Police haven’t pinned responsibility on anyone yet for the alleged “hate crimes” against gays in New York, but “Social Justice Activist” Murray Lipp has already decided who’s to blame for the violence: religion, patriarchal society, and too many straight people.
Come again?
That’s right. Writing on the Huffington Post’s “Gay Voices” page, Lipp insisted the blame for violent hate crimes be laid at the door of traditional groups or beliefs he claims “create and fuel homophobia in society.” Catching the crime’s culprits isn’t enough, Lipp protested; it’s time to raze traditional societal structures and rebuild society from the ground up. “Homophobic beliefs drive homophobic conduct,” he opined.
So just what does Lipp want to throw out the window? For Lipp, the “root causes” of violence are “religion, patriarchy and heterosexism.”
Faith was first to come under fire from the HuffPo writer. He ragged on the Catholic Church for the “demonization” of gays “under the veil of religion.” Claiming the Church preached “messages of hate and intolerance,” he insisted that faiths with traditional beliefs should be “exposed for … causing homophobic violence.” He decried their “toxic anti-gay religious messages” and their “warped and negative views about LGBT people” as “infecting” young minds and leading them to anti-gay hostility.
Lipp gave little thought to the reasons behind religious beliefs; he appeared to classify all that under “the guise of religion.” To Lipp, real religion seems to mean being pro-gay, and anything else is just “toxic” in his eyes. But he wasn’t quite content with pro-gay religion; it looks more like he was after the deconstruction – or disappearance – of religion as we know it. What he really wants, he admitted, is “freedom from religion.” Take traditional churches out of the picture, and battle for gay-marriage would be practically won.
Patriarchy was next in line for Lipp’s firing squad, but even more disturbing was Lipp’s frontal attack on … straight folks. In Lipp’s eyes, society is just too heterosexual; the viewpoint that being straight is good and normal is far too “ingrained culturally and institutionally” for Lipp’s taste. He spent several paragraphs complaining that society sees heterosexuality as “the primary and most acceptable orientation.”
One might wonder how Lipp proposes that society stop being so darn heterosexual when – by his own account – only about 5-10 percent of the population is actually gay. (Apparently it never crossed his mind that, since at least 90 percent or more of folks are heterosexual, maybe it is the “primary” orientation.) “Heterosexual cultural imagery,” he argued, “lays the foundation for homophobia to flourish.” So, let’s fight heterosexual leanings, he declared: “There must be ongoing and consistent efforts to challenge the heterosexism that pervades almost all societal institutions.”
Lipp rounded off his rant by calling on pro-gay supporters to counteract the “the roles that religion, patriarchy and heterosexism play in the ... fueling of homophobic messages about gay people.” “Together we can defeat the forces of hate,” he gushed.
Perhaps Lipp can find comfort in the fact that he has lots of entertainment and news media – and now, the Boy Scouts – on his side. Still, for a guy who spends his time condemning “hate,” Lipp is pretty hateful towards anything and everything with traditional views on marriage and sexuality. Here’s hoping that he’ll take a breath in his raving just long enough to notice the hostility echoing in his own words.
