Conservative Video Teaches Children Homosexuality Is Three Times As Dangerous As Smoking

Conservative Video Teaches Children Homosexuality Is Three Times As Dangerous As Smoking

• By Justin Acuff
• •   January 3, 2014

Justin Acuff I'm a political activist. In my mission to encourage higher youth participation as well as better representation, I started Young Progressive Voices. My work can also be found at Addicting Info. I've written nearly a thousand articles on dozens of political topics for several publications. Have a story? Send an email to politicsbyjustin@gmail.com and let me know.

Now I’ve heard it all from the anti-gay community. “Being gay is three times more dangerous than smoking,” claims this video, created by Faith 2 Action, a fundamentalist Christian group that regularly engages in anti-choice and anti-gay fear campaigns under the typical conservative guise of being “pro-family.”

The video starts with a bizarre reading to children of two books that are obviously supposed to be parodies of Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy’s Roommate, children’s books that are pro-equality. The reading is bizarre because of the parody books; Heather has Two Cigarettes and Daddy’s Roommate has Lung Cancer, respectively. During the reading, Janet Porter of Faith 2 Action tries to compare cigarette smoking to homosexuality, saying, in fact, that they’re both health dangers and homosexuality is more dangerous.

There are quite a few things wrong with her argument, but first, here’s the video:

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFwBWNpqY3o&feature=player_embedded

Oh, and don’t forget the American Family Association’s Michigan chapter head, Gary Glenn:

The film later interviews the head of the American Family Association’s Michigan chapter Gary Glenn, who favors the criminalization of homosexuality, who said that homosexuality should be discouraged in the same way we see campaigns against smoking.
“If you really care and love somebody you don’t want them to be involved in behavior that’s going to make them die earlier,” Glenn said, “if you love them you want them to stick around and encourage them to get out of that lifestyle…. True Christian compassion is trying to help people out of self- destructive behavior.” (Source)

This is an excellent example of “correlation does not imply causation,” meaning that homosexual men dying, as he says, “8-20 years earlier” doesn’t have anything to do with being gay other than an increased risk for disease exposure. And that’s not a homosexuality problem; that’s a health, safety and disease prevention problem, just like STDs for heterosexuals. Not only that, but that data seems old; with HIV easier to keep at bay and STD prevention awareness on the rise, the life span of homosexuals has increased, illustrating my point and demonstrating the fallacious logic used by the religious right.

Also, and it won’t be admitted by the opposition despite the huge amount of evidence that their opinion is wrong, being homosexual isn’t a choice. We don’t arbitrarily decide our sexuality. However, we do arbitrarily decide to smoke certain things, and in the case of tobacco, years of research has demonstrated significant danger in partaking of this habit. A decision to continue is usually personal and weighs the positives against the negatives. You don’t undergo that decision selection process when it comes time to determine which sex you’d like to take home with you that night.

Faith 2 Action reveals their ignorance with an article of theirs regarding the video:

Hours after posting this four and a half minute video, YouTube posted the message: “Your video has been removed as a violation of YouTube’s policy prohibiting hate speech.” We moved the video over to Vimeo and it did not take long for them to censor it as well.
Faith2Action President Janet Porter issued the following statement to the Press: “The censorship by both YouTube and Vimeo has made the point of the film we’re now producing–the homosexual movement seeks to silence all those who disagree,” stated Porter.

Note they say “the homosexual movement” like gays are a new thing. Nope, sorry guys, some of us have had same-sex attraction since we were born, and some of you do, and your parents, and their parents. It’s nothing new; the fight for equality is what’s new about it. Unless, of course, they meant they were admitting to open bigotry and hating the “homosexual movement” because they’re hateful people when driven by religion.

In closing, it should also be said that the religious right has this obsession with gay sex and preventing gay sex. In fact, all of their points have to do with the sexual acts that occur, and nothing to do with the love. I’m not sure that they recognize they’re talking about thinking, breathing, feeling people; their dogma blinds them to any semblance of altruistic humanity. Nothing is moral they don’t agree with, and every issue is a dogmatic religious war.

 

http://youngprogressivevoices.net/conservative-video-teaches-children-homosexuality-is-three-times-as-dangerous-as-smoking-video/