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Political IQ: Undermining the Religious Right

by Diane Silver

The ghost of Jerry Falwell must be howling as his successors absorb one body blow after another. The movement pioneered by the late cofounder of the Moral Majority isn't near collapse, but the religious right has been wounded by recent GLBT victories.
The pummeling began with wins for marriage equality in Vermont and Iowa, and more importantly, with the ho-hum response those victories drew from voters. Continued progress on same-sex marriage in other New England states compounded the pain.
The increasing possibility that the Matthew Shephard Hate Crimes Act will finally become law has also hurt. The bill easily won House approval. If the Senate passes it, President Barack Obama has promised to sign the bill. While any GLBT-positive proposal faces an uncertain future in the Senate, the act counts several key swing senators as co-sponsors, including Maine's GOP senators, Susan Collins and Olympia Snow, and Republican turncoat Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Penn.
What makes these blows so damaging is that they either weaken or demolish some of the arguments the religious right has long relied on.
The first is the idea that GLBT Americans can't be treated equally because they never have been in the past. Such a thing is simply unthinkable, the right has long argued. As our victories increase, though, the unthinkable not only becomes easy to imagine, it becomes downright boring. Witness the response to the first same-sex marriages in Iowa: We saw long lines of happy couples, and a meek handful of protestors.
The religious right has also used intimidation to push politicians to vote against their GLBT constituents. Defy us, the heirs of Falwell bluster, and we'll destroy you at the ballot box. Every GLBT victory, though, highlights the decreasing power of the religious right. The collapse of their patron saint, the Republican Party, hasn't helped.
This doesn't mean the far right can't defeat pro-GLBT lawmakers, particularly in some states and certain legislative and Congressional districts. It does mean that a pro-GLBT vote is no longer an automatic ticket to electoral defeat. Every time politicians vote for equality and aren't struck dead by the religious right, their next vote for fairness is a little easier, and the vote after that easier still.
The most significant injury, though, may have been taken by the idea that equality is an attack on religious freedom. The right has long rallied its supporters – and millions of fence-sitting moderates – by claiming that every pro-GLBT law is designed to imprison pastors and close churches. Those claims, along with the idea that equality undermines the heterosexual family, helped propel Proposition 8 to victory in California, for example.
But these arguments are getting harder to make because many recent pro-GLBT measures exempt churches. These include the bill legalizing same-sex marriage in Vermont and the Matthew Shephard Act.
If that act becomes law and adds sexual orientation, gender identity and disability to the exiting federal hate crimes statute, the anti-gay movement may face its greatest challenge. The religious right has long argued that the Matthew Shepard Act will turn anti-gay rhetoric into a hate crime. If the bill passes, they claim, conservative ministers would be tossed into jail for speaking against homosexuality. Even Jesus, if he were alive today, would be a wanted man.
Leaving aside the absurd idea that Jesus would twist his message of compassion into sermons of damnation for peaceful, loving people, what will the religious right do if the Matthew Shepard Act becomes law and not a single minister is jailed? How much credibility will its leaders have, especially with moderates, if their doomsday predictions never come true?
In my last column, I wrote that the recent marriage victories meant little, especially politically. I stand by much of what I put in that column: GLBT Americans remain politically flabby; we continue to face steep obstacles in winning the hearts and minds of reluctant voters.
But I have a confession: I plead guilty to falling prey to cynicism. My heart has been broken so many times by politicians and voters that it's hard for me to accept that a victory can actually be a good thing. I keep waiting for the backlash and the "inevitable" final defeat.
We do face challenges. The heirs of Falwell aren't going to disappear, but I'm finally getting it that something wonderful is happening.
The victories in Iowa and Vermont, haven't triggered a backlash, according to polls taken in April. The most pessimistic survey, conducted by Quinnipiac University, showed virtually no change in support for same-sex marriage. CBS News/New York Times and ABC News/Washington Post polls showed increasing support. The ABC poll even showed a 20-point jump in just five years in support for same-sex marriage among conservatives.
Falwell must be rolling over in his grave.

Diane Silver is a former newspaper reporter and magazine editor, whose work has appeared in The Progressive, Salon.com, Ms, and other national publications. She can be reached care of this publication or at [email protected].

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Topics: Opinions
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