Gay agenda

{{Short description|Disparaging term used by opponents of gay rights activism}}

{{Redirect-distinguish|Gay propaganda|Russian gay propaganda law|Homophobic propaganda}}

"Gay agenda" or "homosexual agenda" is a pejorative term{{Cite book |title=The Language of Hate: A Corpus Linguistic Analysis of White Supremacist Language |last=Brindle |first=Andrew |publisher=Routledge |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-317-55260-4 |pages=20 |language=en |series=Routledge Advances in Corpus Linguistics}}{{Cite book |title=Coming Out, Moving Forward: Wisconsin's Recent Gay History |last=Wagner |first=R. Richard |publisher=Wisconsin Historical Society |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-870-20928-4 |pages=69 |language=en}} for the normalization of non-heterosexual sexual orientations.

The term has been used to disparage advocacy for LGBTQ rights, rooted in the belief that LGBTQ activists seek to recruit heterosexuals into a "homosexual lifestyle".{{cite book |last1=Alvarado |first1=Cheney |last2=Churchill |first2=Lindsey |editor1-last=Pierceson |editor1-first=Jason |title=LGBTQ Americans in the U.S. Political System: An Encyclopedia of Activists, Voters, Candidates, and Officeholders, Volume 2 |date=2019 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, Calif. |isbn=978-1-4408-5277-0 |page=351 |chapter=Radical Gay Agenda |quote=The Radical Gay Agenda is a term introduced by right-wing Christian conservatives in the United States [...] The term primarily functioned as a demonization of advocacy and activists who pushed for LGBTQ rights. The conservative idea of the 'gay agenda' was primarily rooted in the belief that the LGBTQ community actively recruited and demoralized heterosexual individuals into a gay or bisexual 'lifestyle.' [...] More recently, the 'radical gay agenda' still exists among the Religious Right to condemn all efforts to change or introduce legislation on LGBTQ issues.}} The term "gay agenda" originated within the Christian religious right in the United States,{{sfnp|Alvarado|Churchill|2019|p=351}} and has been adopted in nations with active anti-LGBTQ movements such as Hungary and Uganda.

Origins and usage

=Origins=

In the United States, the phrase "gay agenda" was popularized by a video series produced by a California evangelical religious group called Springs of Life Ministries.{{r|Alvarado p351}} The first video of the series, The Gay Agenda, was released in 1992 and distributed to hundreds of Christian right organizations.{{Cite book |last=Herman |first=Didi |title=The Antigay Agenda: Orthodox Vision and the Christian Right |date=1997 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=0-2263-2764-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/antigayagendaort00herm/page/n6/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration |pages=80–81}}

It showed edited clips of San Francisco's Gay Pride parade with voice-over commentary alleging "an aggressive nationwide offensive" to force acceptance of the homosexual "lifestyle", alongside claims that 17 percent of homosexuals eat human feces and that 28 percent engage in sodomy with over 1,000 partners.{{cite book |last1=Becker |first1=Ron |title=Gay TV and Straight America |date=2006 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |location=New Brunswick, N.J. |isbn=978-0-8135-3689-7 |page=33 |language=en}}

Tens of thousands of copies of the video were distributed nationwide, and it was shown by televangelist Pat Robertson on The 700 Club in 1993.{{r|Becker p33}}

Commandant of the Marine Corps Carl Mundy Jr. gave the video to the other members of Joint Chiefs of Staff, and copies were sent to the United States Congress.{{cite news |last=Colker |first=David |date=February 22, 1993 |title=Anti-Gay Video Highlights Church's Agenda |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-02-22-mn-444-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=May 7, 2021 |url-access=limited}}

In 1992, the Oregon Citizens Alliance (OCA) used the video in their campaign for Oregon Ballot Measure 9 in opposition to what the OCA called "special rights" for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals.{{r|Alvarado p351}}{{cite book |last1=Staggenborg |first1=Suzanne |title=Social Movements |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-1993-6359-9 |page=157 |edition=2nd}}

The Gay Agenda was followed by three other video productions made available through Christian right organizations and containing interviews with opponents of LGBTQ rights, intended to expose the lesbian and gay movement's secret plans for America: The Gay Agenda in Public Education (1993), The Gay Agenda: March on Washington (1993), and a feature-length follow-up to the original, Stonewall: 25 Years of Deception (1994).{{r|Herman p80}}

