Religious Right Revels in Homosexual Titilation

Oh, the Freud of it all!

I got another unsolicited email from the right wing American Family Association this afternoon. The American Family Association specializes in getting huffy about people trying to exercise their right to enjoy themselves in private without prior approval from their local fundamentalist church. So, I wasn’t surprised to see that, this time, American Family Association president Donald E. Wildmon was hyperventilating about Walgreens giving a little financial sponsorship to the Gay Games in order to help out with education about the risks of HIV.

My attention is caught not so much the fact that the American Family Association is railing against HIV education and the Gay Games, as the particular form that their ranting takes. In a weird twist to the Religious Right’s typical anger at gays and lesbians, the email I got from the American Family Association actually uses the tempting opportunity to see titilating gay photos as a bait to encourage people to engage in gay bashing.

The following is the closing passage from the email:

“We have acquired photos taken at the last Gay Games that clearly show what kind of activity occurs during these games. To see the photos, Click Here To Send Your Letter Now!

Sincerely, Don”

This is tickly rich. In order to motivate Christian fundamentalists to denounce homosexuality, the American Family Association chooses to promise to show them scandalous gay photographs. So, if these fundamentalist activists are so against homosexuality, how come they’re so eager to view pictures “that clearly show what kind of activity occurs” when gays get together? (I especially love that Don E. Wildmon means it “Sincerely” when he promises gay pictures if you’ll just sign his anti-gay letter.)

As it is, the American Family Association is only teasing when it suggests that you’ll get free gay pornography as a reward for participating in its anti-gay activities. Here’s the kind of picture that the American Family Association shares as evidence that the Gay Games are “offensive”. Come on. These guys are just sharing a little peck. This is the kind of kiss after which you say, “We’re having pot roast for dinner.” Could you get more Ozzie and Harriet?

To put things in perspective, I thought I’d add a couple of photographs of what routinely goes on at games other than the Gay Games. Let’s take a look at football games, for instance. What kind of activity occurs during these games? Oh, we’ll start off with the homoerotic eagerness with which football players and coaches feel each others’ buttocks as a reward for a “job” well done. They do it in public, with the kids watching too – on national television, even!

Then there’s that generations-old tradition of streaking at football games. It happens all the time. Some football fans just can’t seem to keep their clothes on during a game. No, I’m not just talking about guys who take their shirts off, paint their naked chests, and shake their nipples at the TV cameras during halftime. I’m talking about grown men who run out onto the football field wearing just their underwear, or often, nothing at all. The fellow you see here was at least decent enough to wear a hat, to show his pride. Oh, and the sneakers.

Need I mention cheerleaders in scanty outfits doing the bump and grind? Football fraternity hazing rituals? Locker rooms full of naked men getting soapy together? The Christian right wing needs to get a perspective check. Compared to the romps of American football, the Gay Games are as sexual as a meeting of the Rotary Club.

Yet, we don’t see the American Family Association trying to get football games off the air, or working to to end corporate endorsements and funding of the NFL. Odd. Why, it’s almost as if the people at the American Family Association are only willing to whine about public displays of sexuality at sporting events if the sporting events are held in the name of helping to fight a deadly disease. As long as it’s strictly for profit, well then, I guess they’ll just crack open a brewski and enjoy the show.