"Gay agenda" or "homosexual agenda" is apejorative term[1][2] for the normalization ofnon-heterosexual sexual orientations.The term has been used to disparage advocacy forLGBTQ rights, rooted in the belief that LGBTQ activists seek torecruit heterosexuals into a "homosexual lifestyle."[3] The term "gay agenda" originated within theChristian religious right in the United States[4] and has been adopted in nations with activeanti-LGBTQ movements, such asHungary andUganda.
In theUnited States, the phrase "gay agenda" was popularized by a video series produced by a California evangelical religious group called Springs of Life Ministries.[3] The first video of the series,The Gay Agenda, was released in 1992 and distributed to hundreds ofChristian right organizations.[5]It showed edited clips of San Francisco'sGay Pride parade with voiceover commentary alleging "an aggressive nationwide offensive" to force acceptance of the "homosexual lifestyle," alongside claims that 17% of homosexualseat human feces and that 28% engage insodomy with over 1,000 partners.[6]Tens of thousands of copies were distributed nationwide, and it was shown by televangelistPat Robertson onThe 700 Club in 1993.[6]Commandant of the Marine CorpsCarl Mundy Jr. gave the video to the other members of Joint Chiefs of Staff, and copies were sent to the United States Congress.[7] In 1992, theOregon Citizens Alliance (OCA) used the video in their campaign forOregon Ballot Measure 9 in opposition to what the OCA called "special rights" for gays,lesbians, andbisexuals.[3][8]
The Gay Agenda was followed by three other video productions made available through Christian right organizations and containing interviews withopponents of LGBTQ rights, intended to expose the lesbian and gay movement's supposed secret plans for America:The Gay Agenda in Public Education (1993),The Gay Agenda: March on Washington (1993), and a feature-length follow-up to the original,Stonewall: 25 Years of Deception (1994).[5]
The term "gay agenda" or "radical gay agenda" has been used by members of the Christian right to demonize advocacy for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) rights,[3] such assame-sex marriage andcivil unions,adoption,sexual orientation as a protected civil rights minority classification,military participation, inclusion ofLGBTQ history and themes inpublic education, introduction ofanti-bullying legislation to protect LGBTQ minors, as well as non-governmental campaigns and individual actions that increase visibility and cultural acceptance of LGBTQ people, relationships, and identities. The term has also been used by somesocial conservatives to describe alleged goals ofLGBTQ rights activists, such as supposedrecruitment of heterosexuals into a "homosexual lifestyle."[9][10]ColumnistJames Kirchick writes that the idea of a "homosexual agenda" to subvert American cultural and family institutions largely replaced earlier panic over the "Homintern," an alleged gay conspiracy to undermine the U.S. government.[11]
The term has been used in response to efforts to include protections for LGBTQ people under local and stateanti-discrimination laws,[12] as well as U.S. Supreme Court cases that granted new rights to LGBTQ individuals, such asLawrence v. Texas andObergefell v. Hodges, which respectively held that private acts of consensual sex between same-sex couples and same-sex marriage are fundamental rights guaranteed by theEqual Protection Clause of theU.S. Constitution.[13]In his 2003 dissent inLawrence, U.S. Supreme Court JusticeAntonin Scalia said the court had become embroiled in aculture war by seeking to protect homosexuals from discrimination, writing that the decision reflected a "law-profession culture, that has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda."[14]
Conservative Christian groups such as theAmerican Family Association (AFA),[15]Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), theCatholic Family & Human Rights Institute (C-Fam), and theWorld Congress of Families (WCF) have used the term in their literature.[16]: 15–18 According to its website, ADF has litigated numerous anti-gay rights cases in countries outside the US, in order to combat the "homosexual agenda" which it says will "destroy marriage and undermine religious freedom."[16]: 9 ADF presidentAlan Sears published a book in 2003 titledThe Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today, which argues that overturninganti-sodomy laws would lead to the legalization ofpedophilia,incest,polygamy, andbestiality.[16]: 15
American conservative Christian groups such as theFamily Research Council (FRC) have cited fears of a "homosexual agenda" in lobbying against extendinghate-crime legislation to cover acts motivated by bias against a person'ssexual orientation orgender identity,[17] as well as public school curricula about homosexuality introduced in an effort to reduce bullying.[18]
American conservative Christian organizations have continued public screenings of videos alleging a homosexual agenda as of 2022.[19]
AmericanChristian right organizations losing acceptance among Americans have had more success promoting the notion of a gay agenda in Africa. Examples includeHuman Life International,American Center for Law & Justice, andFamily Watch International. Zambian scholarKapya John Kaoma considers these organizationscolonialist, working to expand American dominance of Africa.[20] In Africa, fear of a "Western gay agenda" is frequently used by opponents of LGBTQ rights.[21]
