The Antigay Agenda: Orthodox Vision and the Christian Right

467 Pages·1998·0.94 MB·English

by  Didi Herman

The Antigay Agenda
Orthodox Vision and the Christian Right
Didi Herman

The Antigay Agenda : Orthodox Vision and
title:
the Christian Right
author: Herman, Didi.
publisher: University of Chicago Press
isbn10 | asin: 0226327655
9780226327655
9780226327655
print isbn13:
ebook isbn13: 9780226327693
language: English
Homosexuality--Religious aspects--
Christianity, Fundamentalism--History-
subject
-20th century, Conservatism--Religious
aspects--Christianity.
publication date: 1998
lcc: BR115.H6H47 1998eb
ddc: 261.8/35766/0973
Homosexuality--Religious aspects--
Christianity, Fundamentalism--History-
subject:
-20th century, Conservatism--Religious
aspects--Christianity.
Page iv
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of
Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 1997 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 1997 Paperback edition 1998 Printed in
the United States of America
06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 2 3 4 5
ISBN: 0-226-32764-7 (cloth) ISBN: 0-226-32765-5 (paperback)
Portions of chapter 5 originally appeared as "(Il)legitimate Minorities:
The American Christian Right's Antigay Rights Discourse" in Journal
of Law and Society 23, 3 (1996).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Herman, Didi.
The antigay agenda : orthodox vision and the Christian right/
Didi Herman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-226-32764-7 (alk. paper)
1. HomosexualityReligious aspectsChristianity.
2. Fundamentalismhistory20th century. 3. Conservatism
Religious aspectsChristianity. I. Title.
BR115.H6H47 1997 96-30354
261.8'35766'0973dc20 CIP
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of the American National Standard for Information
SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI
Z39.48-1992.
Page v
In memory of my father,
George Herman,
who believed this could be a better world,
and for
Kathy Michael,
who deserves to see it.
Page vii
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1 1
Introduction
2 25
Devil Discourse and the Shifting Construction of
Homosexuality in Christianity Today
3 60
Representing Homosexuality and Its Agenda
4 92
No Lesbians, Gay Lesbians, Feminist Lesbians
5 111
(Il)legitimate Minorities:
The Construction of Rights-(Un)deserving Subjects
6 137
The Christian Right versus Gay Rights in Colorado,
19921996
7 170
Regulation, Restoration, Reconstruction:
Conservative Christianity and the State
Afterword: 194
Thoughts on Backlash and Utopia
Notes 201
References 222
Index 237
Page ix
Acknowledgments
I was able to undertake the field research for this project because of
grants provided by the Centre for Research in Women and Gender
Relations, University of British Columbia; Keele University; and the
Nuffield Foundation. Thanks also to the Faculty of Law and the
Centre for Research in Women and Gender Relations, University of
British Columbia, for their hospitality while I was a visiting scholar
there in 1994. I am also grateful to my own Department of Law at
Keele University for their support, and to the Keele library for a
fabulous interlibrary-loan service.
I would also like to thank the following people who gave their time
for interviews and, in many cases, provided me with useful resources:
Robert Knight, Lon Mabon, Tony Marco, Tom Minnery, Loretta Neet,
Will Perkins, Kevin Tebedo, and Jim Woodall. They may not be
pleased with this book, but I hope they feel I have used their words
fairly.
Page x
Several individuals and organizations made my life easier by
providing a variety of resources. Thanks to Kitty Cooper, Charles
Cooper, Martin Durham, Emma Henderson, Usa Herman, Nina
Klowden Herman, Marlee Kline, Bill Lunch, Julie Nice, and Angie
Wilson. And to Lesbian/Gay Law Notes, People for the American
Way, Political Research Associates, the Institute for First Amendment
Studies, and cc.watch (Internet). Special thanks to Amy Devine and
the Citizen's Project in Colorado Springs for all their help, and to
Kathryn Stinson for research assistance.
Friends and colleagues have read bits and pieces of this book while it
was an ongoing project. Thanks for criticisms and encouragements to
Jim Beckford, Larry Cata Backer, Joel Bakan, Paisley Currah,
Ruthann Robson, and Kenneth Wald. Special appreciation to Carl
Stychin, who resolutely read far more of this than was his duty, and
helped, more than a little, to keep me sane while I was writing it.
Many thanks are also due to Doug Mitchell and Matt Howard at the
University of Chicago Press, for their encouragement and attention,
and to Joann Hoy for copy-editing, and also to Anita Samen at the
Press.
Finally, thanks, as always, to Davina Cooper, for everything.
Page 1
1
Introduction
Context, Approach, Definitions
The extension of political and social rights to lesbians and gay men
has been one of the most volatile political issues the United States has
seen in recent years. As a consequence of struggles for gay rights,
families have been divided, local communities conflicted, and
governmental institutions contested and reviled. For some, gay rights
represent the just culmination of campaigns for full citizenship. For
others, gay rights symbolize the unacceptable but inevitable excesses
of a culture out of control. For all those who care, the legal rights of
lesbians and gay men is an issue not just dose to hearts, but reflective
of the individual and collective soul.
Initially, gay rights struggles largely took the form of demands to
remove criminal sanctions from same-sex sexual behavior.
Throughout the West, and somewhat reluctantly in the United States,
the repeal or modification of sodomy, buggery, and other
homosexually identified criminal laws was partially successful; one
could point to
Page 2
a general public consensus agreeing that what individuals did in the
Privacy of their homes was either their own business or, at the very
least, not the appropriate subject of criminal sanction (see, e.g., Mayer
1992). Campaigns for decriminalization resonated with an antistatist
ethos growing in strength during the latter half of this century.
Gradually, what we now call the "lesbian and gay rights movement"
emerged: emboldened political subjects Seeking the extension of legal
equality in a range of social spheres. New gay demands necessitated
state activism, not withdrawal, encompassing inclusion in
antidiscrimination legislation, as well as spousal/family rights to
marriage, pensions, and other forms of social entitlement based on
heterosexual partnership. The history of the gay rights movement in
the United States, as well as other forms of lesbian and gay activism,
have been well documented and analyzed by, among others, Adam
(1987), Altman (1982), Cruikshank (1992), D'Emilio (1983), and
Vaid (1995).
By the 1990s, then, the lesbian and gay rights movement, despite a
setback in Bowers v Hardwick,
1 had realized a range of objectives. In terms of legal equality, these
achievements included the addition of "sexual orientation" to dozens
of existing antidiscrimination laws. By 1995, for example, nine states
had enacted legislation banning some form of sexual-orientation
discrimination (California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts,
Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin).
Other gay rights successes included the official modification of the
military exclusion policy (from an outright ban to "don't ask don't
tell"), and the extension of "family/partner benefits" (e.g., health,
pension, and other employment benefits) to same-sex couples in a
num-