Do you ever wonder why it is that some organized religions - and the political far right in general - spend so much time and energy badmouthing gay people and "homosexual behavior"? Recently, for example, obscene amounts of money were spent in California by anti-gay marriage groups in their efforts to reverse gay marriage. Why is it they were so willing to spend millions of dollars to "protect heterosexual marriage" while simultaneously ignoring (or giving only lip service) to a very wide range of some pretty nasty human behaviors - many of which are repeatedly condemned in the very bible from which they select the few isolated sentences so often used to bash gays? Gay or straight, unless you’re brain dead or live on mental pabulum (read that as talk radio and Fox news), you might have pondered these questions on occasion or wondered a bit more about the origin and energy behind of all the anti-gay hub-bub. Why has "gay" become the current big boogieman of the American culture?

I think the most promising answers that potentially shed light on the far religious right’s hyper-focus on homosexuality, lie in the reality that we exist in a male dominated society which, while predominantly heterosexual, is very greatly misogynistic. Misogyny, in its mildest form is defined as a generalized contempt and disregard for women and is an attitude that can be held by both sexes. In this regard, pitifully little has changed over the last several hundred years. A second reality where we might look for an answer is in the fact that people generally lie about their sexual behavior – to themselves and most definitely, to others. There are probably many more individuals who stray from the "straight and narrow" path of heterosexual orientation who simply will not admit it even to themselves. It’s not unusual these days to find the term MSM (men who have sex with men) substituted for "gay" and homosexual because so many men who have sex with men, even on a regular or exclusive basis, do not identify themselves as gay (I wonder why?). On the other hand, women seem to have fewer problems with being truthful about their needs, wants and behavior.

So - how do these two things - misogyny and a tendency to lie about sexual needs and behavior - feed into the anti-homosexual obsession? An obsession found in so many churches, that leads so many ministers to pontificate from their pulpits and so many otherwise fair and just citizens to vote to deny and remove rights from gay people that are granted to all others. First you need to really appreciate what misogyny is and how it pervades not only our culture but most of the Western world now as well as in history. Human males may be predominantly heterosexual and prefer sex with women, but beyond that, it is typical for men to denigrate women, think of them as less intelligent, more emotional (a bad quality) and generally the "weaker" of the sexes. As a partial proof of this attitude, I offer this observation: There seems to be no greater negative terms (curse words - if you will) to throw man to another man (or boy to boy for that matter) than some accusation that they are in some way "like a woman." There is no greater insult to a guy. At the risk of being X rated, a male can be accused of being a "pussy" (something otherwise desirable in heterosexual sex), being a cunt, a wimp, or being limped-wrested, throwing a ball "like a girl", walking or running like a girl, crossing your legs like a woman, being a "crybaby" (boys don’t cry – girls do), talking a lot –like a woman and on and on. Until rather much into the 19^{th Century – less than 100 years ago, women were thought too unintelligent to vote (and were certainly not included in the "All men are created equal." concept of the founding fathers. In those years many states had laws that precluded women from even making legal contracts and marriage was more or less a way for a female to become property of the male. Even in today’s supposedly advanced culture, women still do not receive equal pay for equal work and there are a host of anti-female attitudes still abounding in the world of business.}

Bottom line is, I believe, that homosexuality is "hated" by so many because it is perceived by misogynistic men and woman alike to be an abdication of male authority and power over women. There seems to be no greater sin than a male giving up his "manliness" (or at least his manliness as narrowly defined by culture) and his male "birthright". While it is not - many still believe that being homosexual is a conscious surrender of masculinity - a purposeful giving up of male dominance otherwise demonstrated by the use of the powerful penis to penetrate and subdue the female. Think of the terrible phenomena of male to female rape and you know intuitively that penetration of the vagina by a penis is more than just an act involving sexual pleasure….Rape, most always, is an expression of power and dominance. And isn’t it interesting that female to male rape almost never occurs.

I believe that misogyny throughout history accounts for much the disdain and distaste held against homosexuality. It accounts for much of what is termed "homophobia". Until we more fully overcome negative attitudes about the female of our species, or better understand that being homosexual has little to do with the concepts of masculine and feminine - which are nothing more than behavioral role descriptors and have no great relationship to sexual orientation - anti-gay obsession will continue - powered mostly by highly misogynistic males and their female believers. One last note: notice that the most virulent anti-gay sentiments come from the most fundamentalistic of religious types…whether Christian or some other variety….Notice also that in such groupings, women are almost always considered to be lower class citizens subject to the power and authority of the male…be they Promise Keepers or Shiites.

As to the role of lying about ones sexual behavior and its relationship to anti-gay sentiment, we only have to consider this: The "sin" in which we secretly engage or have an interest in (conscious or otherwise), is often the sin we preach loudest against.

I expect that within my lifetime I will see more social progress on gay issues. I think it is happening of late but just more slowly than I’d like. I’m sure this is a shared sentiment. The passage of Prop 8 in California, wiping out gay marriage in that state was by a smaller margin than it would have been even five years before. As the younger generation with their greater tolerance of diversity replaces older more rigid voters, even greater strides can be expected. Or so I hope.