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The homosexual agenda (or the gay agenda) is a term used by social conservatives to describe the goal of increasing LGBT acceptance through public policies, media exposure, and cultural change. Most often, the term is employed by social conservatives in reference to what they see as the attempt to redefine marriage and family, and shift focus away from what they consider traditional morality. The term is offensive to many, particularly those who see the goals of the movement to be equal rights. Sometimes those who would be offended by a serious reference to this term still use it satirically or sarcastically.

Use of the term

James Dobson, director of Focus on the Family and a regular social Christian conservative commentator in the popular media, describes the homosexual agenda as follows:

Those goals include universal acceptance of the gay lifestyle, discrediting of scriptures that condemn homosexuality, muzzling of the clergy and Christian media, granting of special privileges and rights in the law, overturning laws prohibiting pedophilia, indoctrinating children and future generations through public education, and securing all the legal benefits of marriage for any two or more people who claim to have homosexual tendencies.

Alan Sears and Craig Osten, president and vice-president of the Alliance Defense Fund, offer another characterization of the homosexual agenda:

It is an agenda that they basically set in the late 1980s, in a book called 'After the Ball,' where they laid out a six-point plan for how they could transform the beliefs of ordinary Americans with regard to homosexual behavior — in a decade-long time frame.... They admit it privately, but they will not say that publicly. In their private publications, homosexual activists make it very clear that there is an agenda. The six-point agenda that they laid out in 1989 was explicit: Talk about gays and gayness as loudly and as often as possible... Portray gays as victims, not as aggressive challengers... Give homosexual protectors a just cause... Make gays look good... Make the victimizers look bad... Get funds from corporate America.

The term appears in many forums from political commentary to talk radio, and even once by the prominent U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote in his dissent in the landmark case Lawrence v. Texas that the "law-profession culture... has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda, by which I mean the agenda promoted by some homosexual activists directed at eliminating the moral opprobrium that has traditionally attached to homosexual conduct.". The majority opinion of the Court contained no reference to this term.

Opposition to the term's use

Some critics of the LGBT movement argue that gay rights supporters have tried to keep the agenda a secret; others believe that there is a homosexual agenda, but don't describe it as secretive. Groups such as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation deny the existence any secret or subversive agenda. Mainstream LGBT organizations do not support changing age of consent laws or legalizing polygamy. Instead, they state that their major goal is to end discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations and to achieve equality for LGBT persons. They describe the term as a "rhetorical invention of anti-gay extremists seeking to create a climate of fear by portraying the pursuit of civil rights for LGBT people as sinister".

Some members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community consider their political goals to be too heterogeneous to be grouped together into one single agenda.

Specific controversies

Some issues often listed as included in the agenda are hotly debated today, from same-sex marriage, to hate crime laws, to gay sex education, and more. The arguments behind these debates are subtle, and many people find themselves on opposite sides of the debate on different issues. Arguments from religious opposition to homosexuality and from civil rights principles are common in these discussions.

See also

• Anti-gay slogan
• Culture war
• Family values
• Gay mafia
• Homosexuality and religion
• Homosexuality laws of the world
• LGBT rights opposition
• LGBT social movements
• List of Christian denominational positions on homosexuality
• Societal attitudes towards homosexuality

External links

• Overhauling of Straight America (1987)

References

1. ^ "Offensive Terminology to Avoid". GLAAD. Retrieved 2006-05-30.
2. Finally, the Homosexual Agenda, in Five Words or Less
3. The Homosexual Agenda
4. Bishop Gene Robinson, addressing the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America on 14 June 2006, for example, declared that "Jesus is the homosexual agenda in the Episcopal Church".
5. Dobson, Dr. James (2005). "Marriage Under Fire".
6. ^ Osten, Craig (2003). "Q&A: The Homosexual Agenda"
7. Scalia, Antonin (2003). "John Geddes Lawrence and Tyron Garner, petitioners v. Texas". FindLaw: Lawrence et al. v. Texas (June 2003).
8. Fleming, Mike (2006). "Yes, Virginia. There is a gay agenda, and it's totally wack." Washington Blade Online.
9. Bouley II, Charles Karel (2005). "The gay agenda revealed!"

• Limited geographic scope
• LGBT rights opposition
• Political terms