Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyMay 3rd, 2007
The blatant lies (I don’t know how else to describe them, frankly) from opponents to hate crime legislation has reached unbelievable heights, peaking this week as the House takes up the bill. While the rhetoric has crescendoed to a deafening buzz lately, anti-gay opponents have been laying the rhetorical groundwork for quite a long time.
I was thinking about this as I prepared to talk to our local PFLAG chapter last night about the recent Love Won Out ex-gay conference in Phoenix. The topic of hate crime legislation was raised during one of Love One Out’s Q&A sessions. Focus on the Family’s Mike Haley responded by citing Canada as an example of what might happen if hate crime legislation were enacted here:
Right now in Canada, some of the Focus on the Family broadcasts that deal with the issue of homosexuality are not allowed to be aired in Canada. Because to say anything but something positive about homosexuality is considered “hate speech”…
[If hate crime legislation passes in America] …They could basically say that what we are doing today would be considered hate speech. And organizations like Focus on the Family or Love Won Out, we might have stop this at some point because someone would consider this to be hateful.
I don’t know how much of his first statement is true. But as I said before, the Canadian constitution is quite different from ours. As a matter of fact, it’s almost as if they had a whole ‘nother country up there.
Besides, the proposed U.S. legislation has nothing to do with speech whatsoever. We already have hate crime laws on the books to cover race and religion, but those laws haven’t prevented the Klan or neo-Nazi’s from demonstrating publicly. It all comes right down to the fact that our First Amendment is pretty ironclad as far as protecting speech is concerned. So even if the proposed legislation tried to ban speech (which it doesn’t!), it wouldn’t past constitutional muster.
But there’s something else that’s interesting in what Haley said. This flew in under my radar because Focus on the Family maintains a separate web site for Canada, but guess what? Go on. Guess.
That’s right. This coming weekend, Love Won Out is coming to Surrey, British Columbia, a Vancouver suburb. That’s in Canada, where “to say anything but something positive about homosexuality is considered ‘hate speech’.” And as I look over the web site, I see an agenda that pretty much mirrors the American one (absent two talks, one which more specifically addresss American education and the other on same-sex marriage, a fait accompli in Canada).
All of this brings up a whole bunch of questions then. For example, are they going to say anything “but something positive about homosexuality?” Somehow I doubt it. And if they are going to say something negative about homosexuality, will they all be arrested for “hate speech?” Somehow I doubt that too.
Say, you don’t suppose Haley was exaggerating a bit, do you?
If anyone happens to be in the Surrey area this weekend, I’d be very interested in learning more about the conference, specifically who shows up to speak and, if possible, what they say. If anyone has any information about this weekend’s Love Won Out, I’d appreciate it if you could drop it in the comments or send it via E-mail. You can find a link to my E-mail at the top of the sidebar to your left.
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atchitamo
May 4th, 2007
From the Canadian Criminal Code with regard to hate and hate groups Defences against being charged with the crime:
(3) No person shall be convicted of an offence under subsection (2)
(a) if he establishes that the statements communicated were true;
(b) if, in good faith, the person expressed or attempted to establish by an argument an opinion on a religious subject or an opinion based on a belief in a religious text;
(c) if the statements were relevant to any subject of public interest, the discussion of which was for the public benefit, and if on reasonable grounds he believed them to be true; or
(d) if, in good faith, he intended to point out, for the purpose of removal, matters producing or tending to produce feelings of hatred toward an identifiable group in Canada.
In other words, if they read from their bibles (subsection b), there is no problem; if they cite Paul Cameron’s work as fact and know that it’s not (subsection a), there is trouble.
One of the cases that has gone to the tribunals and courts that I hear espoused from certain elements was all about how the bible was banned as hate speech here in Canada, it wasn’t. What was offensive was what appeared in print along side of the bible “bits”, but of course those who like to cite this case seem to leave that part out and tell others that it was the bible that was banned.
Mark
May 4th, 2007
“if they cite Paul Cameron’s work as fact and know that it’s not (subsection a), there is trouble.”
