Religios Conservatives, Heterosexism and Heteronormativism

In the progressive blogosphere, I've seen many posts lately concerning US Evangelicals involvement in introducing an anti-gay law in Uganda, the pedophile abuse cases in the Catholic Church (and that church's response) and transphobic statements even in LGBT-supportive circles.  While these stories may seem unrelated, there are a couple of common threads: Religion, Heterosexism, and Heteronormativism.

Often when commenting on the hatred expressed in cases like this, the term "homophobia" is blamed.  However, that word is inaccurate.  "Homophobia", according to Wikipedia, is the

"irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals",or individuals perceived to be homosexual; it is also defined as "unreasoning fear of or antipathy toward homosexuals and homosexuality", "fear of or contempt for lesbians and gay men", as well as "behavior based on such a feeling".

Many times when conservatives are confronted with being homophobic, they retort "I'm not afraid of homosexuals.  I have many homosexual friends.  That doesn't mean I approve of what they do," or something similar. More accurate wording would be "Heterosexism" or "Heteronormativisim".  To paraphrase Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, heterosexism is the system of "laws, customs and beliefs that perpetuate prejudicial treatment" of non-heterosexuals, namely lesbians, gays, and bisexuals.  Heteronormativisim, likewise, is the system that perpetuates

a set of lifestyle norms which indicate or imply that (1) people fall into only one of two distinct and complementary sexes (male and female) with each having certain natural roles in life, and that (2) heterosexuality is the only normal sexual orientation, thus making sexual and marital relations appropriate only between members of the opposite sex. Consequently, a heteronormative view is one that promotes alignment of biological sex, gender identity, and gender roles to the gender binary

which encompasses lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex individuals, among others.  Some of those others include working mothers, house-husbands, and polyamorous couples.  There are more examples but you get the idea.

Now that I've explained these terms, it's not hard to see just how it relates to the topic of this post.  One section that exhibits these attitudes, and has tried to encode them into the US' body of laws is the Religious Right.  Organizations like Phillys Schlafly's Eagle Forum, the Concerned "Women" of America (Women is in quotes because I have yet to see a female spokesperson for the group), Exodus international, NARTH and many others actively promote heterosexist and heteronormative views.  They are free to their opinions, but "the right to swing your fist ends at my nose."  When they start trying to directly influence legislation, here or elsewhere, then they've crossed the line.

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LGBT Violence at the Corner of Church and State

Today is the Transgender Day of Remembrance, to remember all of the trans-people who have died over the past year—especially in hate crimes. Transphobia and homophobia are interrelated, and both are influenced by misapplied religion. To help ensure that these crimes are investigated properly and not subject to the biases of local authorities, we passed the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes act. It adds clauses about sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and the perception of those attributes to the classes established in the Hate Crimes act of 1969.
Those protections are very timely. Two stories have been in the news recently that underscore why this legislation was so badly needed, especially with the gender expression clauses:
Angie Zapata
Jorge Steven López Mercado

Unfortunately, our attackers come from both the Church and State sides of the street.
Coming from the State street side:

There is a Republican Senator in Oklahoma who is considering a bill that would allow states to opt out of the Hate Crimes act because it interferes with State's Rights and the freedoms of religion and speech granted by the US Constitution.

And from the Church side:

A group of preachers came and tried to 'incite a hate crime' in Washington DC by reading bible verses.

Both of these examples are easy to brush off as batshit crazy asshats and bigots. However, while these nutjobs are attempting to take our hard-won protections away, they are also creating an atmosphere of hate that is like waving a match around a fireworks factory. Similar haters are promoting Psalm 109:8 as a 'prayer for the President'… How long is it before someone decides they are being called to do God's work and take out an LGBT person or the President? Sadly, it's already happening.