Too many “Christians” (the quotes are deliberate) spout too much hatred at gays and lesbians, and too many clergy vilify gays and lesbians and incite hatred against the LGBT community. Just since November 4, there have been two murders of transgender men (one in New York, another in Tennessee), another murder of a gay couple in Indiana, and a savage beating in New York of a young latino immigrant mistaken for a gay man because he was walking with brother. He is now brain dead.
And until gays can quit blaming every incidence of violence against gays on Christians, they have nothing useful to say. Outside of Fred Phelps and his bunch, can anybody name one Christian, whether pastor or otherwise, who has incited hatred against gays?

Well, so much for a civil tenor … It’s not that you’re gay that people are offended by you Basil, I’m thinking that it’s more your attitude. But you can sit next to me in church any day; and I’ll just have to prove your attitude against Christians wrong.
Peace, Jeff

I believe the Basil, when referring to “transgender men,” actually meant “transgender women.” In accordance with the Associated Press Styleguide and GLAAD Media Styleguide, one refers to transgender people by their target sex and/or how they present verses by their natal sex.
As for Christians who have incited hatred against gays, lesbian, bisexual, and/or transgender people, here are a few just off the top of my head: Stacy Harp, Firpo W. Carr, Dr. Joseph Berger, Lou Sheldon, and Paul Cameron.

Basil: Thank you for sharing your comments and story! I pray you continue your spiritual journey, in spite of the haters.
Larry/Jeff: Don’t you two get it?!… Responses like these are part of the problem. We don’t actually listen to GLBT’s stories.. and see them as PEOPLE. Instead we too often filter everything through an ‘us and them’ fight, instead of listening to people’s real experiences and honest spiritual journey.
I’m a minister… and in my part of the world, with an anti-gay marriage initiative on the ballot, SEVERAL prominent evangelical pastors have publicly said things like: gay people are out to convert our children, there is a radical gay agenda that wants to violently take over our country, gay people want to make sure ‘straight’ people can no longer marry, and if gay marriage is allowed America will become like communist China; people will be arrested and tortured for preaching their beliefs.
These are comments from so-called ‘mainstream’ evangelical mega-church leaders…
The real question is, how is this NOT inciting violence?!

This is merely fodder for Tony … I would respond to you Matt, but my reply has already been written by Paul to the Corinthians … Sorry to break it to you Pastor Mat, homosexuality is sin … Be well in your world Matt.

Larry/Jeff: Don’t you two get it?!… Responses like these are part of the problem.
Nonsense, listening to a lot of gays, including Basil here, and you would swear that most, if not all violent gay bashers just came out of prayer meeting, which is ridiculous. Look, I live in an urban neighborhood, with lots of gays as neighbors and attend church with some, and have had them at my table but they don’t see me as just a potential gay basher either. Basil’s linking of Christianity with anti-gay violence is just as bigoted as anything Fred Phelps has ever said.
SEVERAL prominent evangelical pastors have publicly said things like: gay people are out to convert our children, there is a radical gay agenda that wants to violently take over our country, gay people want to make sure ‘straight’ people can no longer marry, and if gay marriage is allowed America will become like communist China; people will be arrested and tortured for preaching their beliefs.
In some countries, Canada and Norway come to mind, people have been arrested for preaching things that are considered anti-gay, so maybe _some_ of their concerns aren’t so far out. Now, you may not agree with their reading and use of scripture, but you must admit that you can at least make a prima facie case based on scripture that homosexuality is sinful, and would hope that you would agree that pastors should be able to preach sermons based on how they honestly read the scriptures and that Christian laity should be able to follow their religion in their lives. You don’t have to agree with them, but neither should you be willing to shut them up using force.
As for Christians who have incited hatred against gays, lesbian, bisexual, and/or transgender people, here are a few just off the top of my head: Stacy Harp, Firpo W. Carr, Dr. Joseph Berger, Lou Sheldon, and Paul Cameron.

Other than Lou Sheldon, who IMHO is just a political hack, my first impulse is to say “Who”? I’m sure you can come up with some quotes from these guys advocating violence against gays, too, not merely statements that they disagree with the gay lifestyle, however they conceive it.

Larry,
In my urban neighborhood, my gay friends, both Christian and not, hear the loudest voices of hate coming from Christians… and specifically prominent evangelical pastors. Now, maybe this is different where you are… good! But this is what I hear Basil responding to… and I have to tell you it is VERY real.
I’ve seen and heard first hand voices of hate coming from the Christian community, repeating the worst internet rumors with no interest in the truth. Again, this is the context of my response, and it seems Basil’s as well.
I just want Basil and others to know there are people who follow Christ who are NOT interested in hate.

I assume Basil was referring to the murders of Duanna Johnson and Lateisha Green. These two were certainly transgendered women. “Your name” has succinctly explained the terminology.

