Religion and Anti-LGBTQ Bigotry
All decent Coloradans are shocked and horrified by the vicious murders at Club Q in Colorado Springs.
I conceived of this article prior to that assault, about which many additional details will be revealed in coming weeks and months. I proceed with a heavy heart and with the understanding that horror over the murders, and sorrowful remembrance of the victims, will infuse any subsequent discussion of LGBTQ-related matters in Colorado and beyond.
In recent weeks journalists have published two main news articles, and various related ones, about discrimination against LGBTQ people in Colorado by Catholic schools and a Denver charity program. Here I want to review those stories and their relation to religiously inspired bigotry.
On November 7, the Denver Post published an article by Elizabeth Hernandez about the Denver Archdiocese’s guidance to Catholic schools. The article begins:
The Archdiocese of Denver provides local Catholic schools with explicit written guidance on the handling of LGBTQ issues, including telling administrators they should not enroll or re-enroll transgender or gender non-conforming students, and that gay parents should be treated differently than heterosexual couples.
As Hernandez quotes, the document in question claims that “the spread of gender ideology presents a danger to the faith of Christians.” It says that students should not be allowed to use pronouns “at odds with the student’s biological sex,” and Catholic schools should not permit transgender people to teach there. It also says, “A Catholic school cannot treat a same-sex couple as a family equivalent to the natural family.”
In short, the archdiocese instructs Catholic schools to openly and explicitly discriminate against LGBTQ people. That point is not disputed even by those who favor the document in question. Moreover, the archdiocese by this document overtly engages in anti-LGBTQ bigotry. This point is, of course, disputed by those who favor the document. But it is obviously true.
A week later, the Post’s editorial board sensibly denounced the archdiocese’s position and called for Catholic schools that discriminate against LGBTQ people to be excluded from the Colorado High School Activities Association. The board writes:
All discrimination is wrong, and those schools should be held accountable by every organizing body in this state and nationally for choosing to refuse to enroll students who are openly transgender and for excluding same-sex parents from school activities. . . .
We find it hard to believe that adults—who spend their careers working with children and teens . . .—cannot find a way to compassionately accommodate a child or teen who is LGBTQ without violating their religious beliefs.
On November 18, Denverite published Kyle Harris’s article about practices of the Denver Rescue Mission. Harris begins:
The Christian nonprofit Denver Rescue Mission, which has an $8.7 million contract with the [Denver] Department of Housing Stability, bans employees from “acting on same sex attraction” and “rejection of one’s biological sex” in the latest draft of its recently adopted employee handbook.
However, Kyle Clark reported the afternoon of November 21:
[The Denver Rescue Mission] has “paused” implementation of its ban on LGBTQ employees. A spokesman said the decision was made today by the non-profit’s Board of Directors and leadership. The effective ban on LGBTQ was first reported Friday by [Harris]. . . .
Denver Rescue Mission says references in its employee handbook prohibiting “acting on same sex attraction” and “rejecting of one’s biological sex” will be removed. . . .
[The Denver Rescue Mission] holds a $8.7M contract from the City of Denver for homeless services. A city spokesperson tells 9NEWS that the contract includes employment non-discrimination requirements explicitly protecting sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.
Prior to the reversal, then, the Denver Rescue Mission explicitly discriminated against LGBTQ people. Again, such discrimination stemmed from bigotry toward LGBTQ people.
Hunt Plays the Victim Card
According to Jeff Hunt, director of the Centennial Institute associated with Colorado Christian University, the real victims pertaining to the news stories are not the LGBTQ people discriminated against, but those Christians publicly criticized for doing the discriminating.
On November 15, Hunt Tweeted:
The Denver Post continues its open hatred of Christians with latest editorial calling for Christian schools to be kicked out of Colorado High School Activities Association for holding to Biblical values of human identity and sexuality.
On November 19, Hunt Tweeted in response to Harris’s article:
Did the CO media get together after the election and decide to attack Christians? First the Denver Post trying to force Catholic high schools out of sports now this media wants the Denver Rescue Mission to stop serving the poor? These reporters are anti-Christian bigots.
To this I responded, “This is silly. Pointing out bigoted behavior is not an instance of bigotry.”
Hunt replied:
You think private traditional faith institutions holding to 2,000 years of thought on human identity and sexuality are bigots and deserve not to participate in the public square. Moreover, you support the use of government coercion to punish such belief.
That is absolute bigotry and you should be ashamed to call yourself a libertarian. You are awash in the orthodoxy of the day and you are willing to punish dissent. Shameful.
I in turn replied:
Refraining from forcing people to subsidize an overtly bigoted organization is not "the use of government coercion"; it is the removal of such coercion. Anyway, I challenged you to prove the Bible opposes transgenderism and you failed to do so.
