Sex and lies

In a recent letter printed in the Oakland Press, a woman stated that the gay agenda was to destroy the institution of marriage. In fact, she cited information taken from the Traditional Values Coalition (one of the many offshoots of the right wing) that claimed homosexuals wanted to dismantle every law there is pertaining to sex and marriage as cited in the "1972 Gay Rights Platform." That, the woman said, is the homosexual agenda.
To those of you saying, 'Hey, wait a minute! I'm gay and that's not my agenda,' I ask, where was your letter to the Oakland Press telling your story? That, dear reader, is exactly what we mean when we say, "Don't let the right define you."
It is of course, a complete and total distortion to take a fringe position on ANY subject and declare that it defines an entire group's goals and beliefs. For example, a reasonable person would hardly look at the "Reverend" Fred Phelps parading around at funerals of LGBT people with signs reading, "God hates fags" and say he is the picture of the "Christian agenda."
And yet some fairly radical ideas about sexual liberation that originated decades ago are getting extra special attention by the right wing right now. They have seized on the "1972 Gay Rights Platform" as if all the queers in the country got together one day and drafted the document that we would live and breathe by for the next four decades.
And yet, it is doubtful that most LGBT people have heard of this platform, let alone work toward all its aims. An informal poll in the BTL office did not find a single staff person who knew anything about it.
"In 1972 you couldn't get a bunch of queers together to agree on what day it was let alone formulate an agenda," was the response of a BTL staff person who was active in the gay rights movement at that time.
Yet now this document is being used by our enemies to say, "See? It really is all about sex."
The right wing is very interested in the sex you're having. In fact, the right wing is more concerned about (and often more creative with) your sex life than even you might be.
Why? Well, sex sells, after all. It gets their message across. Do you think that Ned and Harriet who've lived in their home for nearly 30 years are going to support giving marriage rights to a bunch of sex crazed, orgy-having, child molesting homos? No, of course not.
The right will always bring the argument back to sex. They claim that LGBT people are defined solely by the sex they have (crazy, wild, and frequent if you ask them). They use terms like "homogenital" when talking about LGBT people. From the picture they paint, heterosexual people have missionary-position sex only when they have to, in order to procreate.
When it comes to the idea of same-sex marriage to average heterosexual folks, sex makes it scary. The right wing has managed to dismantle every argument we have for why LGBT people should have equal rights. However flawed their logic or outrageous their lies, they are getting the message out there that homosexuals don't want marriage rights. They claim homosexuals merely want a stamp of approval on an immoral and promiscuous sexual lifestyle.
It is difficult to win against a campaign of misinformation. This has been the bane of the LGBT rights movement since the beginning. We are constantly working to prove those myths about us wrong and have little time to be proactive.
This is a scary time to be LGBT in Michigan. It is more important than ever that we don't let invisibility become a blank canvass for the right wing to paint a distorted picture upon. Get out there and tell your stories. Write to your legislators, write a letter to the editor of your local newspapers, talk to your neighbors and your families and your friends.
We must dismantle the myths and reclaim our lives. There are far too many people who are willing to speak for us who make us out to be monsters. We are not the enemy, and we must make that known.