expanded the fight “from gay marriage to what they saw as an increasing prevalence and acceptance of queerness as natural and of L.G.B.T.Q. people as equals,” writes @CharlesMBlow.

nytimes.com
Opinion | The G.O.P. Tries to Build a Gay Ghetto
Conservatives are launching a broad attack on gay rights and gay culture.
6:15 PM · Jun 22, 2022

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/22/opinion/republican-attack-gay-rights. html


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This past weekend, the Republican Party in Texas voted on an outrageous platform that not only denies the results of the 2020 presidential election, but also rejects gay marriage and seeks to “protect” minors until they turn 17 against “predatory sexual behaviors,” such as drag queens reading stories aloud to children.

Drag queens are predators, trans women are a threat and gay marriage is a violation of the “natural order”: This is all part of the widening and re-energized attack by Republicans on L.G.B.T.Q. people and culture in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges guaranteeing a right to same-sex marriage.

The ruling was heralded as a major civil rights victory by its proponents, but many opponents of gay rights saw it as a lost battle in a war, not the loss of the war. For them, gay marriage is too big a development to simply accept.

Dennis Prager, writing in National Review, argued that the ruling completed “the secularization of America” and sealed “the end of America as the Founders envisioned it.”

Mitch McConnell, then the Senate majority leader, was a staunch opponent of gay marriage. He was one of six Republican senators to sign an amicus brief trying to convince the court to reject it. But after the ruling, even he acknowledged that there was little more that Congress could do. “The courts have pretty well spoken,” he said.

*snip*

[Haggard Celine]

1. The anti-gay talk has gotten way out of control.

And there have been actions, too, which are getting scarier all the time. It's a fucking religious/political movement that is trying to take over the country, and right now it looks like GLBT people are the new Jews. I'm hoping that it will die down after Pride Month is over, but it doesn't look like it.

[NullTuples]

10. Many of us expect it to ramp up to unforeseen levels in the lead up to the elections & beyond.

[Haggard Celine]

13. Yeah, didn't think about the elections.

It’s not looking good. Hell, I’ve been thinking about places I might go and considering making plans. Things just aren’t looking stable.

[NullTuples]

16. Please do be careful and keep yourself & loved ones safe.

[Haggard Celine]

19. Will do. You do the same.

[Skittles]

2. ...

"queerness as natural" sounds odd

I really wish the word "queer" not used casually, there is nothing, er, queer about LBBTQ.

[NullTuples]

11. We reclaimed the word; it is now used with pride.

True, not all LGBTQ people prefer it but most accept it and the trend is the younger they are the more likely they are to use it in certain contexts to describe themselves or our community / communities as a whole. The point is that conservative used to "other" LGBTQ people. Owning that and saying, "yes, we are other, we are unlike you, we are queer" is taking back the power they held over us.

[Skittles]

21. I understand context

like, for example, when AA folk use the n-word - what I don't like is when I see articles with the work queer thrown around - you don't see the N word used that way.....it would be like women referring to themselves as ho's - I know it's been "claimed" but I think it is harmful when used in an official way, like in an article discussing serious issues faced by LGBTQ folk.

[madaboutharry]

3. Republicans are terrible people.

There is no way to say anything different about them. They are hateful abusers of human dignity.

[roamer65]

5. They are fascists.

They will eventually try to send us to the gas chambers again like the Nazis.

This time we will fight.

[Missn-Hitch]

9. Hear, hear!! Let me know when it starts and if you need an extra gun.

[roamer65]

24. +1000

[vercetti2021]

12. Goddamn right

We aren't going this time. Live free or die.

[roamer65]

23. +1000

[Sympthsical]

4. I read that as "gay grotto"

I like that image quite a bit better.

[roamer65]

25. So do I.

[Duncan Grant]

6. A belief system rooted in religious fanaticism (typically, Christian).

I’m willing to discuss this with any Christian who believes otherwise.

[IngridsLittleAngel]

7. And then what? Bulldoze said ghetto?

I'm now convinced after the last few months that their goal is to lock us up and torture us into "normalcy" via "conversion therapy" or just wipe us off the face of the Earth.

It feels a lot like 1939... Except instead of thinking the Jews are the ultimate evil, it's us.

[NullTuples]

14. "Except instead of thinking the Jews are the ultimate evil" - LGBT people were rounded up into camps

That's where the pink triangle = gay liberation symbol came from. But when the war ended and the surviving Jews were freed, LGBT camp prisoners were typically moved to nearby prisons instead of being set free as being gay or trans was a crime even among the liberator nations.

[IngridsLittleAngel]

22. Sadly, yes

It just feels like this time around, LGBTQ's are #1 on their list of hate, instead of just being "very high on the list". Not that the 30's and 40's were swell, but this time around there seems to be a lot more hatred.

[vercetti2021]

8. As I've said

Our community like it or not need to arm themselves for the worst. Don't be a statistic

[KS Toronado]

15. I'd like to know or see the evidence repugs claim about

drag queens reading stories aloud to children. Was it Green Eggs & Ham?
Was he in his work clothes at the time and not in drag?

[AntiFascist]

17. The Republican Party of Texas now stands for white straight men...

unfortunately for them, white straight men are a minority.

[rubbersole]

20. White straight bigots.

And increasingly menacing. And mostly repulsive to the rest of America.

[NullTuples]

18. McConnell's line about ""The courts have pretty well spoken,"

Reminds me of the Pope's "who am I to judge"; it's a non answer that promises nothing and yet the media will run with it as if it is a show of support.

[world wide wally]

26. Chimneys also violate the "natural order"