That last line is a reference to my November 16 Tweet:
People such as [Hunt] hide their bigotry behind the claim that the Bible is anti-transgender. I challenge him to prove it (not that that should matter for public policy). I think this document [from the Human Rights Campaign] is pretty convincing.
I wrote more about that point in a November 17 article, in which I also point to an article by Eliel Cruz arguing that the Bible does not oppose transgenderism.
Also on November 19, Hunt posted the following Twitter thread:
Important to note about the @meganschrader [Megan Schrader, editor of the Denver Post editorial pages] @kyle_a_harris [Kyle Harris] @KyleClark [Kyle Clark of 9News, who had commented about the news stories at hand on Twitter] @ariarmstrong [me] @qpyoungnews [Quentin Young of Colorado Newsline] anti-Christian bigotry is that they are targeting private, religious institutions that people are freely associating with.
These reporters will not allow private institutions to hold to different human identity, sexuality religious beliefs. Instead, they must be be publicly shamed and compelled to change according to the reporters own beliefs. They are opening rejecting free-exercise of religion.
I responded:
Bullshit. 1) Criticizing a private group is not the same as “targeting” it. People are free to associate and free to criticize associations. 2) In Denver the issue is whether government should force people to finance an organization that openly discriminates against LGBTQ people.
Incidentally, as of the evening of November 21, Hunt “pins” the following obviously anti-transgender Tweet of July 13 to the top of his comments: “There is one God, two genders, and only women can get pregnant.”
Hunt Does Not Speak for All Christians
Hunt pretends that his narrow, American conservative interpretation of Christianity is the true and even universal one.
In reply to Hunt’s remark about “2,000 years of thought,” Quentin Young sarcastically wrote, “If you can just keep doing the bigotry for hundreds of years the duration of hate will make it OK, not worse.”
Hunt replied:
Just to be clear, the editor of Colorado Newsline believes the Catholic Church, orthodox Jews, Christian colleges, a vast majority of faith-based institutions, Denver Rescue Mission are bigoted organizations? . . .
You are a anti-religious bigot with hatred towards Christians, Jews, and Muslims. You are proving [Yoram] Hazony’s theories right. Classical liberalism is dead. The modern leftist is just . . . hateful neo-Marxists.
Hunt added:
In [Young’s] case, I at least appreciate his honesty. Orthodox Jews, Christians, and Muslims are hateful bigots, much like open racists, that should be expelled from the public square. No quarter given for anyone he deems a bigot. This is the editor of a Colorado newspaper.
Of course Hunt’s characterization of Young’s position is nonsense.
Beyond the fact that public policy should not be based on sectarian religious faith, Hunt’s suggestion that Christians, Jews (he does say Orthodox), and Muslims universally agree with his views on gay and transgender issues is ridiculous. It is also indicative of Hunt’s extraordinary hubris.
In replies to Hunt, both Clark and Schrader revealed that they too are Christians. So Hunt accusing them of anti-Christian bigotry for daring to criticize the anti-LGBTQ bigotry of select Christian organizations is . . . let’s just say interesting.
Hernandez’s article makes clear that the archdiocese’s document hardly is embraced by all Catholics:
The document, which has not been previously reported, illustrates the growing friction between the archdiocese, led by conservative Archbishop Samuel Aquila, and some of the church’s more socially liberal parishioners in Colorado—and even among Denver-area Catholic schools, some of which have been more accepting of LGBTQ students.
The Denver Post spoke to local Catholics [some quoted in the article] who said they can no longer sit quietly while leaders of their faith discriminate against the LGBTQ community.
If we look to attitudes among American Catholics more broadly (at least as of a few years ago), we find that Catholics are about evenly divided by major party. Pew reports:
There are also gaps between Democratic Catholics and Republican Catholics on questions about homosexuality and same-sex marriage, but majorities in both groups express opinions that are arguably in opposition to church teachings. For instance, six-in-ten Catholic Republicans (59%) and three-quarters of Catholic Democrats (76%) say they think same-sex couples should be allowed to marry legally, despite the church’s opposition to gay marriage. Similarly, most in both groups say they think homosexuality should be accepted by society (69% among Catholic Republicans, 84% among Catholic Democrats).
The large majority of U.S. Catholics (70%), Jews (81%), and Mainline Protestants (66%) think homosexuality should be accepted rather than discouraged. True, Evangelical Protestants mostly think it should be discouraged by a margin of 55% to 36%. U.S. Muslims are about evenly split on the question, with 45% saying accept and 47% saying discourage. We find roughly comparable figures regarding support for same-sex marriage, although with lower overall support. Catholics support same-sex marriage by a margin of 57%, Jews by 77%, and Mainline Protestants by 57%. Even 28% of Evangelical Protestants support same-sex marriage. Although most Mormons polled oppose it, recently the Mormon Church endorsed federal protections for same-sex marriage while considering homosexuality to be against the Mormon religion.
