Livin’ in the Age of Impunity The proposition that the intensity of a politician’s homophobia rises in direct proportion to the darkness of his desires received a boost soon after Election Day when a mega-MAGA spokesman was arrested on eight counts of possessing child pornography. Jason Yates was the CEO of My Faith Votes, and he left a record of speeches and op-ed pieces urging people to “think biblically about the issues … to help Christians navigate every political issue through the lens of the Word.” In a Washington Times op-ed, he rallied Christians to fight “sexually deviant” messages and those sympathetic to the LGBT cause. The shocker came when a relative of Yates accidentally came across a hard drive in his office that contained images of child porn. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension stepped in and found over 100 still photos and videos featuring the sexual abuse of minors under fourteen. So,Yates will probably disappear for a while, but it’s worth noting that he had close ties to Ben Carson, Trump’s former HUD Secretary, who served as the honorary chair of My Faith Votes going back to 2016. So, Yates may not be gone for good, who knows? Indeed it turns out he had a prior conviction for possession of child porn, but somehow it had disappeared from the record in our age of impunity.
Working Lies We need to talk about a feature of the November election that’s kind of an elephant in the LGBT room. Transgender issues were a major talking point for the enemies of transgender rights, as many Republican candidates filled their campaign speeches and ads with anti-trans messages. Of course it was pure demagoguery, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t effective, a possibility that Machiavelli recognized 500 years ago. LGBT organizations like the HRC have officially denied that trans issues threw the election to Trump—as if to argue otherwise might suggest that we’re “blaming” trans people for the outcome. Clearly the blame rests squarely with those who promulgated blatant lies about trans athletes and restroom voyeurs. One claim in particular became a brickbat: In their debate, Trump had accused Kamala Harris of supporting “transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison,” a falsehood that they used in TV ads that saturated the airwaves during sports programs. An analysis by The New York Times found that the race shifted by 2.7 percent in Trump’s favor after this campaign. And there were other lies, such as Trump’s claim that schools were conducting surgery on trans youths without parental consent. It seems quixotic to deny that these crusades could have had an impact, especially among male voters (notably Black and Latino men). What’s needed is a message that can neutralize these lies and convince people that trans rights are human rights, and that means all of us.
The Wages of Homophobia Some time ago, we ran an article titled “Uganda in the Hands of an Angry God” that featured an interview with activist Roger Ross Williams discussing a proposed law which would brutally punish LGBT people for a range of crimes (G&LR, July-August 2014). Heavily promoted by American evangelical groups, the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) was finally signed into law by Uganda’s president in May 2023. The so-called “kill the gays” law imposes a life sentence for promoting homosexuality and the death penalty for transmitting HIV. The law was denounced by everyone from Joe Biden to Pope Francis, and all the negative publicity has apparently sunk in. A study by the think tank Open for Business concluded that Uganda lost up to $1.6 billion in the year following the law’s adoption due to losses in international aid, a drop in foreign investment, and a downturn in tourism. All this adds up to around three percent of Uganda’s GDP, a drop in income that’s hurting not only LGBT people but the entire population of this desperately poor country. Someone in Kampala needs to rerun the cost-benefits analysis on this law.
Prosaic Justice On a lighter note, Tennessee State Senator Ken Yager, a major anti-LGBT force in his state, was recently caught with his pants down—almost literally. Among his anti-LGBT legislative actions, Yager spearheaded his state’s ban on gender-affirming care for young people and voted to allow clerks to refuse to perform same-sex marriages. Early in December, the senator was caught on camera peeing his pants while undergoing a police sobriety test. It seems the senator was stopped near Jekyll Island, Georgia, for a hit-and-run incident after running a stop sign. In the video, an obviously intoxicated Yager can be seen failing miserably to walk a straight line, at one point stumbling and falling to the ground. He gets back on his feet, but soon a dark stain starts growing on the front of his khaki trousers and spreading down his leg. Following his arrest, he spent the night in jail. Whether he faces criminal prosecution is unknown, but the video has gone viral, and it’s hilarious. (To find it, go to tvlt.tv and search for the senator by name.)
