A Peek Inside A Christian Right Anti-Gay Strategy Session

Political advocacy is all about catering to an audience, and those opposed to marriage equality for same-sex couples have been meticulous about how they craft their message. As the Values Voter Summit demonstrated this weekend, they exercise a bit less tact with their words when they are talking amongst themselves than when they are catering to the general public. Recently, two contributors to the Friendly Atheist blog attended a Marriage Symposium organized by the Illinois Family Institute (an American Family Association affiliate) and reported back what they heard. The panel included Austin Nimocks from the Alliance Defense Fund and Linda Jernigan, a self-identified ex-gay. Here are some insights into the thinking and strategies of those opposed to LGBT equality:

• Anti-bullying programs are meant to silence anti-gay beliefs.
• Do not use the term “sexual orientation” because it implies “biological determinism.”
• Do not use the term “gay” because it normalizes and empowers people who are gay.
• Same-sex couples are “sterile” by design and cannot provide for children what an opposite-sex couple can.
• Marriage is a “pre-political” institution, and therefore not a civil right.
• Anti-gay advocates should “reach out and resist,” framing resistance to equality efforts as compassion for those who are gay.
• People in Sudan and Malaysia who have sex with farm animals demonstrate how marriage can deteriorate.
• “The end goal of gay activism is an assault on gender” — in other words, at the heart of sexual orientation discrimination is gender discrimination and a desire to maintain gender norms.
• Same-sex couples are “greedy” for trying to deprive a child of a mother or a father, and they will negatively impact how children are gendered.
• There are “77 Non-Religious Reasons to Support Man/Woman Marriage” (although there is little factual support for most of these “reasons”).
• When religious organizations like Catholic Charities decide to stop providing services because of conflicts with laws recognizing same-sex couples (adoption, foster care, benefits, etc.), that is an “imposition of state theology.”
• The buzzword for describing opposite-sex couple marriages is “natural.”

Most of these points are not new or surprising, but they do offer understanding into how opponents of equality are framing their arguments and what rhetoric they find to be effective. The bloggers who attended have a lot more detail about their experience attending the symposium as well as other materials that were distributed there. It’s worth the full read.