It goes without saying that people like Linda Harvey of Mission America and Gary Glenn, head of the Michigan outpost of the hate group known as the AFA, contribute nothing of value to society. Their words poison the discourse, offend intelligent people and contribute to the climate that causes far too many of our kids to be bullied, and to attempt or complete suicide. So it’s more than a little bit cute that, in a time of high unemployment, these ne’er-do-wells took to the radio to suggest that they somehow know more about hiring decisions than actual corporations which hire people:
Glenn: Herman Miller, which is a major employer and corporation in Holland [Michigan], a furniture company, supported this so-called gay rights ordinance on the claim that it allowed them to attract the best and brightest.
Harvey: Here we go, yeah we heard that before.
Glenn: What ridiculous folly to suggest that only those individuals who engage in homosexual behavior given all of its severe medical consequences constitute the best and the brightest. It’s not really bright to engage in behavior that puts you at dramatically higher risk of mental illness and substance abuse and AIDS and cancer and hepatitis, and according to various sources, premature death. So to suggest that engaging in that type of behavior defines someone as the best and brightest, which seems to be the line coming out of corporate America, is just ridiculous.
Harvey: You’re right. And higher rates of domestic violence and unstable relationships. I would not think of a homosexual person as a good employment risk, I just wouldn’t.
Part of wingnut hatred of gay people [and of all liberals] comes from their very real jealousy at the idea that millions of people around this country live more interesting lives than they do, are happier than they are, and are smarter, more productive and more creative than they are — and that they’ve done all this while rejecting dumb Religious Right notions of patriarchy and the social order. Indeed, it makes them seethe that absolutely no corporation is trying to find ways to attract more fundamentalist Christians under the headline of “best and brightest.” They just hate it.
So instead they spew their usual litany of lies — because they’re liars, of course — partially to make their sheep feel better, but partially also to make themselves feel better. Being gay is not the cause of mental illness or substance abuse or AIDS. All sane, intelligent people know that. Only the truly brainwashed and stupid are susceptible to such silly notions. The only offensive thing here is that the actual scientific study on the subject has shown that it’s precisely people like Linda and Gary, and their accompanying spiteful, pig ignorant worldview, that leads to higher rates of depression in gay youth. There’s even a good bit of data that has shown that people are more likely to put themselves in dangerous situations with drugs and unsafe sex when they don’t have the support of friends, family, church and society. And who keeps that cycle going? Again, people like Gary and Linda.
But they don’t see the blood on their hands. That would require humanity, honesty, self-awareness and integrity, and, well…those things in short supply on the Religious Right, aren’t they?