=Usage in the United States=

The term "gay agenda" or "radical gay agenda" has been used by members of the Christian right to demonize advocacy for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) rights,{{r|Alvarado p351}} such as same-sex marriage and civil unions, LGBTQ adoption, recognizing sexual orientation as a protected civil rights minority classification, LGBTQ military participation, inclusion of LGBTQ history and themes in public education, introduction of anti-bullying legislation to protect LGBTQ minors—as well as non-governmental campaigns and individual actions that increase visibility and cultural acceptance of LGBT people, relationships, and identities. The term has also been used by some social conservatives to describe alleged goals of LGBTQ rights activists, such as supposed recruitment of heterosexuals into a "homosexual lifestyle".{{sfnp|Alvarado|Churchill|2019|pp=351–353}}{{Multiref2 |{{cite web |last1=Ford |first1=Zack |title=Hate Group: 'Homosexual Activists' Try To 'Confuse Children' To 'Build Their Numbers' |url=https://archive.thinkprogress.org/hate-group-homosexual-activists-try-to-confuse-children-to-build-their-numbers-6661a35b0814/ |website=ThinkProgress |date=9 July 2012}} |{{cite news |last1=Friedersdorf |first1=Conor |title=A Peek at Conservatism's Anti-Gay Conspiracy-Theorist Fringe |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/01/a-peek-at-conservatisms-anti-gay-conspiracy-theorist-fringe/250959/ |work=The Atlantic |date=6 January 2012 |url-access=limited}} |{{cite web |last1=Ring |first1=Trudy |title=The Year's Craziest Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories About LGBT People |url=https://www.advocate.com/year-review/2014/12/23/years-craziest-right-wing-conspiracy-theories-about-lgbt-people |website=The Advocate |date=23 December 2014}} |{{cite news |last1=Goodstein |first1=Laurie |title=Ugandan Gay Rights Group Sues U.S. Evangelist |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/us/ugandan-gay-rights-group-sues-scott-lively-an-american-evangelist.html |work=The New York Times |date=14 March 2012 |url-access=limited}} |{{cite web |author= |title=Bryan Fischer: Gay Rights, Abortion And Environmentalism Are 'The Work Of Satan Himself' |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bryan-fischer-gay-rights-abortion-environmentalism_n_1619128 |website=HuffPost |date=22 June 2012 |access-date=5 November 2022}} |{{cite web |author= |title=Caiden Cowger, Conservative Teen Radio Host, Slams President Obama For 'Making Kids Gay' |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/caiden-cowger-teen-radio-host-gay-obama_n_1574524 |website=HuffPost |date=6 June 2012 |access-date=5 November 2022}} |{{cite web |last1=Uy |first1=JD |title=Anti-gay Maryland legislator, Emmett Burns, moves again to cut off recognition of out-of-state gay marriages |url=http://www.metroweekly.com/2010/01/anti-gay-maryland-legislator-e/ |website=Metro Weekly |location=Washington, D.C. |date=18 January 2010}} }}

Columnist James Kirchick writes that the idea of a "homosexual agenda" to subvert American cultural and family institutions largely replaced earlier panic over the "Homintern", an alleged gay conspiracy to undermine the U.S. government.{{cite news |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/05/the-long-sordid-history-of-the-gay-conspiracy-theory.html |title=The Long, Sordid History of the Gay Conspiracy Theory |first=James |last=Kirchick |date=May 31, 2022 |quote=Homophobia still had a conspiratorial tinge, to be sure, but the fearsome machinations of the 'Homintern' were updated to that of a 'homosexual agenda' whose goals (equality in marriage, military service, and the workplace) were now out in the open. |magazine=New York |department=Intelligencer}}

The term has been used in response to efforts to include protections for LGBTQ people under local and state anti-discrimination laws,{{Cite book |last=Cobb |first=Michael L. |title=God Hates Fags: The Rhetorics of Religious Violence |year=2006 |edition=annotated |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=978-0-8147-1668-7 |page=119}} as well as U.S. Supreme Court cases that granted new rights to LGBTQ individuals, such as Lawrence v. Texas and Obergefell v. Hodges, which respectively held that private acts of consensual sex between same-sex couples and the right of same-sex couples to marry were fundamental rights guaranteed under the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.{{sfnp|Alvarado|Churchill|2019|p=352}}

