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If
you live pretty much anywhere in the Western world these
days, you'll notice a certain kind of news item cropping
up with quiet regularity. The Irish Times had one last
week. As Liam Reid reported, the Irish Council for Civil
Liberties has warned Catholic bishops that distributing
the Vatican's latest statement on homosexuality could
lead to prosecution under the 1989 Incitement to Hatred
Act, and a six-month jail term. "The document itself
may not violate the Act, but if you were to use the document
to say that gays are evil, it is likely to give rise to
hatred, which is against the Act," says Aisling Reidy,
director of the ICCL. "The wording is very strong
and certainly goes against the spirit of the legislation."
No Irish bishop has actually called gays evil yet. But
best to be on the safe side and shut down all debate.
From
Dublin, let us zip 6,000 miles to Quesnel, a small paper-mill
town in British Columbia. Chris Kempling is a high-school
teacher and a Christian conservative and he likes writing
letters to his local newspaper. In one of them he said
that "homosexuality is not something to be applauded."
The regulatory body for his profession, the British Columbia
College of Teachers, suspended him for a month without
pay for "conduct unbecoming a member of the college."
No
student, parent or fellow teacher at Correlieu Secondary
School has ever complained about Mr. Kempling: he was
punished by the BCCT for expressing an opinion in the
paper. The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association
supported the suspension, not because of anything he's
done but because of what he might do in the future. He
might discriminate against gay and lesbian students in
the future. He hasn't done so yet, but, if we don't preemptively
punish him now, he might well commit a hate crime somewhere
down the road. He didn't say gays are evil. But he did
say homosexuality wasn't something to be applauded. And,
if we start letting people decide who they are and aren't
going to applaud, there's no telling where it will end.
As in Dublin, best to be on the safe side and shut down
all debate.
In
Sweden, meanwhile, they've passed a constitutional amendment
making criticism of homosexuality a crime, punishable
by up to four years in jail. Expressing a moral objection
to homosexuality is illegal, even on religious grounds,
even in church. Those preachers may not be talking about
how gays are evil this Sunday. But they might do next
week, or next month. As in Ireland and British Columbia,
best to be on the safe side and shut down all debate.
Anyone
sense a trend here? Even in America, where the First Amendment
(on freedom of expression) still just about trumps "hate
crimes" law, you can see where things are headed.A
FEW weeks back, the Senate Judiciary Committee interrogated
William Pryor, attorney-general of Alabama and President
George W. Bush's nominee to the Circuit Court of Appeals.
As part of an exhaustive effort to establish Pryor's unfitness
for office, the Democrats delved into his history of homophobic
vacationing. Was it true, demanded Senator Russ Feingold,
that "you even went so far as to reschedule a family
vacation at Disney World in order to avoid Gay Day?"
Gay Day is an annual event at Disney, and Pryor is a practicing
Catholic. Yes, he even went so far! "My wife and
I had two daughters, who at the time of that vacation
were six and four," replied Pryor. "But are
you saying," gasped Senator Feingold in mock astonishment,
"that you actually made that decision on purpose
to be away at the time of that?" He actually did!
"We made a value judgment and changed our plan and
went another weekend." "Well, I appreciate your
candor on that," said Feingold, like Perry Mason
on cross-examination, after artfully trapping the witness
into an irreparably damaging admission.
Gay
Day has its sweet side - Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck
walk around holding hands, and so do Minnie and Daisy.
I always figured Mickey was gay anyway. But the photographic
souvenirs of the day unearthed by National Review also
included a man quaffing on a beer bottle rising out from
the unzipped pants of another chap. I wouldn't advise
any young lady visitor to Disney to try that with her
boyfriend: The park is very rigorously policed the other
364 days of the year. But the disinclination of a devout
Catholic to expose his four-year-old to the delights of
Gay Day now renders one unfit for public office. Which
exactly is the love that dare not speak its name here?
Pryor hasn't made any anti-gay rulings, but he might do
one day, if we allow him to go around avoiding gay carousing
on his vacations. Best to be on the safe side and vote
him down now. And any other Catholics who still take that
jazz seriously.
THIRTY
YEARS ago, in the early days of gay liberation, most of
us assumed we were being asked to live and let live. But
throughout the Western world, tolerance has become remarkably
intolerant, and diversity demands ruthless conformity.
In New Zealand, an appeals court upheld a nationwide ban
on importing a Christian video Gay Rights/Special Rights:
Inside The Homosexual Agenda. In Saskatchewan, The Saskatoon
Star-Phoenix was fined by the Human Rights Commission
for publishing an advertisement quoting biblical passages
on homosexuality. Fining publishers of the Bible surely
can't be far off. The coerciveness of the most "liberal"
cultures in the Western world is not a pretty sight.
Whatever
happened to "live and let live?" If I can live
with the occasional rustle from the undergrowth as I'm
strolling through a condom-strewn park or a come-hither
look from George Michael in the men's room, why can't
gays live with the occasional expression of disapproval?
Christian opponents of gay marriage oppose gay marriage,
they don't oppose the right of gays to advocate it. But
increasingly gays oppose the right of Christians to advocate
their beliefs. Gay activists have figured that instead
of trying to persuade people to change their opinions,
it's easier just to get them banned. As Rodney King, celebrated
black victim of the LAPD, once plaintively said, "Why
can't we all just get along?" But, if that's not
possible, why can't we all just not get along? What's
so bad about disagreement that it needs to be turned into
a crime?
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