This is episode 163 of the Baehr and Curadh podcast. We are going to talk about things gay people have been blamed for.
Low school grades
In 2013, Sandy Rios, then a host for American Family Radio, a division of the American Family Association, stated on air that a reason for low test scores was schools teaching about "homosexuality" and "radical environmentalism" instead of math and science. Rios made the comments while reading an email on her show, Sandy Rios in the Morning.
Earthquakes
Every time there's a natural disaster, someone eventually comes out of the woodwork to blame gay people. In 2016, New Zealand pastor Brian Tamaki, the leader of the Destiny Church, blamed the country's earthquakes on homosexuality and other forms of "sexual perversion". He made these comments during a sermon shortly before a major earthquake struck the country.
Rachel Dolezal
Former Fox News contributor Keith Ablow explicitly linked the case of Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who presented herself as Black, to the existence of transgender people, claiming the two were the same. He framed the public acceptance of transgender identities as a dangerous "slippery slope" that led to Dolezal's racial misrepresentation.
Floods
Early in 2017, right wing commentators blamed transgender people for a dam breach and flood in California. Breitbart writer Katy Grimes was one of the most vocal critics, blaming "transgender bathrooms" and "sex change operations" for the flood.
The fall of Rome
Roberto De Mattei, a leading but controversial Italian academic, resigned from his position as the Vice-President of the National Research Council of Italy in 2011 after attributing the collapse of the Roman Empire and the subsequent arrival of the Barbarians to the spread of homosexuality. He claimed that Carthage, a Roman colony, was a haven for homosexuals, suggesting that this "abnormal presence" of deviants had a detrimental effect on Roman society.
Any Financial Crisis
US Christian radio host Bryan Fischer made a series of controversial remarks blaming a 'pro-sodomy Gestapo' for a financial crisis. Weighing in on an academics since retracted remarks about economist John Maynard Keynes's bisexuality, Fischer claimed that it was correct that the original remark: "pins the full weight of the financial crisis on the gay community." Failed Presidential nominee Rick Santorum has made similar claims, saying: "When we continue to see a decline in marriage and the redefinition of marriage.
A super-mouse infestation
In 2013, health inspectors discovered a "supermouse" in a Covent Garden branch of Tesco Metro. Rather than being a new supermarket-based superhero, the mouse had grown far larger than normal due to its diet of chicken and cakes. However, advocacy group Christian Voice told PinkNews that the infestation was due to Tesco's support of LGBT rights.
Hurricanes
Following Hurricane Harvey in 2017, a Texas pastor claimed the disaster was divine punishment for the state's failure to pass an anti-transgender "bathroom bill". Conservative commentator Ann Coulter later posted a tweet referencing a similar sentiment, though mentioning a lesbian mayor instead of the bathroom bill.
ISIS
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church claimed that terrorism is partly fueled by gays. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, made these remarks in an interview. He suggested that some individuals fighting for the so-called caliphate in Syria were "honest people" joining out of "truly religious grounds," and that they were motivated in part by Western secularism and its acceptance of gay rights.
The Holocaust
Christian radio host Bryan Fischer has been documented making false and inflammatory statements, including claims that Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party were created by gay men. Fischer's statements were widely denounced as inaccurate and homophobic.
Gun crime
The former president of the National Centre on Sexual Exploitation, Robert Peters, drew a contradictory and highly controversial link between the "decline in morality" resulting from the sexual revolution and mass murders. He initially denied blaming mass murders on the gay rights movement but then immediately contradicted himself by connecting the "sexual revolution" to a "decline in morality" and ultimately to "mass murders".
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