That’s not completely true. Canada does have laws against inciting hatred against any identifiable group, and the exceptions atchitamo cited are, indeed, available. However, one would have an extremely difficult time suggesting that Love Won Out is inciting hatred by quoting Cameron’s ill-conceived study.
Very few people have ever been persecuted under Canada’s hate speech law, and no “pro-family” groups or churches have ever been persecuted under this law for speaking out against homosexuality. (There have been human rights complaints filed against individuals, but that’s a separate jurisdiction and anyone can file such a complaint. Most of these complaints don’t, and haven’t, amounted to anything.)
Canadian anti-gay lobby groups continually cite a few “case studies” to suggest that same-sex marriage has stifled their freedoms. Love Won Out will no doubt regurgitate these in Surrey. I’ve discovered their case to be exaggerated, and I’m in the process of preparing some posts on the matter my website, Slap Upside The Head. (Cough. Shameless plug.)
The bottom line is that saying “anything but something positive about homosexuality” is absolutely not illegal. Our hate speech laws are designed to eliminate nonsense like publicly declaring that entire groups should be put to death, not to eliminate dissenting opinion, which is painstakingly protected.
atchitamo
May 4th, 2007
Mark, didn’t the late Ken Campbell have charges brought against him for citing Cameron’s work during one of his outdoor screaming sessions about executing gays only to have them dropped as there was no proof that he didn’t believe what Cameron’s studies had developed as “truth”? A bit of a convoluted question I realize, and could be way off base too as it’s been a long time since I read the brief and I’m nothing more than an armchair lawyer.
As for your upcoming articles, make sure you check out the Mass Resistance website for the audiocasts interviewing one of Ken Campbell’s protege’s, Tristan Emmanuel.
Oh and Mark, I never miss reading your blog whenever it’s updated. Got to love that art work and your clear, insightful thoughts on matters.
Narra
May 4th, 2007
I know this isn’t completely relevant to these posts but I was just thinking: The reason that the conservatives can’t let the hate-crimes bill pass with the new protected classes is because it will set a precedent that has not been set before (making sexual orientation and gender identity protected classes at the federal level). From there, it would have to be a short, logical, and legal step to add those groups as protected classes for employment discrimination purposes at the federal level and then having them have equal access to civil marriage at the federal level.
Federal protection and civil rights are on the way……logic, reason and compassion are pointing in that direction. Maybe within the next ten years I think.
Mark
May 4th, 2007
Ken Campbell was quite the character; I had almost forgotten about him!
If Ken was publicly calling for the execution of gays, then he definitely could have been charged under Canada’s hate speech laws. I know he was acquitted of simple human rights complaints regarding a newspaper ad he placed around 2000-2001, but I hadn’t heard of actual criminal charges against him. (Parenthetically, I remember Campbell more for his bizarre declaration that the SARS emergency would end if Toronto’s Pride parade were cancelled. Is it strange that I kind of miss him now? ;-) )
Anyway, edging back on topic, sexual orientation wasn’t added to the list of explicitly identified groups protected by hate laws in Canada until 2004, and that amendment was met with the same hysterical opposition as I’m seeing with the State’s hate crimes bill today. Focus on the Family’s claim that free speech is dead is as outrageous now as it was back when they were lobbying against the amendment. Canada’s anti-gay lobby groups continue about their usual business just fine. As long as they don’t incite violence or hatred (and they’re usually pretty careful about that, much like their U.S. counterparts), they’re in the clear.
By the way, thanks, atchitamo, for the kind words and audiocast link; I’ll definitely check it out!
Philip T.
May 4th, 2007
Damn! It’d be interesting to go to Love Won Out – in the same, guilty-pleasures kinda way I keep meaning to get to a monster truck rally or a train wreck someday – to watch things fall apart. But my (opposite sex) spouse and I will be walking the dog, here in Sodom-By-The-Sea, BC. Our decade-long marriage has somehow survived the legalization up here of gay marriage. I haven’t started dreaming of man-flesh, and she hasn’t (that’s she’s let on) started pining for Saphhic embraces. (Though there’d be good money in the home video if she ever did. Or so I hear…)
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