The 1950s and 1960s saw a proliferation of evengelical preachers especially throughout the South and the Midwest. Fudamentalist preachers spoke out against attempts at desegregation. There was a belief that God had a hand in segregation and that the government had no place in changing the social structure of the South. People like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson were unknown outside of their local congregations. But these men, and those like them, came from a long line of evangelical thought which saw everything in terms of white vs. black and good vs.evil without room for compromise.This uncompromising view of social issues has framed the debate over gay rights to this day.
The 1960s also saw a great deal of social turmoil in the country which fundamentalists began to blame on the "liberal establishment".They looked at decisions handed down by the Supreme Court which were increasing the seperation of church and state. They saw the rise of feminist ideology as threatening the basic family structure. They felt that the growing lack of support for the Vietnam war was exemplary of a society that was dissatisfied with a government which was becoming more liberal. There was a sense that the country was turning away from God. For fundamentalists the 60s were a catalyst to enter politics themselves and on a larger scale than ever before. They believed that their ideals, which were they believed to be the ideals of the country at large, had no voice.
In 1969 a riot at the Stonewall Inn in New York gave rise to the gay rights movement. As gay people began to become involved in politics, and ever more vocal, fudamentalists saw a great social war on the horizon. Beginning in the 70s, a little known Phyllis Schalfly, herself a Catholic, baecme a great ally to the fudamentalists.14 She had entered into politics in order to oppose the ERA. She was a great speaker and organizer against equal rights for women. It was really Schlafly who promoted the attack on gays. She sought to discredit the women*s movement by accusing feminsists of being closet lesbians. The association between lesbianism and feminism became so detrimental that some feminist leaders tried to purge their oganizations of their lesbian members. Schlafly*s attacks on lesbians, and gays in general, laid the groundwork for public, political opposition to the idea of gays having rights. She was aided in publicizing the homosexual threat by Anita Bryant and her campaign against gay school teachers.By the end of the 1970s evengelical preachers like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson were building large financial war chests by exploiting people*s fears and stereotypes about homosexuals.
By the time the ERA had failed to pass in the mid 80s it was no longer acceptable to speak out against womens rights. It was certainly not acceptable to preach against desegregation. Fudamentalists, which had become a huge political force through organizations like the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition, were resisting the perceived effects of feminism by opposing legalized abortion. They were also fighting any attempt at recognizing gays as being entitled to any type of civil rights. For the most part fundamentalism had lost the debate on segregation and feminism, as it had with evolution. But the debate on gay rights wasn*t over, and still isn*t. So gays became the "demons" that all Christians should oppose. The large organizations of volunteers and the millions of dollars that Falwell and Robertson had built up to wage social war became focused on turning back the few gay rights laws that had been passed and on preventing any others from being passed. Homosexuals were characterized as being anti-family, anti-American, pedophiles who would bring the whole country out of grace with God. They were, and are, seen by many as selfish perverts who have chosen to imperil society so that they may celebrate their perversion. Christians, along with the rest of the country, have been told to fear gays for a variety of reasons ranging from their desire to convert heterosexuals to their lifestyle to their lust for children. Fundamentalists would like the country to see gays as they see them: as the personification of evil. These extreme views have colored and at time led the publics perceptions of its gay members.
