WWJD (Who Would Jesus Discriminate)

The right to discriminate has been getting a lot of play in right-wing circles. No, I'm not talking about the barely hidden undercurrent of racism that invariably comes up whenever right-wingers discuss our President, or back during the 2000 R-Pres campaign when rumors were circulated in South Carolina about possible nominee John McCain having possibly fathered a black child, costing him that state's primary. I'm also not talking about the onslaught against all things Islam as an evil, hate filled group of cultists hell-bent on suicide bombing baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet. I'm actually talking about the gays. Specifically same sex marriage, gay weddings, the abomination that is homosexuality (however you choose to refer to it). I am pro gay marriage. I think that little line in the Constitution about the pursuit of happiness sort of applies here, not to mention basic human rights, whether endowed by God or the state. But that seems to be irrelevant to the right-wing. They argue that traditional marriage will suffer. They argue divorce rates will climb. They argue that children raised in same sex households will be maladjusted. Those arguments are silly and have been debunked, some by Judge Walker in his excellent decision striking down Prop 8.

This post was meant to be about one specific argument that some right-wingers have made; "Our rights are being infringed". The gist of the argument is that since we believe either based on Christianity or astrology or the baby Jesus, that homosexuality is wrong and we're going to speak out against it, donate large sums to outlaw it, and basically attempt to prevent its practitioners from advancing in the public sphere. In the process of attempting to deny a group of people, that group of people and its allies are denouncing us. They call us names like bigot, demonize us, and try to delegitimize our organizations.

Right-wingers argue that they're being persecuted for their beliefs. What they actually mean is "This curtails or denies us our right to discriminate against gays". Once right-wingers admit that it isn't about their right to believe that Jesus rose from the dead, and that they simply hate gays, we'll all get along much more fabulously.