The real illness

It takes a special kind of sickness to go out of one’s way to make other people feel bad. It’s an even worse pathology to spread lies and hatred and, in so doing, to cause pain and suffering to the object of one’s hatred. But to do all of that in the name of one’s religion is something else entirely: It is evil.

My friend Ricky of the Foul Monkey’s podcast took the photo with this post at Sunday’s Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade in Chicago. These nutjobs show up whenever there’s a GLBT-positive event, and you can’t get any more positive than Pride. It is the “high holy day” the “national holiday” and everyone’s birthday, all rolled into one.

So I have to wonder, if not mental illness, which it is not, what compels these protestors if not evil? Sure, they say it’s their religion, but how often do we see mainstream religious people carrying disgusting, hate-filled signs like these? Okay, sometimes we do, but not often. And, by the way, hatemongering clearly makes this woman happy, doesn’t it?

There are some poor souls whose religious leaders tell them that homosexuality is a sin, and they obediently fall in line and believe as they’re told to. But anyone who’s ever known a real gay or lesbian person knows what utter hogwash those men are preaching. When they see the truth for themselves, they have no trouble leaving behind dogmas built entirely on prejudice and age old superstitions.

But if the professional anti-gay industry, which I’ve excoriated on this blog many times, is driving people away from Christianity by spreading lies and preaching hatred, and it unquestionably is, then what are these freaks doing if not a shoving normal people out of the church door?

Religion has a lot to answer for: Wars, persecution, crusades, holocausts, terrorism—they’ve all been done in the name of religion. But religion shouldn’t have to answer for freaks like the rabidly anti-gay protestors who pervert religion, nor for every hate-filled religious bigot who seeks to make life for LGBT people worse. Sadly, however, as long as freaks like this spread their hatred, people will see it as just another part of religion. It may not be fair, but it’s a fact.

So, until freaks like this get a life or, at least, a new hobby, mainstream religious people will need to continue denouncing the hate-filled bigots if for no other reason than the preservation of their church: Silence implies consent (and assent) in the minds of most people.

And freaks like this? They just get laughed at everywhere they go—seriously! No GLBT person ever listens to them or suddenly agrees with them—it’s all hatred for hatred’s own sake. Their god had a thing or two to say about that—do you?