BIGOTS AS VICTIMS

BIGOTS AS VICTIMS

Tom Gross.
Published: Monday, June 30, 1997
Section: COMMENTARY

Cal Thomas' defense of the Southern Baptist's call to boycott Walt Disney Co. over gay-friendly policies (Op-Ed, June 25) would be laughable if it weren't so pathetic.

Mr. Thomas praises the "courage" of the Southern Baptists for standing up to the "ridicule of the elites." To characterize anti-gay zealots as victims is bizarre, considering the formidable political forces (the Christian Coalition, the Family Research Council, the Moral Majority, etc.) lobbying for numerous pieces of federal/state legislation to limit the rights of lesbians and gay men.

It is appalling and offensive to hear Thomas equate the anti-slavery position of William Wilberforce with the anti-gay stance of the Southern Baptist Convention (which, ironically, was founded on pro-slavery principles). Conveniently, he and his colleagues never bother to explain how protecting the civil rights of gays is anti-family - they just throw out this type of political rhetoric to incite anti-gay sentiments in people too lazy to think the issue through logically.

Their malicious portrayals of gays/lesbians as threatening to families and children transmutes into bigotry--and sometimes even violence--from small-minded, unstable individuals. But Mr. Thomas and the Southern Baptists do not want to take responsibility for the results of their trickle-down intolerance. They hide behind faux compassion ("Love the sinner but hate the sin"). Call it what you like, hypocrisy by any other name would smell as rancid.

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