inBeijingcarryinga rainbowbanner that read“ToRussiawith
Love.”FollowingspeechesdenouncingRussia’shomophobia,
they cheered as three same-sex couples kissed.
• Youmight be aRednik if you’re hosting this year’s interna-
tional conferenceof theWorldCongressofFamilies. Plans are
moving ahead for the anti-GLBTconfab inMoscow this fall,
whosemain sponsors areU.S. evangelical groups like theNa-
tionalOrganization forMarriage andFocus on theFamily.
• You justmight be aRednik if you start rounding up gay ac-
tivistsunder the“Propaganda” lawon the first dayof theSochi
Olympics. It happened inSt. Petersburg,where four protestors
werearrested for unfurlinga sign that read: “Discrimination is
incompatible with the Olympic Movement, Principle 6,
OlympicCharter.”Theycarrieda coupleof rainbowflags, but
thatwas theextent of their “propaganda”—and the suggestion
that discrimination iswrong.
IsYourHubbyaHomo?
This signappearedoutside theAtlah
WorldMissionaryChurch inHarlem, and it provokedasmuch
confusion as it did anger: “O
BAMA HAS RELEASED THE HOMO
DEMONS ON THE BLACK
MAN
. L
OOK OUT BLACK
WOMAN
.A
WHITE HOMO
MAY TAKE YOUR MAN
.”
It was thework of Pas-
tor James DavidMan-
ning,who translatedfor
the media. Citing the
recent coming out of
two professional ath-
letes,Michael Samand JasonCollins, he explained that black
womenwill haveahard timeholdingon to their husbandsnow
that it’scool tobegay—andPresidentObama is toblame!This
reminds us ofTonyPerkins’prediction in the last “BTW” that
today’s laxattitudes towardhomosexualitywill lead to theend
ofhumanity, sincecoupleswill stophavingheterosexonce the
homovariety isA-okay.Here again, onewonderswhyhetero-
sexuality isn’t able tomount amore robust defense.
Corporate Rights
“License to discriminate” laws, which
would allowa company to refuse service toGLBTcustomers
on religious grounds, are beingdebated inmany state capitals,
and a few states, notablyArizona, havewalked back from the
brinkof enactingsucha law.Thesebills are sovaguelyworded
that people seemto have figured out that basically theywould
allowavendor to refuse service toanyone theydon’t happen to
like for “religious” reasons. Supportersof these laws frame the
debate as amatter of individual rights and the freemarket. But
then,withanalmost imperceptible sleight of hand, they’re sud-
denly talking not about an individual but about a collective
body. “Corporations are people, my friend!” exclaimedMitt
Romney during the 2012 campaign. That may be true in
somepost-
CitizensUnited
sense, but there’s avast bodyof law
establishing that acompanysuchas a restaurant is a“publicac-
commodation”which, unlikeaprivateperson, can’t refuseserv-
ice tominorities. But take heart,Mitt! There are lots of things
a corporation can do that a person can’t, such as buying and
YouMight Be aRednik
Nowthat thePutin regime inRussia
is officially in bed with the U.S. evangelical movement, it’s
time for anewcoinage: the
Rednik
. It combines twomeanings
of the word “red”: the association with Communism and the
USSR, which reminds us that Putinwas aKGBguywho cut
his teethduring theColdWar andrues theday theSovietUnion
lost its empire; and the “red states” in the U.S., an election
night convention that has come tosymbolizeanAmerica that’s
more rural,more religious,moreSouthern—indeedmore“red-
neck” in yet another sense of the color term. The connection
between these twoworlds is thatAmerican evangelicalswere
instrumental in the enactment last year of Russia’s harsh law
banning the “propaganda of homosexuality,” effectively shut-
ting down anyGLBT rights advocacy. Groups like theAmer-
ican FamilyAssociation and its leader Scott Lively have for
years been fomenting anti-gay sentiment inRussia andmeet-
ingwithpoliticians, evenhelp themtodraft theanti-gay legis-
lation.And so, in the spirit of Jeff Foxworthy:
• Youmight be aRednik if even inChina people are protest-
ingyour anti-gay laws. Infact, just lastValentine’sDayagroup
ofGLBTrightsactivistsgatheredoutside theRussianEmbassy
BTW
8
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