Where the Religious Right in this country is concerned there is no such thing as equal rights for gay citizens. Even something as innocuous as adding sexuality and gender to the Hate Crimes act is under challenge from these "divinely" inspired bigots. The Thomas More Law Center, which prides itself as the "Sword and Shield for People of Faith" is filing a law suit challenging the constitutionality of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"
For those who are not familiar with the Thomas More Law Center, it one of the projects that billionaire pizza mogul Tom Monaghan has spent his money on since being bought out of Domino’s in 1998. One of his other projects is a Ave Maria School of Law and an Catholic gated community that ran aground of ACLU, but still managed to float.
Mr. Monaghan is, to put it plainly, a Catholic religious zealot. That his Thomas More Law Center is involved in trying to roll back the protections in the Shepard/Byrd act should come as no surprise. They have been involved in all kinds of litigation against providing equal rights for all citizens.
The Center is filing suit on behalf of three pastors and a private citizen. What exactly are they upset about? Here is what Richard Thompson the president of the center has to say about the case:
This is part of the list of political payoffs to homosexual advocacy groups for support of Barack Obama in the last presidential election. The sole purpose of this law is to criminalize the Bible and use the threat of federal prosecutions and long jail sentences to silence Christians from expressing their Biblically-based religious belief that homosexual conduct is a sin. It elevates those persons who engage in deviant sexual behaviors, including pedophiles, to a special protected class of persons as a matter of federal law and policy."
Yep, that’s right. They are upset that their "biblically based" bigotry can’t be violently expressed against gay citizens. Note the standard conservative victimization meme, that the "sole" purpose of the bill it to make their lives hard. Also note the conflation of homosexuality and pedophilia. This comes from a Republican amendment that was introduced to specifically excluded pedophiles form the protections of the bill. It was defeated because, unlike homosexuality, pedophilia is a crime and criminals don’t get hate crimes protections. Not that this keeps the Religious Right from trotting it out.
If you will pardon the Dog’s pun, this suit is a Hail Mary pass. They are trying to do two things with it. One, is stroke the victimization meme in the which is part and parcel of the Religious Rights rhetoric. The other is to try to extend their right to bigotry based on religious freedom arguments. From the article:
The lawsuit expresses concern that the Hate Crimes Act "provides law enforcement with authorization and justification to conduct federal investigative and other federal law enforcement actions against Plaintiffs and others deemed to be opponents of homosexual activism, the homosexual lifestyle, and the homosexual agenda," thereby expanding "the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other federal law enforcement and intelligence gathering agencies."
Consequently, the new hate crimes law "subjects Plaintiffs to increased government scrutiny, questioning, investigation, surveillance, and intimidation on account of their strong, public opposition to homosexual activism, the homosexual lifestyle, and the homosexual agenda, thereby causing a tangible and concrete deterrent, inhibitory, and chilling effect on Plaintiffs’ activities and their rights to freedom of speech, expressive association, and the free exercise of religion" in violation of the United States Constitution.
This suit is likely to go nowhere as there is so much insane paranoia involved. None of the planters have been harmed by the Act (they would have to be charged with a hate crime) . It is hard to see how any court is going to grant them standing. Still there are a lot of conservative judges in Michigan so it might get to the district court, but probably no further.
The real problem here is one that we need to point out more and more. Why is bigotry in the name of religion in any way different from any other kind of bigotry? A so-called moral objection to homosexuality is no more valid than a White Supremacists objection to the mixing of races. Yet it is offered and left unchallenged in the debates and law suits about full civil rights for gay citizens.
This is an unacceptable state of affairs. The United States does protect the freedom of religion but it does not protect the expression of that religion beyond the individual. If your religion tells you that gay citizens are evil, well, that is your belief. It does not excuse bigotry or violence done in the name of your religious belief.
What makes suits like this so dangerous is they expended beyond the gay rights debate. An argument based on religious freedom could have been made by Scott Roeder, the convicted assassin of Dr. Tiller. After all, it was his religious belief that fetuses are people and Dr. Tiller was a mass murderer which inspired him to kill. If we allow religious belief to nullify law, then we are in real trouble.
In the alternate reality that is the Religious Right extremism in the defense of their religious bigotry is no vice. The problem for the rest of us is they would take this nation to some kind of theocracy with that kind of thinking.
Hopefully the Prop. 8 case will settle this crap once and for all. When it becomes clear that discrimination based on sexuality or gender is unconstitutional one more pillar will be knocked out from under the religious bigots like the Thomas More Law Center and Tom Monaghan. Until then we will be treated to the sight of bigots arguing that the law protects their bigotry, merely because it is religious bigotry.
The floor is yours.