In his 2003 dissent in Lawrence, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said the court had become embroiled in a culture war by seeking to protect homosexuals from discrimination, writing that the decision reflected a "law-profession culture, that has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda".{{cite book |last1=Kranz |first1=Rachel |last2=Cusick |first2=Tim |title=Gay Rights |date=2005 |edition=revised |publisher=Facts on File |location=New York |isbn=978-1-4381-2549-7 |pages=131–132}}

Conservative Christian groups such as the American Family Association (AFA),{{cite book |last1=Moritz |first1=Marguerite J. |editor1-last=Prum |editor1-first=Michel |editor2-last=Deschamps |editor2-first=Bénédicte |editor3-last=Barbier |editor3-first=Marie-Claude |title=Racial, Ethnic, and Homophobic Violence: Killing in the Name of Otherness |date=2007 |publisher=Routledge-Cavendish |location=London |isbn=978-1-136-64203-6 |pages=128–129 |doi=10.4324/9780203059296 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781904385578/page/129/mode/1up?ref=ol&view=theater |chapter-url-access=registration |language=en |chapter=Hate speech made easy: The virtual demonisation of gays}} Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (C-Fam), and the World Congress of Families (WCF) have used the term in their literature.{{r|Beirich Jul 2013|pp=15–18}}

According to its website, ADF has litigated numerous anti–gay rights cases in countries outside the US, in order to combat the "homosexual agenda" which it claims will "destroy marriage and undermine religious freedom".{{r|Beirich Jul 2013|p=9}}

ADF president Alan Sears published a book in 2003 titled The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today, which argues that overturning anti-sodomy laws would lead to the legalization of pedophilia, incest, polygamy, and bestiality.{{r|Beirich Jul 2013|pp=15}}

American conservative Christian groups such as the Family Research Council (FRC) have cited fears of a "homosexual agenda" in lobbying against extending hate-crime legislation to cover acts motivated by bias against a person's sexual orientation or gender identity,{{cite news |last1=Thompson |first1=A. C. |last2=Lee |first2=Patrick G. |title=Claims of 'Homosexual Agenda' Help Kill Hate Crimes Laws in 5 States |url=https://www.propublica.org/article/claims-of-homosexual-agenda-help-kill-hate-crimes-laws-in-five-states |work=ProPublica |date=6 February 2017}}

as well as public-school curricula about homosexuality introduced in an effort to reduce bullying.{{cite news |last1=Eckholm |first1=Erik |title=In Efforts to End Bullying, Some See Agenda |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/us/07bully.html |work=The New York Times |date=6 November 2010 |url-access=limited}}

American conservative Christian organizations have continued public screenings of videos alleging a homosexual agenda as of 2022.{{cite news |url=https://flatwaterfreepress.org/minds-polluted-film-claims-teachers-are-grooming-students-experts-say-its-filled-with-falsehoods/ |title=Minds polluted? Film claims teachers are 'grooming' students. Experts say it's filled with falsehoods. |first=Carson |last=Vaughan |date=July 15, 2022 |work=Flatwater Free Press}}

=Usage outside the United States=

==Africa==

American Christian right organizations that are losing acceptance among Americans have had more success promoting the notion of a gay agenda in Africa. Examples include Human Life International, American Center for Law & Justice and Family Watch International. Zambian scholar Kapya John Kaoma considers these organizations colonial powers, working to expand American dominance of Africa.{{cite book |last=Kaoma |first=Kapya John |date=2012 |title=Colonizing African Values |publisher=Political Research Associates |pages=v–ix |chapter=Sharon Slater, Family Watch International |isbn=978-0-915987-26-9 |url=https://www.sxpolitics.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/colonizingafricanvaluespra.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140708133122/https://www.sxpolitics.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/colonizingafricanvaluespra.pdf |archive-date=July 8, 2014 |url-status=live }} In Africa, fear of a "Western gay agenda" is frequently used by opponents of LGBTQ rights.{{cite journal |last=van Klinken |first=Adriaan |date=2017 |title=Culture Wars, Race, and Sexuality: A Nascent Pan-African LGBT-Affirming Christian Movement and the Future of Christianity |journal=Journal of Africana Religions |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=217–238 |doi=10.5325/jafrireli.5.2.0217 |jstor=10.5325/jafrireli.5.2.0217 |url=https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/105826/ |issn=2165-5405}}

