"Authoritarian Reactionary Chritianity" seems to capture what I'm seeing all over the news. Even Canada is struggling with it, as conservative Christians rally across the country against trans rights (prompting a small child on the stage of a rally in Calgary to pick up a mic and shout, "The gays are psychopaths, the gays are disgusting."
In Saskatchewan yesterday, the premier officially supported a law that would discriminate against and grievously harm trans students — officially invoking the "notwithstanding clause" to suspend Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He had to. The law clearly violates the Charter in several specific — meaning it clearly violates the guaranteed human rights of transgender students.
There's no secret who's pushing for this law and who has organized more than 77 anti-LGBTQ rallies across Canada: authoritarian reactionary Christians.
Canadians in general are shocked, because they see themselves as somewhat immune to U.S. style Christian reactionary trends.
Obviously, here in the U.S., things are much worse.
Some queer people in red states are packing their bags, uprooting their families, and fleeing. Those (probably most) who can't afford to relocate are living with persecution, fighting to retain custody of their children, or facing rising street violence and unjust discrimination at work.
Not that blue states are guaranteed safe havens. I wrote a story last week examining the rise in violence by noting that a 72-year-old man was gay bashed last month in the heart of Chelsea, New York City's queerest neighborhood.
A group of teenagers beat him so badly while calling him a faggot that he was hospitalized for a broken jaw.
Why is violence rising like this? It's not hard to see for those who want to look. The very same day I saw the news about that man's beating, I read several other news stories about LGBTQ people being villainized and dehumanized. So, I wrote about how children are being taught to hate, and how some of them are internalizing the message.
The subtext of the story is authoritative, reactionary Christianity, of course.
The kids are learning those hate messages from respected Christian adults in their lives.
