In Defence of Homophobes

Gay rights has made great progress across the West in recent years. At the start of this century not a single jurisdiction recognised same-sex marriage, now 19 countries (or parts of them) recognise same-sex marriage. In the US 17 states still had sodomy laws that banned gay sex in 2000.

As a direct result, being homophobic is becoming increasingly unpopular, so much so that it is causing people to lose their jobs! Earlier today the news broke that two brothers, David and Jason Benham, had their show on HGTV (an American channel) cancelled before it even started. Why? Right Wing Watch published an article in which it accused them of being virulently homophobic, with evidence attached. This caused the collective outrage machine, also known as the internet, to attack the brothers and demand that HGTV cancel their show. Back in March Mozilla Firefox appointed Brendan Eich as its CEO. This angered many gay rights activists who were upset at a $1000 donation Eich had made back in 2008 to California’s Proposition 8 which banned same-sex marriage. They demanded Eich’s head, and with the serious threat of a boycott, he resigned on the 3^rd of April, he lasted just ten days.

So is it right to fire people for their opinions, especially when those opinions are shared by millions within their respective country? I say no, we all have opinions which others would be horrified by, how would we feel if we got fired because of our opinions. So long as it doesn’t affect the ability for you to do your job, and it’s not illegal, you shouldn’t be fired, in my opinion.

Sarah Palin was one of many conservative politicians
who rallied to Chick-fil-A's side in 2012.
source: hypervocal.com

There are other reasons why gay rights activists should be careful demanding boycotts and people’s heads on spikes. One would be the potential for backfire, particularly in the US. Remember in 2012 and the whole Chick-fil-A scandal? Gay rights groups got very angry over anti-same-sex marriage donations and statements made by the COO Dan Cathy and demanded a boycott. Big mistake. Many conservatives rallied to Chick-fil-A’s side going so far as to have a “Chick-Fil-A appreciation Day” in which people went to the restaurants to celebrate the company’s homophobia. The direct result of the “boycotts” was a 30% rise in Chick-Fil-A’s profits. Opps.

There is another potential problem: inconsistency. It’s very easy to demand the boycott of Mozilla Firefox when you already use Google Chrome, or refuse to watch HGTV when you’ve never even heard of the channel. It’s easy to say that you’ll never eat at Chick-fil-A when you’ve never previously visited the establishment. It’s easy in those situations because all you are is a “keyboard warrior*”, who is sacrificing zilch. When was the last time that you heard of a serious demand to boycott Saudi Arabian oil, as the country puts homosexuals to death? After all, that is a lot worse than banning gays from getting married. If you demand that Eich, Cathy or the Benham brothers lose their jobs over anti-gay comments or donations, then I can only assume that you make sure that none of your clothes come from Pakistan or Bangladesh as they throw homosexuals in prison. You should demand these boycotts, but you might find yourself short on allies as those boycotts would actually cost people money and require effort.

Mob action also harms the gay rights movement in another way, it makes us look like the homophobes we hate; people with a dogmatic world view who ferociously attack anyone with a dissenting opinion. You don’t convince people to your side of the debate by shouting them down or forcibly silencing them. You have to engage in a debate, only then can you win. Of course there will be people who cannot be swayed by logic or reason, but we don’t need them. So long as a solid majority can be persuaded to our viewpoint, we will win. You also have to remember that their companies employ thousands of other people. By boycotting a company which has a high-ranking employee who makes a homophobic statement, you harm all their employees who are not homophobic. Is this really fair? Of course not.

There is one group of people who this does not apply to: elected officials. Elected officials are supposed to represent the public, unlike CEOs or TV hosts, and hence losing their job for shocking opinions should be what happens. Remember the UKIP councillor from Henley-on-Thames, David Silvester, who blamed the recent floods in the UK on gays? UKIP was absolutely right to throw him out of the party.

I do understand why people want to fire homophobes, but I do fear that it could do more harm than good to the gay rights movement.

*I appreciate the irony of using this phrase as I am also a keyboard warrior. I love the work of many “keyboard warrior” organisations, such as Avaaz; I am a proud follower and donor. But I dislike it when people only sign petitions.

For a full list of countries who ban homosexuality, click here. Note there are two revisions, India now gives homosexuals a minor sentence and Brunei puts them to death.