The concept was used in a series of talks in 2009 by American evangelical Christians in Kampala.{{cite web |last=Gettleman |first=Jeffrey |date=3 January 2010 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/world/africa/04uganda.html |title=Americans' Role Seen in Uganda Anti-Gay Push |website=The New York Times |access-date=5 November 2022 |url-access=limited}}{{cite magazine |last=Kaoma |first=Kapya |date=Winter 2009 |url=http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v24n4/us-christian-right-attack-on-gays-in-africa.html |title=The US Christian Right and the Attack on Gays in Africa |magazine=The Public Eye |publisher=Political Research Associates |volume=24 |issue=4 |access-date=5 November 2022}} A speaker at one such workshop said, {{nowrap|"[Parliament]}} feels it is necessary to draft a new law that deals comprehensively with the issue of homosexuality and [...] takes into account the international gay agenda."{{r|Kaoma 2009}} The eventual result of this campaign was the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 (nicknamed the "Kill the Gays Bill"), which imposed the death penalty for homosexual behavior; this was altered to life imprisonment after the loss of foreign aid was threatened by other countries including the U.S.,{{r|Gettleman Jan 2010}} and the law was later ruled invalid by the Constitutional Court of Uganda.{{cite news |title=Uganda court annuls anti-gay law |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28605400 |access-date=1 August 2014 |work=BBC News |date=1 August 2014}}

In 2021, the Ghana Catholic Bishops' Conference called for LGBTQ rights organizations to be kicked out of their office space in Accra because of the belief that they promote the homosexual agenda.{{cite news |last=Neliba |first=Arnold |date=February 23, 2021 |title=Church Warns European Union against Pushing Homosexual Agenda in Country |url=http://cisanewsafrica.com/ghana-church-warns-european-union-against-pushing-homosexual-agenda-in-country/ |work=Catholic Information Service for Africa |publication-place=Nairobi |access-date=May 4, 2021}}

==Europe==

In Hungary, László Toroczkai, former vice president of the far-right political party Jobbik, has complained of the perceived "homosexual agenda".{{cite web |author= |url=https://tellmamauk.org/hungarian-top-court-overturns-villages-ban-on-mosques-and-lgbt-displays/ |title=Hungarian top court overturns village's ban on mosques and LGBT displays |date=Apr 12, 2017 |website=TellMAMA: Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks |access-date=May 4, 2021}}

Toroczkai introduced a law banning public displays of affection by gay people in 2017.{{cite news |last=Benke |first=Erika |date=February 7, 2021 |title=The village aiming to create a white utopia |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38881349 |work=BBC Victoria Derbyshire programme |access-date=May 4, 2021}}

==Central America==

Before decriminalization of homosexuality in Belize, the LGBT and anti-AIDS organization United Belize Advocacy Movement (UNIBAM) was lambasted in the Amandala newspaper and by American evangelicals who accused the group of trying to bring the "gay 'agenda{{' "}} to the country.{{cite report |last=Beirich |first=Heidi |date=July 2013 |title=Dangerous Liaisons: The American Religious Right & the Criminalization of Homosexuality in Belize |url=https://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/d6_legacy_files/downloads/publication/splc-report-dangerous-liaisons.pdf |publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center |location=Montgomery, Ala. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170130214006/https://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/d6_legacy_files/downloads/publication/splc-report-dangerous-liaisons.pdf |archive-date=January 30, 2017 |url-status=live }}{{rp|19}}

==International organizations==

In 2019, two prominent Roman Catholic cardinals – Raymond Leo Burke and Walter Brandmuller – wrote an open letter to Pope Francis calling for an end of "the plague of the homosexual agenda" to which they in part attributed the sexual abuse crisis engulfing the Catholic Church. They claimed the agenda was spread by "organized networks" protected by a "conspiracy of silence".{{Cite news |author= |date=2019-02-20 |title=Catholic cardinals urge end of 'homosexual agenda' |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47302817 |access-date=2022-11-05}}

Speakers from many nations inveigh against the perceived homosexual agenda at the World Congress of Families annual summit, a focal point of the worldwide "pro-family" movement.{{cite web |first=Claire |last=Provost |url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/global-anti-abortion-lgbt-rights/ |title='This is a war': Inside the global 'pro-family' movement against abortion and LGBT rights |date=June 6, 2017 |website=OpenDemocracy.net |access-date=May 4, 2021}}