In the aftermath of the horrific Club Q murders, many people found solace at friendly churches. The All Souls Unitarian Church in Colorado Springs held a vigil. The Pikes Peak Metropolitan Community Church, also in Colorado Springs, held a service remembering the victims. “The church was founded by LGBTQ+ community for people rejected by family and religion,” the Gazette’s Nick Sullivan reports. An interfaith group participated in a Denver vigil. CPR lists other area churches (and other organizations) holding vigils.
Columnist Mario Nicolais reports that he was sitting in church when he learned about the horrific attack. He wrote:
I don’t know that this was motivated by a Christian belief, but too many Christians have targeted the LGBTQ+ community with vitriol and hatred for too long for it to not play its part.
My particular church has been very supportive of the LGBTQ+ community for years. I told our priest right away and he stopped the service to tell the congregation and say a prayer. Hearts were breaking.
When Hunt accuses people of anti-Christian bigotry for pointing out that discrimination and bigotry against LGBTQ people is wrong, to a large degree he points his finger at other Christians. His pretensions notwithstanding, Hunt is not a spokesperson for people who adhere to monotheistic faiths.
A Pattern of Bigotry
A subset of Christians in Colorado—as I’ve emphasized, far from all Christians!—use their faith as a pretext to demonize and scapegoat LGBTQ people. Following are some examples.
Lauren Boebert, who wears her faith on her sleeve as prominently as she wears her pistol on her hip, has called drag shows “depraved” accused people supportive of LGBTQ youth of “grooming” them. She also repeated the ridiculous lie, rooted in anti-transgender activism, that schools “are putting litter boxes in schools for people who identify as cats.” (For my remarks on Heidi Ganahl’s claims about “furries” in schools, see my recent post and link back.)
Rocky Mountain Calvary church in Colorado Springs includes the following text in its web page, “What We Believe” (I’m not linking it): “Sexual activities, such as, but not limited to, adultery, fornication, incest, polygamy, homosexuality, trans-gender, bisexuality, cross-dressing, pedophilia, and bestiality are inconsistent with the teachings of the Bible and the Church.” (Hat tip Mary Rochelle.) This comment absurdly, abhorrently!, puts gay sex in the same category as pedophilia and bestiality. It also treats transgenderism, an expression of gender identity, as a “sexual activity.” That whoever wrote this text probably sincerely believes it is consistent with “the Bible and the Church” does not change the fact that it is bigoted nonsense. (Politically, of course, the church has a right to publish, and its members have a right to believe and to advocate, bigoted nonsense.)
Christian Home Educators of Colorado currently lists on its “staff” page Kevin Swanson, who has suggested that gay people be executed.
This election season, an organization associated with Stephen Miller mailed anti-transgender literature to select Colorado voters.
Scott Bottoms, the lead pastor at the Church at Briargate in Colorado Springs and a newly elected state legislator, railed against “transvestites,” claimed that schools are forcing transgenderism onto students and “grooming” them, and repeated the lie that schools “are allowing a child to identify as a cat and use a litter box in the girls’ bathroom.”
Earlier this year, several Republican elected officials spoke at an event at which the lead organizer claimed that Disney is “trying to pervert our children” and “indoctrinate our kids” into LGBTQ ideas.
Former state representative Gordon Klingenschmitt has claimed that gay people are driven by a “demonic spirit of lust.”
Bigotry and Violence
As you’d think people would learn by the history of the Twentieth Century, demonization and scapegoating of a group of people can lead to violence. I think Shikha Dalmia gets it right, at least as a matter of general trends:
Find better defense of free speech than the old BS saw “sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me.” Demonization and dehumanization of group—Jews, Muslims, immigrants, Asians, #LGBTQ—always precedes the breaking of bones. Words matter.
No, Jeff Hunt, even though he excuses bigotry and discrimination against LGBTQ people, is not responsible for violence against LGBTQ people—he even has had “fine conversation” with gay people!
As for Boebert and others who actively foment hatred of LGBTQ people, they do share moral culpability in helping to create a cultural environment in which some people feel emboldened to act violently toward members of the demonized class. For example, some people have made bomb threats to hospitals that provide gender-affirming care and have physically disrupted drag events.
I do not believe that God exists. But, if there were a God, I’m pretty sure God would not wish to be used as an excuse to hate or mistreat other people for their sexual orientation or gender expression. Thankfully, many Colorado Christians sincerely believe that God is love.
Image: Benson Kua