Well written article. Thank you so much.
I agree when people use the bible to condemn others they are themselves committing a sin. The sin of not loving your fellow man.
Even if you dismiss that, which they obviously do, to demand others live according to the bible when you yourself are not doing so is arrogant and hypocritical. I further suggest you put at risk your own salvation by doing so!
In United States we enjoy the constitutional right of “freedom from religion” which means, no matter what your religious beliefs, you have no right to impose them on others.
Happy Holidays to all.

here are a few just off the top of my head: Stacy Harp, Firpo W. Carr, Dr. Joseph Berger, Lou Sheldon, and Paul Cameron.
I’m still waiting for something that might be considered “hate” from any of these people. A quick Googling of their names didn’t turn up anything. True, they disapprove of the gay lifestyle, often vehemently, but this does not constitute hatred, I was able to find nothing that could be considered an incitement to violence, but it was a quick search, perhaps someone would care to enlighten me? There was some disputable science, but that does not constitute hatred, either. Using disputable science is a characteristic of both sides in this debate, as well.
I’ve seen and heard first hand voices of hate coming from the Christian community, repeating the worst internet rumors with no interest in the truth.
It seems to me that neither extreme in this debate is interested in the truth, but extremists rarely are (but they do tend to get most of the press). I don’t approve of lying, by either side.

To MattR,
Perhaps the problem here is that the SSM advocates seem to view all opposition to gay marriage as “hate.” In other words, in their minds, if you oppose their political agenda, you are a hater.
Next, you are naive if you think the legal component of this debate doesn’t have grave consequences for those who defend traditional marriage. If gay marriage becomes a state-sponsored civil rights issue in the law, all those who speak against it are committing “hate speech” and can be fined or jailed. Moreover, since the 1990s, it’s been hard NOT to see all the SSM propaganda showing up on TV, in schools, and virtually everywhere. You’d have to have lived in a cave to have missed it.
The truth, MattR, is that 99% of Christians don’t have any care or desire to invade any gay person’s bedroom, even though they think homosexuality is sexual sin. So, this claim that gays get bad treatment in America is fictional. If gays weren’t pushing to redefine marriage, and if they were following the basic public decency as everyone else must concerning public displays of sex, they would be left entirely alone by the Christians. But once they start pushing to redefine marriage, which has been a heterosexual family institution for millennia, that’s poking at a hornet’s nest.
And if gays were really smart, they would recognize just how much tolerance is granted their abnormal sexual appetites in the Christian West. In the Middle East, gays are exterminated by government mandate.

Just a quick question to A Walker…what you appear to be saying is, be good boys and girls, accept that in certain aspects of your life you will not be afforded the same rights, privileges and responsibilities that us “normal” heterosexual folk enjoy because of the way you were born, don’t rock the boat and ask for, what to most intelligent people appear to be, fundamental human rights, and be ever so thankful that we in the West “tolerate” you sub-human beings because in Iran you would be hung for your perverted lifestyle.
Did I get that about right ? Please correct me if I have not read between the lines correctly.
PS Anyone expressing a well thought out objection to same-sex marriage is not a “hater”, they have a point of view which I fully support them expressing. However I have yet to see a well thought out objection to same-sex marriage. They usually rely on poor science, religious objections, fatuous slippery slope arguments, and in some cases downright lies. I have no problems with you disagreeing with someones lifestyle and expressing that view, even when it is a prejudiced, illogical and ill thought out opinion, but turning your opinion into oppression, and denying to others that which you yourself are able to enjoy, based upon a fundamental aspect of their being i.e. their sexuality is bigotry, plain and simple.

Rather, Steve, what I am saying is, marriage is a social contract written around the fact that sex for heterosexuals legally conscripts them into a long-range child-care enterprise that requires contract law to protect women and children from desertion and the resulting economic destitution. That’s what marriage is, and that’s why it evolved around heterosexuals. The contract pertains to heterosexuals not because of bigotry but because of biology.
Gay sex does *not* conscript the adult partners into a long-range enterprise requiring legal protections for at risk dependents. Thus, gays don’t require a legal contract at all, and certainly not the one that heterosexuals depend upon to protect the long-term economic risk assumed during heterosexual sex acts.
Now, if we rewrite traditional marriage law—say, we make marriage temporal and easily dissolvable; or make marriage a mere cohabitation or romance contract; or make marriage a group contract for any one at all—billions of spouses and children worldwide have zero legal and economic recourse when one of the contracted partners breaches the contract.
If necessary, gays should create civil unions that address their unique and specific economic needs. But they must not seek to destroy via redefinition the social contract that protects heterosexuals and their children from economic destitution. When the stable heterosexual family breaks down, the entire society breaks down.

The way some christians respond to the homosexual issue still doesn’t negate the fact that gays are an extreme minority in their thinking. The gay agenda has become its own worst enemy the way it is constantly shoved in society’s face. When society shoves back then all of a sudden the whining begins. Nobody can’t prevent gays from their same sex preferences, but to try a force society to condone it, especially by law irratates most of us.

Kingskidd – I agree that some within the gay community, if you want to label it as such, are their own worst enemies in the way in which they go about attempting to achieve equality. However your comment smacks of the same thinking of A Walker above, in that what gay people should do is be quiet, be invisible, go back into their closets, be grateful for what they have and accept they will not be afforded the same rights, privileges and responsibilities that you have, because of a fundamental aspect of their being i.e. their sexuality. In essence they are discriminated against in both economic and social terms because of a part of their biological makeup. How can that be fair? When something is manifestly unfair and unjust, people will speak out and fight for what they see as merely an equal seat at the table – No more no less, that is not whining, its standing up for yourself.