Responses

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) describes the terms "gay agenda" and "homosexual agenda" as a "rhetorical invention of anti-gay extremists seeking to create a climate of fear by portraying the pursuit of civil rights for LGBT people as sinister".{{cite web |url=http://www.glaad.org/reference/offensive |title=GLAAD Media Reference Guide: Offensive Terms to Avoid |work=GLAAD |date=9 September 2011 |access-date=27 June 2012 |archive-date=20 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120420141352/http://www.glaad.org/reference/offensive }}

Some writers{{Who|date=November 2022}} have described the term as pejorative.{{cite book |author1=F. Earle Fox |author2=David W. Virtue |title=Homosexuality: Good and Right in the Eyes of God? |date=2002 |publisher=Emmaus Ministries |isbn=978-0-945778-01-1 |pages=269–}}{{Unreliable source?|date=June 2021}}

Commentators have remarked on a lack of realism and veracity to the idea of a gay agenda per se.{{cite web |last=Bouley |first=Charles Karel II |title=The gay agenda revealed! |work=The Advocate |date=February 22, 2005 |url=https://www.advocate.com/politics/commentary/2005/02/22/gay-agenda-revealed |access-date=April 27, 2021}}{{cite web |last=Sa'at |first=Alfian |title=Iced Bandung – What Is The Gay Agenda? |publisher=Trevvy.com |date=March 10, 2007 |url=http://www.trevvy.com/scoops/article.php?a_id=221&c_id=3 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080307070930/http://www.trevvy.com/scoops/article.php?a_id=221&c_id=3 |archive-date=March 7, 2008}}

Such campaigns based on a presumed "gay agenda" have been described as anti-gay propaganda by researchers and critics.{{Who|date=June 2021}}{{Cite book |last=Irvine |first=Janice M. |title=A Queer World: The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader |publisher=New York University Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-8147-1875-9 |editor-last=Duberman |editor-first=Martin B. |page=581 |chapter=One Generation Post-Stonewall: Political Contests over Lesbian and Gay School Reform}}{{Cite book |last1=Mason |first1=Gail |year=1997 |title=Homophobic violence |first2=Stephen |last2=Tomsen |publisher=Hawkins Press |isbn=978-1-876067-04-5}}{{Page needed|date=November 2022}}

At a press conference on December 22, 2010, U.S. Representative Barney Frank said that the "gay agenda" is

{{blockquote|text=to be protected against violent crimes driven by bigotry, it's to be able to get married, it's to be able to get a job, and it's to be able to fight for our country. For those who are worried about the radical homosexual agenda, let me put them on notice. Two down, two to go.{{cite web |author= |title=Barney Frank Reveals Gay Agenda |work=The Advocate |date=22 December 2010 |url=http://www.advocate.com/news/daily-news/2010/12/22/barney-frank-reveals-gay-agenda |access-date=July 4, 2012}}}}

=Satire=

File:Militant Gay Atheist Hugs Rally to Restore Sanity.jpg]]

A satirical 1987 essay by Michael Swift entitled "{{ill|Gay Revolutionary|ru|Гомосексуальный манифест}}" appeared in Gay Community News, describing a scenario in which homosexual men dominate American society and suppress all things heterosexual. The opening line, which read "This essay is an outré, madness, a tragic, cruel fantasy, an eruption of inner rage, on how the oppressed desperately dream of being the oppressor", was omitted when the essay was reprinted in Congressional Record and cited by later religious right publications.{{cite web |title=People with a History: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans* History Sourcebook {{!}} Michael Swift: 'Gay Revolutionary' |url=https://sourcebooks.web.fordham.edu/pwh/swift1.asp |website=Internet History Sourcebooks Project |publisher=Fordham University |access-date=7 March 2024 |date=2023 |editor-last=Halsall |editor-first=Paul}}

The essay has often been cited by conservative Christian authors as proof of a secretive conspiracy to corrupt American youth and subvert the nuclear family, particularly the following paragraph:

{{blockquote|We shall sodomize your sons, emblems of your feeble masculinity, of your shallow dreams and vulgar lies. We shall seduce them in your schools, in your dormitories, in your gymnasiums, in your locker rooms, in your sports arenas, in your seminaries, in your youth groups, in your movie theater bathrooms, in your army bunkhouses, in your truck stops, in your all-male clubs, in your house of Congress, wherever men are with men together. Your sons shall become our minions to do our bidding. They will be recast in our image; they will come to crave and adore us.{{sfnp|Herman|1997|p=85}}}}