The concept was used in a series of talks in 2009 by American evangelical Christians inKampala.[22][23] A speaker at one such workshop said,"[Parliament] feels it is necessary to draft a new law that deals comprehensively with the issue of homosexuality and [...] takes into account the international gay agenda."[23] The eventual result of this campaign was theAnti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009, nicknamed the "Kill the Gays Bill", which imposed thedeath penalty for homosexual behavior. This was altered to life imprisonment after other countries, including the U.S., threatened to cut foreign aid, and the law was later ruled invalid by theConstitutional Court of Uganda.[24][check quotation syntax]In 2021, the Ghana Catholic Bishops' Conference called for LGBTQ rights organizations to be kicked out of their office space inAccra because of the belief that they promote the homosexual agenda.[25]
In Hungary,László Toroczkai, former vice president of the far-right political partyJobbik, has complained about the "homosexual agenda."[26] Toroczkai introduced a law banning gay people from publicly displaying affection in 2017.[27]
Before thedecriminalization of homosexuality in Belize, the LGBTQ and anti-AIDS organization United Belize Advocacy Movement (UNIBAM) was lambasted in theAmandala newspaper and by American evangelicals who accused the group of trying to bring the "gay agenda" to the country.[16]: 19
In 2019, two prominentRoman Catholic cardinals—Raymond Leo Burke andWalter Brandmuller—wrote an open letter toPope Francis calling for an end to "the plague of the homosexual agenda," to which they attributed the sexual abuse crisis engulfing the Catholic Church. They said the agenda was "promoted by organized networks and protected by a climate of complicity and a conspiracy of silence."[28]
Speakers from many nations protest the perceived homosexual agenda at theWorld Congress of Families annual summit, a focal point of the worldwide "pro-family" movement.[29]
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TheGay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) describes the terms "gay agenda" and "homosexual agenda" as a "rhetorical invention ofanti-gay extremists seeking to create a climate of fear by portraying the pursuit of civil rights for LGBT people as sinister."[30]
Some writers[who?] have described the term aspejorative.[31][unreliable source?]Commentators have remarked on a lack of realism and veracity to the idea of a gay agendaper se.[32][33] Such campaigns based on a presumed "gay agenda" have been described asanti-gay propaganda by researchers and critics.[who?][34][35]
At a press conference on 22 December 2010, U.S. RepresentativeBarney Frank said the "gay agenda" is
to be protected against violent crimes driven by bigotry, it's to be able to get married, it's to be able to get a job, and it's to be able to fight for our country. For those who are worried about the radical homosexual agenda, let me put them on notice. Two down, two to go.[36]
Asatirical 1987 essay by Michael Swift entitled "Gay Revolutionary [ru]" appeared inGay Community News, describing a scenario in which homosexual men dominateAmerican society and suppress all things heterosexual. The opening line, which read "This essay is an outré, madness, a tragic, cruel fantasy, an eruption of inner rage, on how the oppressed desperately dream of being the oppressor", was omitted when the essay was reprinted inCongressional Record and cited by later religious right publications.[37]The essay has often been cited by conservative Christian authors as proof of a secretive conspiracy to corrupt American youth and subvert thenuclear family, particularly the following paragraph:
We shall sodomize your sons, emblems of your feeble masculinity, of your shallow dreams and vulgar lies. We shall seduce them in your schools, in your dormitories, in your gymnasiums, in your locker rooms, in your sports arenas, in your seminaries, in your youth groups, in your movie theater bathrooms, in your army bunkhouses, in your truck stops, in your all-male clubs, in your house of Congress, wherever men are with men together. Your sons shall become our minions to do our bidding. They will be recast in our image; they will come to crave and adore us.[38]
The term is sometimes used satirically as a counterfoil by people who would normally find the term offensive, such as the spoof agenda found on theBetty Bowers website,[39] and as the name of a stand-up comedy show inPrague that is a fundraiser for AIDS relief efforts.[40]
On a 2007 episode ofThe Daily Show,Jon Stewart defined the gay agenda as "gay marriage,civil rights protection,Fleet Week expanded to Fleet Year,Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) assistance for whenit's raining men,Kathy Griffin to host everything and a nationwide ban onpleated pants."[41]
Some LGBTQ activists[who?] seek toreappropriate the term "gay agenda" for their own use.[42]
In 2008, openly gay BishopGene Robinson declared that "Jesus is the agenda, the homosexual agenda in the Episcopal Church"[43] and that the "homosexual agenda [...] is Jesus."[44]
Apolitical action committee (PAC) named Agenda PAC was inspired by the notion of the gay agenda. The PAC is led by LGBTQ politicians such asMalcolm Kenyatta andMegan Hunt and advocates for greater LGBTQ political representation.[42]American rapperLil Nas X thanked the "gay agenda" in his acceptance speech at the 2021MTV Video Music Awards.[45]
The Radical Gay Agenda is a term introduced by right-wing Christian conservatives in the United States [...] The term primarily functioned as a demonization of advocacy and activists who pushed for LGBTQ rights. The conservative idea of the 'gay agenda' was primarily rooted in the belief that the LGBTQ community actively recruited and demoralized heterosexual individuals into a gay or bisexual 'lifestyle.' [...] More recently, the 'radical gay agenda' still exists among the Religious Right to condemn all efforts to change or introduce legislation on LGBTQ issues.
Homophobia still had a conspiratorial tinge, to be sure, but the fearsome machinations of the 'Homintern' were updated to that of a 'homosexual agenda' whose goals (equality in marriage, military service, and the workplace) were now out in the open.
