Linda Harvey Proposes Anti-LGBTQ "Sanctuary Cities"

Earlier this week, Mission America's Linda Harvey penned a commentary piece for World Net Daily entitled "Where Are Sanctuary Cities for Marriage?". In her column, Harvey proposes anti-LGBTQ cities for Americans who cannot bear to see advances in LGBTQ equality.

Harvey caricatures the U.S. as an anti-Christian society that is falling into lawlessness. "Christians are now going to jail if they don't support homosexuality as marriage", Harvey claims, ignoring the fact that Kim Davis was jailed for contempt of court, not her opinions. Furious at the decline of homophobia in American society, Harvey devotes much of her commentary piece to slamming LGBTQ activists ("the vicious homosexual lobby"), politicians, and "judicial bias". She complains that "tyranny and mythology are winning and American constitutional principles are the rule of law are losing", an ironic statement in light of the fact that Kim Davis defied the law.

As an alternative to living in a society in which LGBTQ people enjoy rights, Harvey suggests "sanctuary cities" for anti-LGBTQ Christians. Harvey envisions cities in which the existence of LGBTQ people is erased, business owners can discriminate with impunity, and homophobes can inflict conversion therapy on LGBTQ youth.

"So what do we do now? Here’s my suggestion. Since we are beginning to see violations of constitutional rights based on objections to homosexuality as marriage, I believe there’s a clear precedent for establishing sanctuary cities for authentic, lawful, man/woman marriage.

Think about how great life would be in those cities. After all, unlike the defiance of immigration law, these cities would be upholding the actual law under our actual Constitution, not the imaginary one in the mind of Justice Anthony Kennedy.

So, why not cities that uphold a standing, just law? Family life would be much healthier and safer in these cities. Keep out the vile “gay-pride” parades as well as harassment lawsuits against bakers and florists. And how about no pro-homosexual lessons in school, falsely implying that some people are born homosexual, or born to mutilate themselves by sex-change surgery? Also, no ban on counseling for teens who have same-sex attractions."

Harvey imagines such cities as utopian paradises for the Religious Right, in which homophobes can wallow in bigotry without repercussions.

"But imagine the freedom to live the truth. No one in such cities would be arrested or sued or fired or demoted over marriage, or have a TV show canceled, or be kicked out of grad school, or lose a consulting contract, or be mocked, or given a failing grade for supporting only man/woman marriage, or be prevented from preaching the whole Gospel."

Harvey expects LGBTQ people and their allies to respond to such cities with "screeching" and false accusations of hate crimes.

"Of course, such cities would not be without challenges. They would be targets for dirty tricks, phony “hate crimes,” special sections on “gay apartheid” by the New York Times and so on. The formulaic fables and drama, based on no facts but lots of screeching, can be composed now in advance."

Such cities would be nightmarish for LGBTQ people, their loved ones, and any remotely enlightened citizens. When I picture Harvey's "sanctuary cities", I have flashbacks of the U.S. during the segregation era, an era that America rightfully left behind. .

Religious Right figures such as Harvey think that they can drive out LGBTQ people by excluding them and denying them equal rights. They ignore the fact that LGBTQ people are not monsters over there, but their children, siblings, neighbors, and colleagues. LGBTQ people would still be born in the "sanctuary cities", and would grow up to be adults who would resent the homophobia and transphobia of  their birth cities.

I highly doubt that the Religious Right has the legal standing or critical mass to create such dystopian cities, but the thought alone is chilling. This is the world that many Religious Right figures want to create: a world of scapegoating, hatred, and tribalism.

(Hat tip to Gay Star News.)