The term is sometimes used satirically as a counterfoil by people who would normally find the term offensive, such as the spoof agenda found on the Betty Bowers website,{{cite web |author= |date=n.d. |title=Thanks to Betty Bowers, homosexuals' sneaky little secrets are now revealed to the godly: The Homosexual Agenda! |url=http://www.bettybowers.com/homoagenda.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001009171525/http://www.bettybowers.com/homoagenda.html |archive-date=9 October 2000 |website=Bettybowers.com}} and as the name of a stand-up comedy show in Prague that is a fundraiser for AIDS relief efforts.{{cite web |url=https://www.expats.cz/czech-news/article/pragues-newest-stand-up-night-breaks-down-barriers-and-grab-big-laughs |title=Prague's only LGBTQ comedy troupe cracks jokes, topples barriers |last=Howlings |first=Eva |date=January 21, 2020 |website=Expats.cz |location=Prague |access-date=5 November 2022}}

On a 2007 episode of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart defined the gay agenda as "gay marriage, civil rights protection, Fleet Week expanded to Fleet Year, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) assistance for when it's raining men, Kathy Griffin to host everything and a nationwide ban on pleated pants".{{cite web |last1=Masaki |first1=Lyle |title=Jon Stewart spells out the gay agenda |url=https://www.logotv.com/news/ymkedk/jon-stewart-spells-out-the-gay-agenda |publisher=Logo TV |date=15 August 2007 |access-date=5 November 2022 |archive-date=21 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220921200234/https://www.logotv.com/news/ymkedk/jon-stewart-spells-out-the-gay-agenda |url-status=dead }}

=Reappropriation=

Some LGBTQ activists seek to reappropriate the term "gay agenda" for their own use.

In 2008, openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson declared that "Jesus is the agenda, the homosexual agenda in the Episcopal Church"{{cite web |last1=Robinson |first1=V. Gene |title='Jesus is the Homosexual Agenda' |url=https://www.beliefnet.com/news/2006/06/jesus-is-the-homosexual-agenda.aspx |date=June 14, 2006 |type=Address at the 75th Episcopal General Convention |via=Beliefnet.com |access-date=5 November 2022}} and that the "homosexual agenda [...] is Jesus".{{cite web |last1=De Santis |first1=Solange |title=Church need not be afraid, New Hampshire bishop tells Putney gathering |url=http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_98902_ENG_HTM.htm |website=Episcopal Life Online |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080717075629/http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_98902_ENG_HTM.htm |archive-date=17 July 2008 |date=July 13, 2008}}

A political action committee (PAC) named Agenda PAC was inspired by the notion of the gay agenda. The PAC is led by LGBTQ politicians including Malcolm Kenyatta and Megan Hunt, and advocates for greater LGBTQ political representation.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.metroweekly.com/2022/09/agenda-pac-launches-to-defeat-anti-lgbtq-candidates/ |title='Agenda PAC' launches to defeat anti-LGBTQ candidates |first=John |last=Riley |date=September 1, 2022 |magazine=Metro Weekly}}

American rapper Lil Nas X thanked the "gay agenda" in his acceptance speech at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards.{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2021-09-12/lil-nas-x-wins-video-of-the-year-at-the-2021-mtv-vmas-thank-you-to-the-gay-agenda |date=September 12, 2021 |work=Los Angeles Times |title=Lil Nas X wins video of the year at the 2021 MTV VMAs: 'Thank you to the gay agenda!' |last=Exposito |first=Suzy |url-access=limited}}

References

External links

{{cite web |author= |date=n.d. |url=http://www.rslevinson.com/gaylesissues/features/collect/onetime/bl_platform1972.htm |title=The 1972 Gay Rights Platform: Platform created at the National Coalition of Gay Organizations Convention held in Chicago in 1972 |website=Rslevinson.com |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090413060015/http://www.rslevinson.com/gaylesissues/features/collect/onetime/bl_platform1972.htm |archive-date=April 13, 2009}}{{dash}}Historical text cited by social conservatives as evidence of a "gay agenda"

Category:Political pejoratives

Category:Homophobia

Category:LGBTQ rights movement

Category:Political terminology of the United States

Category:Conspiracy theories in the United States

Category:LGBTQ-related conspiracy theories

Category:Harassment and bullying

Category:Discrimination against LGBTQ people in the United States

Category:2020s anti-LGBTQ movement in the United States

Category:Social conservatism in the United States

Category:Pejorative terms