A man stands up

I saw someone on another blog yesterday comment that "you can't equate not supporting gay marriage with hating gays". I thought that a very odd statement: "I don't hate gays, you see! I just don't want them to marry. Or serve in the military. Or [insert behavior X here]. Or...." The notion is ludicrous, in my mind; I can't imagine a motive for being anti-gay marriage or anti-gay anything that doesn't involve some level of hatred for homosexuality and those who practice it, no matter how uncomfortable certain anti-gay folks might be with the characterization of their hatred. Since anti-gay sentiment is almost exclusively focused on the political right in this country, I checked out the famously insane platform of the Texas Republican Party, and well, if you can read this excerpt and not see hate dripping from the pores of those who wrote it, well, you're frankly delusional.

Far more heartening is this manifesto, by an Episcopal Bishop.

I have made a decision. I will no longer debate the issue of homosexuality in the church with anyone. I will no longer engage the biblical ignorance that emanates from so many right-wing Christians about how the Bible condemns homosexuality, as if that point of view still has any credibility. I will no longer discuss with them or listen to them tell me how homosexuality is "an abomination to God," about how homosexuality is a "chosen lifestyle," or about how through prayer and "spiritual counseling" homosexual persons can be "cured." Those arguments are no longer worthy of my time or energy. I will no longer dignify by listening to the thoughts of those who advocate "reparative therapy," as if homosexual persons are somehow broken and need to be repaired. I will no longer talk to those who believe that the unity of the church can or should be achieved by rejecting the presence of, or at least at the expense of, gay and lesbian people. I will no longer take the time to refute the unlearned and undocumentable claims of certain world religious leaders who call homosexuality "deviant." I will no longer listen to that pious sentimentality that certain Christian leaders continue to employ, which suggests some version of that strange and overtly dishonest phrase that "we love the sinner but hate the sin." That statement is, I have concluded, nothing more than a self-serving lie designed to cover the fact that these people hate homosexual persons and fear homosexuality itself, but somehow know that hatred is incompatible with the Christ they claim to profess, so they adopt this face-saving and absolutely false statement.

I've pretty much reached the same point, myself.