Andrew Sullivan apparently missed out on a wee little bit of gay American history, as he had to go look it up…

The same people who have been telling me for years that Jerry Falwell is an anachronistic irrelevance are now singing his praises as a pivotal figure in American politics and culture. Presumably that’s why all the Republican candidates had to bow the knee at the moment of his passing. Dean Barnett recommends this reminiscence by Al Mohler. Money quote:

As a 16-year-old boy, I was in the crowd at the convention center in Miami Beach when Dr. Falwell joined singer Anita Bryant in holding a rally to involve Christians in the struggle against a gay rights ordinance adopted by Dade County. I had never heard of Jerry Falwell until that night – and after that experience I would never forget him.

What was that ordinance? Wiki tells me…

Er…Wiki??  I don’t think there’s a gay American who was past puberty and self aware at the time who would fucking need to look thAT one up.  Yes, Andrew, that was the Dade County non-discrimination ordinance she waged an all-out war on.  Yes, all it did was protect us from being fired, simply for being gay.  And yes, she based a large portion of her campaign on calling gay people pedophiles.  She fucking named her campaign Save Our Children after all, didn’t she. 

And that rally that Albert "Let’s Exterminate Homosexuality In The Womb" Mohler says he’ll never forget?  I suppose there are a lot of people who won’t forget it.  I saw some of the news footage of Falwell and Bryant standing together at the podium.  I remember vividly Falwell looking solemnly at the gathered reporters and saying "A homosexual will kill you, as soon as look at you."

Just a few years after Falwell and Bryant were standing together at the podium with Falwell telling everyone what a bunch of blood thirsty killers gay people are, Ronald Reagan was courting him in his presidential campaign.  The elephant has made gay bashing one of its primary vote getting tools ever since.  I guess if you’d actually lived through that part of our history Andrew, you’d know why so many of us feel nothing but contempt for the republican party.  Lame and cowardly as the democrats often are, they’re haven’t been busily inciting fear and hate toward us for the past few decades, simply to win elections.  How many gay people have died Andrew, because of the climate of hate the republicans have actively stoked in this country?  How many gay kids sent off to ex-gay camps?  How many kids growing being hated by their peers, growing up hating themselves? 

Yes…it’s the party of torture now, isn’t it?  But you had to know this day was coming Andrew, when they threw innocent lovers to the wolves back in the 1980s, because it won them elections.  Lovers, Andrew.  Not terrorists.  Not murderers.  Not jihadists.  Lovers.  Because it won them elections.  A race to the bottom is always won by the people who are already there.