There's HOPE for the World
Homosexuals Opposed to Pride Extremism
hopenow@hotmail.com

Last weekend's attack on the Gay Pride Parade in Stockholm Sweden and the infantile
spray painting of 'shame' on the sidewalk in front of St Michael's Cathedral is a sad
warning of how ugly and vicious the battle between the so-called right and left could
become. My activist brothers and sisters in concert with the judicial elite, the cowed
politicians and the liberal media have seriously jeopardized decades of work to ensure
tolerance and privacy, because of their greedy, relentless pursuit of lifestyle affirmation.

It's as easy as eating an ice-cream cone to deconstuct same-sex marriage without
the slightest reference to Scripture or church doctrine. Although I hate dogma in
in any form - be it religious or gay activist - I recognize the universal truth that no
major world religion has ever endorsed homosexuality which can be openly practised
only in peaceful, affluent and cosmopolitan times. Even in classical antiquity,
homosexuality was controversial, and despite the exaggerated claims of todays
partisans, there was no place or period where it flourished in complete freedom
from moral opprobrium.

Instead of excoriating the Vatican and misquoting Bishop Henry, the 'choice and
diversity' crowd would do well to read the gay press, which normally tows the
activist party-line, but which has long been replete with articles, editorials and
letters lambasting and lampooning the whole idea of same-sex nuptials. Clearly,
a substantial majority of us neither need nor want gay marriage. Lesbian authors,
Jane Rule and Camille Paglia, drag queen, Sky Gilbert and the late pioneer activist,
Harry Hay are among the numerous prominent opponents of this forced parity.

We neither need nor want the state in our bedrooms. We neither need nor want to
be shackled by rules, regulations or paperwork. We've already won the same-sex
benefits battle, so there's no longer concern over matters of pensions or estates.
Let the straights keep marriage. We need to be liberated from the mainstream,
homogeneous, egalitarian mindset that is destroying what is left of gay culture.

Even the January 14, 2001 gay wedding spectacle at Toronto's Metropolitan
Community Church, although treated as the social event of the season by a
delirious media circus, was shunned and scoffed at by the gay community.
Better to stay at home and clean out the fridge when your public image is so
embarrassingly represented by such maudlin specimens of martyrdom, who
fancy themselves as pioneers and revolutionaries, but who simply reinforce
reinforce every prejudice against us.

As an openly gay male, I have no problem conceding that heterosexuality
is and will always be the great human norm. But I have no time for the
modern, feel-good, pop-culture mentality that facilely equates homosexuality
with heterosexuality and asks no deep questions about human psychology
beyond the the superficial liberal-vs-conservative, freedom-vs-oppression
dichotomy. And I have even less time for the unsatiable demands and
infantile caterwauling of my radical brothers and sisters who want to make
the whole world their closet.

So, I formed HOPE (Homosexuals Opposed to Pride Extremism) in 1997 to
a) expose the lies, myths, distortions and propaganda of modern gay activism,
b) deconstruct the oppression and victimology politics, c) give a credible voice
to happy, successful and independent gays and lesbians who don't wake up
every day finding "hate, bigotry and discrimination" under the bed and who
don't go running to the courts, the governments or the human rights commissions
for a lifetime of therapeutic preferences. Over the past six years, my supposedly
controversial stance has brought me considerable media attention, writing articles
or being written about in both the gay and mainstream press, and participating in
radio and television interviews and debates. In April of 2001, I was asked to
prepare an affidavit on behalf of the respondents in the same-sex marriage cases
being heard in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

One does not have to be a "fanatical, right-wing, religious fundamentalist" to
oppose gay marriage. It is significant to note that an interfaith coalition of Roman
Catholics, Sikhs, Muslims, Anglicans and Evangelicals intervened in the court
challenges to the Marriage Act and continue to fight this nihilism to the bitter end.
That such a diverse body of religious organizations, all of whom have numerous
disagreements in matters of doctrine, theology and practice, are unanimous in
their defence of marriage, clearly shows a universal pressing concern for this issue.
So gays need to stop bitching about sincere Christians, Jews and Muslims who
are merely exercising their constitutional rights to free speech about homosexuality
and whose vast philosophical perspective easily triumphs over the provincialism
and amorality of the gay world. Indeed, their position is far more credible and
honest than the tortuous casuistry of self-interested clerics who take the path of
least resistance by creating their own church, tailor-made to affirm their Rainbow
philosophy.

Gay activists and their ever-willing accomplices in the media, relentlessly drive
through our skulls that homosexuality is "not a choice", because no one would
choose to be gay in a homophobic society. Firstly, there is an element of choice
in all behavior, sexual or otherwise. Secondly, despite public fanfare and trendy
hypotheses, there is no conclusive scientific evidence as to the biological, genetic,
psychological and sociological influences on sexual orientation. The modern change
in opinion concerning homosexuality, though presented as a scientific advance, is
contradicted rather than supported by science. It is a transformation of public morals
consistent with widespread abandonment of the Judeo-Christian ethics upon which
our civilization is based. Though hailed as "progress", it is really a reversion to
ancient pagan practices supported by a counter-culture restatement of gnostic moral
relativism.

It is well documented that long term relationships and fidelity are extremely rare
in the gay world. From Hollywood Boy Parties to Fire Island, from Gay Pride to
Gay Games, homosexual men are relentlessly searching for "Mecca" - even if it's
just for a weekend. Even at the Annual Global Conference on AIDS, the nightlife
is more noteworthy than the daytime activities. Every night the discos are packed
with gay doctors, nurses, activists and researchers shamelessly cruising one another.
Likewise the bathhouses do land-office business. In spite of the solemnity and
tragedy in dealing dealing with a wasteful and fatal disease, the hedonistic,
promiscuous, sex-carnival atmosphere never lets up.

One of the most popular and essential resource guides for gays who travel, are
those which reverently chronicle cruising areas for anonymous gay sex, from
bathhouses, parks, public washrooms, rural highways to big-city bus stations.
Anyone who, thinks that same-sex marriage will quell the gay male compulsion
for libidinal excess, is either naive or disingenuous. Recently, Xtra, Canada's
gay and lesbian bi-weekly, ran a feature entitled "How to Stay Married and Still
Be a Slut", which, at first glance, seems satirical, but which is actually a serious
guideline on how to have one's cake and eat it too. Another article in the same
journal, spoke of the perverse irony that the right to marry is being fought by
those who are already hitched, their youth gone, their kids growing or grown,
and their parents shrinking before their very eyes.

In its affidavit in support of same-sex marriage, EGALE (Equality for Gays and
Lesbians Everywhere) contends that if gays and lesbians are excluded from
that which is available to the rest of society, we will always remain marginalized
and stigmatized. Rubbish! Gay activism has always been naive in its beligerent
confidence that "homophobia" will disappear with massive and forced education
of the benighted. But such relentless indoctrination cannot be achieved without
fascist obliteration of all freedoms. And since freedom always trumps diversity
and tolerance, you can rest assured that any perceived threat to freedom will result
in a societal backlash which will guarantee oppression of all homosexuals.
Gay males, especially, are forever on the edge of a precipice, because in a
political cataclysm we are always the first to be purged.

Another spurious contention from EGALE is that "gender purity" is tantamount
to "racial purity". This is not only intellectually dishonest, but is insultingly
disrespectful to Blacks, Jews and other ethnic minorities. Lesbian author and
professor of humanities, Camille Paglia, succinctly states: " The gay activist
establishment has been stupid and narrow in the way it has conducted its civil
rights campaign. There is no gay leader remotely near the stature of Martin
Luther King, because black activism has drawn on the profound spiritual
traditions of the church, to which gay political rhetoric is childishly hostile.
The parallel claimed by gay leaders between blacks and gays as oppressed
minorities has always been questionable, and many African-Americans
have angrily rejected it. Indeed, discrimination against skin color is not
wholly comparable to the complicated resistance of virtually all societies
to open homosexuality, which involves thorny questions of morality and
psychology. Most gays can 'pass' whenever they want - an option available
to few blacks." (Vamps and Tramps, 1994)

Whatever society teaches or doesn't teach about homosexuality, no gay or
lesbian, surrounded overwhelmingly by heterosexuals, will feel at home in
his or her sexual and emotional world, even in the most tolerant of cultures.
At a young age we learn the rituals of deceit, impersonation and appearance,
and anyone who believes political. social or even cultural revolution will
change this fundamentally is denying reality. The unhappy truth is that male
homosexuality will never be fully accepted by the heterosexual majority, who
are obeying the dictates not of "bigoted" society or religion, but of procreative
nature. Yet this desperation deepens our artistic insight and allows us to create
civilization. Undoubtedly, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Tchaikovsky,
Somerset Maugham, Gore Vidal, et al experienced hardship and alienation.
But look what they gave to the world. Look how they advanced the cultural
heritage. They were too cultivated, creative and cosmopolitan to be concerned
with the trivialities of sexual pride, queer studies or diversity. One of them
glorified God and Church by painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, despite
the Vatican's unequivocal denunciation of homosexuality.

By far, the scariest and most insidious corollary to same-sex marriage is
same-sex adoption (already legal in some jurisdictions). This is blatant
child abuse. Children need a biological mother and father. We know this
is not always possible, even in the context of opposite-sex marriage, but
we don't solve the problem or alleviate the inconsistency by augmenting it.
Children are not meant to be guinea pigs for social engineering experiments.
Self-interested partisans will manufacture statistics to support ther specious
claims that children of gay marriages fare as well as those of traditional
families. But the phenomenon of same-sex parenting doesn't have the
longevity needed for such conclusive evidence, whereas the experience of
single-parent families has not always, but often shown detriment to the
development of the offspring.

When society allows men to marry men and women to marry women, it
perpetuates the alienation of the sexes and contributes to the ever-increasing
crisis in the sex roles. Before Stonewall, gays and lesbians mixed socially
and in the clubs with a pretty good understanding of and appreciation for
one another. But as gay liberation took hold, gay males, feeling ebullient
from their new-found freedom, descended into a bacchanalia of narcissism
and promiscuity. Segregated bars, orgy rooms and bathhouses exploded in
number and luxury. Strange parasitic diseases soon began appearing, and by
1981, a "gay cancer" was identified as AIDS. We must honestly admit that
even gay men's attempt to create a world without women failed catastrophically.

Unfortunately, most people's sense of history begins the day they were born,
which means all that precedes is outmoded and irrelevant and all that follows is
enlightened and progressive. However, we cannot and must not ignore the
lessons of history and natural law.  Again and again, it has been shown that
whenever humankind fails to protect time-honored political, moral and social
institutions, whenever humankind attempts to embrace pride as a virtue and
mainstream behavior that contravenes natural law, and whenever humankind
becomes arrogant, autonomous, egalitarian, nihilistic and foolish, civilization
fails - always and without exception. So, here we are repeating the cycle and
getting ready to crash and burn one more time.
 

John McKellar
President, HOPE
Toronto, ON, Canada
 

[COMMENT:  These folks (such as John McKellar, Tammy Bruce, and Camille Paglia), seem to have the same concerns for freedom and stability that honestly conservative Christians have.   They recognize that homosexuality is not normal, even though they stay in the lifestyle themselves.  Maybe they feel trapped?  They rejoice in the stability provided by the Biblical worldview and Christian culture.   We must find ways to reach out gracefully, to befriend them with the news of freedom from homosexuality, a rewarding life in the Image of God -- male and female. 

But first we better exhibit it ourselves.   E. Fox]