It’s important to understand that wingnuts’ problems with gay people don’t exist in a vacuum. They go hand in hand with their opposition to reproductive rights, contraception and women’s empowerment in general. If gay people can enjoy happy, equal lives, and women can control when and if they reproduce without asking for a man’s permission, straight wingnut men feel emasculated, because their sense of masculinity and self worth is tied to their antiquated culture, rather than coming from a genuine place within. Note also the correlations between people who hold anti-gay, anti-women views and those who are convinced that Obama is coming to take their guns, right before he annihilates them with drones. Consider what these things all have in common, namely, that they are the fearful, bedwetting expressions of a mostly white, male, fundamentalist Christian culture that is grappling with the fact that other people are actually equal to them, and that moreover, the majority of the developed world has perused their worldview, found it lacking, discredited, unfulfilling and pathetic, and casually moved on.
And then consider Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association, who, over the course of a week, will freak out multiple times on all of these subjects. He has a constituency, to be sure, but part of the reason it’s hard to get that offended by the things he says is that, from an outsider’s perspective, it’s just so damn sad.
Bryan appeared on Michelangelo Signorile’s show yesterday, and he presented Mike with a veritable cornucopia of weird, as he seems to actually support Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s proposal to ban most forms of sex that don’t involve married straight couples, lights off and missionary positions. Yes, here is Bryan Fischer explaining why oral sex should be banned:
It’s not a shocker that the controversial conservative Christian spokesman for the American Family Association, radio host Bryan Fischer, is backing up Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli, calling for banning oral sex as well as anal sex between consenting adults — among heterosexuals as well as homosexuals — claiming the practices allow for the spread of diseases. But dragging Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky into this, and suggesting speeding tickets be issued to those who engage in oral sex, are eyebrow-raising even for Fischer.
In what appeared to be a reference to HPV-related cancers, Fischer said in a conversation with me on SiriusXM Progress that a rise in head, neck and throat cancers “among millennials” is a direct result of the influence of “Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.” Throughout the interview, Fischer refused to clearly state what the punishment should be for those who engage in the sexual activity he believes should be banned, alternating between the idea of issuing summonses like “parking tickets” and “speeding tickets” and putting those who engage in oral sex or homosexual sex — which he compared to drug trafficking, pedophilia and bestiality — into something similar to drug rehab, at one point even suggesting an “intervention.”
Blowjob interventions. That’s how far the Religious Right has fallen, y’all, and this is how determined they are to be viewed as outlandish and weird. It’s part of their martyrdom thing, because it’s well known that in the fundamentalist Bible, Jesus clearly stated that in the latter days, people like Bryan would be mocked. This is me, mocking.
But that simply confirms that, for the Religious Right, opposing equality for LGBT people has nothing to do with the Bible, just as their opposition to women’s reproductive rights has nothing to do with unborn babies. Good people can argue about that issue in good faith, but the Religious Right is simply not part of the “good people/good faith” argument, as is evidenced by their opposition to contraception. All of this is about prudish, patriarchal control. Simple as that.
Elsewhere in the interview, Bryan explained that he is opposed to Liz Cheney’s Senate candidacy, due to the fact that she ignores the part of the Ten Commandments about preserving traditional marriage:
Fischer also doubled down on his criticism on Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Cheney who is running for a Senate seat in Wyoming, saying that Cheney, a conservative Republican, is not a “patriot” because she may support gay marriage.
“I was basing what I said on what George Washington said,” Fischer explained. “He said religion and morality are indispensable supports of political posterity. Liz Cheney does not support the part of the ten commandments that protects the sanctity of marriage. She’s laboring to subvert that great pillar, and according to George Washington — not according to me — that would raise questions about her true patriotism.”
There is no part in the Ten Commandments about preserving traditional marriage, in case you were worried you missed something in Sunday School. I just double-checked. Bryan must have crayoned something into the margins of his own Bible and forgotten it was he who added it.
Enjoy the interview:
