The Real Culture War

They were being persecuted, while others wrestled over the minutiae of the Lutheran Church. The executor fit the nooses snugly around their necks. We found the intra-faith dynamics of lesbian ministers fascinating. And while the rest of the world shouted in protest, we remained thunderously silent.

In the American culture wars, we wrestle over abortion, gay marriage, Tinky Winky, and whether or not God punished New Orleans for the excellent Southern Decadence festival. Safely ensconced in a society and nation firmly rooted in the values of the Enlightenment and individual freedom, too many of those who claim to speak for us have allowed themselves to wallow in their own pet, partisan causes as a growing darkness menaces the Western world.

Many of us now find ourselves asking, "American GLBT Groups - Where are you?"

Last May, Washington Blade editor Chris Crain and his partner were assaulted in the city of Amsterdam, a capital of western liberalism and tolerance. This beating came at the hands of Muslim immigrant youth, a segment in European society that has been implicated in everything from dozens of honor killings, to the assassination of gay Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, to the brutal slaying of Dutch film-maker Theo Van Gogh in retaliation for a film exposing the abuse of Muslim women. That is nothing to say of the bombings that rocked the London Underground last July, or the recent discovery of a plot to blow up the Paris subway system and airport.

Any gay rights organization should be unequivocally against this violent culture of intolerance, but gaze upon the curious reaction of Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Program at the Human Rights Watch:

''There's still an extraordinary degree of racism in Dutch society," Long opined to the gay news service PlanetOut. ''Gays often become the victims of this when immigrants retaliate for the inequities that they have to suffer."

My disbelief rapidly vortexed into visceral, unquenchable rage. If a gay couple had been assaulted by poor, Christian evangelicals in Alabama, I highly, highly suspect Mr. Long would not be waxing sympathetic about the effects of poverty or single motherhood. I am reasonably certain his condemnation would have been swift and furious, and rightfully so. Instead we are treated to an apologia, brazen excuses, and a reluctance to condemn the Religion of Peace.

Curious about this, I began surfing through the press statements released over the past year by various gay rights organizations here in America. I was confronted with press release after endless press release about the evils of various Christian denominations in America and Europe. What I did not find - not a single time - was a criticism of Islam. Not. One. Single. Time.

In this New Republic article, Matt Foreman, the executive director of the NGLTF, and others claim their organizations have limited resources and must remain necessarily national in scope. Assuming the crushing costs of a press release now and again precludes them from paying attention or speaking out against international developments, it is perhaps salient to note that Muslims live in America, too.

Gay rights groups in America can insert themselves into the most tedious details and inner workings of a variety of American Christian denominations, but they cannot spare a single person or resource to perhaps take a gander at a mosque or two? Islam is responsible for some of the most abhorrent treatment of homosexuals around the globe. Is it not in our community's best interests to probe which attitudes may have crossed our own shores?

Apparently not.

The wages of multiculturalism are death - literally. As the multiculturalist spirit penetrated deep within European society, the ideals of tolerance collided with a culture that practices anything but. Out of a typical PC concern for "sensitivity," millions of Muslims immigrated without be assimilated into the very basics of western culture. How else to explain British poll results outlining frightening attitudes and justifications towards terror?

Instead of confronting these issues head on, the usual Lefty suspects began passing laws against hate speech, laws which are not intended to be equal opportunity protections. Criticisms of the Catholic Church and broader Christianity are almost always deemed acceptable, yet perfectly fair criticisms of Islam have resulted in arrests and the squelching of free speech.

Europeans have become so tolerant, they're currently considering accepting the first Islamic state, Turkey, into the European Union. This despite the fact Turkey actively stifles homosexual dissent. In the Homosexual vs Islam Tolerance Sweepstakes, Islam always seems to win.

Returning to the New Republic article, regarding the silence of American gay rights groups on islamic attitudes and abuses, the author writes:

The strategic rationales are not especially compelling, but it is the moral argument that is particularly troubling, because it suggests that some gay and lesbian leaders feel more allegiance to the relativism of the contemporary left than they do to the universality of their own cause. Activists are more than willing to condemn the homophobic leaders of the Christian right for campaigning against gay marriage; but they are weary of condemning Islamist regimes that execute citizens for being gay. Something has gone terribly awry.

Terribly awry. This is madness. This is the real culture war. When multiculturalism, a loyalty to a broader partisan ideology, and an adherance to politically correct platitudes about minorities results in this thunderous silence in the face of gay persecution, American gay rights groups are failing themselves.

Worse, they are abjectly failing those they claim to represent.

Comments

[Downtown Lad]

I think this is bogus. Most of the gay rights groups were horrified when this happened. All of the leftie gay blogs wrote about it too. Towelroad, Americablog, etc.

But why do they have to organize a protest? Protests are lame and would accomplish nothing in this case. It probably wouldn't even get press coverage. I think their statements against it were enough.

Besdies - the Bush administration has been utterly silent on this issue.

[Robbie]

They could if they wanted to. Easily. They hyperventilate whenever the Catholic Church breathes the wrong way.

But it misses a larger point. Why so silent on Islam in general? Why constantly nit-picking every Christian variant under the sun while not pursuing the religion of peace with the same vigor?

[The Malcontent]

If this were my post, I would have added a "Sullivan Watch" to it with special kudos attached. But alas ...

Downtown Lad, do you disagree with Sully about TNR too?

[The Malcontent]

P.S. Boy Robbie's post was extensively sourced with links. Where are your links to this supposed mass outrage on the left? And I mean the gay rights groups that supposedly represent our interests, not bloggers.

[Robbie]

Gay bloggers from both the Left and Right, to their great credit, were all over this issue.

It's the silence of the gay rights groups that is so startling. Islam is incomparably more hostile and just plain evil to homosexuals.

During the AIDs crisis, ACT UP activists would go into Catholic Churchs, take communinion, then spit it out or throw it to the floor and stomp on it.

Could you imagine gay rights activists storming a mosque?

I can't either.

And it's very, very curious why that is.

[Robbie]

Ah, sorry, Mal. I got the TNR link from your earlier post. I hadn't read Andrew today.

[Larry Bernard]

I wasn't asking where they were... I know where they are. trying to elect democrats

gay people are dying.. well thats not important to the gay rights movement... unless evil white male republican christians are doing it

[Paul, Houston TX]

We American queers are so busy fighting our fellow American's for equality under the law and so busy fighting amongst ourselves while struggling just to maintain the veneer of civil rights we've fought hard to achieve thus far ... that we fail to see the larger global gay community and our role in it. How can we expect to foment change on a global scale when we are failing here at home?

[Larry Bernard]

How can you expect to make changes at home if you are viewed as not having moral fiber by ignoring the brutal tortures and murders of homosexuals around the world?

[Essem]

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. The Enemy of the Left is traditional America, incarnate in the White Male Republican Christian. Anyone who hates their enemy is either an actual ally or is always given a pass for bad behavior. So Muslims have automatic victim status, whether they're Sadeq the local cab driver or the murderous mullahs of Tehran. Pathetic.