Anti-gay activists claim that homosexuality goes against traditional
family values, that homosexuality is a
Trojan Horse, or that it destroys families and humankind through homosexual which will lead to the extinction of humanity.
Homosexuality as a cause of disasters The argument that homosexuals cause
natural disasters has been around for more than a thousand years, even before
Justinian blamed earthquakes on "unchecked homosexual behavior" in the sixth century. This trope was common in
early modern Christian literature; homosexuals were blamed for earthquakes, floods, famines, plagues, invasions of
Saracens, and field mice. This discourse was revived by
Anita Bryant in 1976 when she blamed homosexuals for droughts in California. Homosexuals have been blamed for hurricanes, including
Isaac,
Katrina, and
Sandy. In 2020, various religious figures including Israeli rabbi
Meir Mazuz have argued that the
COVID-19 pandemic is divine retribution for same-sex activity or
pride parades. Following the
September 2001 attacks, televangelist
Jerry Falwell blamed "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an
alternative lifestyle, the
ACLU, People for the American Way" for provoking the aggression of
Islamic fundamentalists and causing God to withdraw his protection for America. On the broadcast of the Christian television program
The 700 Club, Falwell said, "You helped this happen". He later apologized and said, "I would never blame any human being except the terrorists". In 2012, Chilean politician
Ignacio Urrutia claimed that allowing homosexuals to serve in the
Chilean military would cause Perú and Bolivia to invade and destroy his country.
AIDS as punishment An outgrowth of the discourse on homosexuality argues that
HIV/AIDS is divine punishment for homosexuality. During the early years of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, mainstream newspapers labeled it a "gay plague". For a few years, the misleading technical name for the disease was
gay-related immune deficiency. The slogan "AIDS Kills Fags Dead" (a pun on the commercial slogan for
Raid insecticide "Raid Kills Bugs Dead") appeared during the early years of AIDS in the United States, when the disease was mainly diagnosed among male homosexuals and was almost invariably fatal. The slogan caught on quickly as a catchy
truism, a
chant, or simply something written as
graffiti. It is reported that the slogan first appeared in public in the early 1990s, when
Sebastian Bach, the former lead singer of the
heavy metal band
Skid Row, wore it on a
t-shirt thrown to him by an audience member. The slogan "AIDS cures fags" is used by the Westboro Baptist Church. During an anti-gay neo-Nazi rally in the German city of
Görlitz in 2024, participants chanted "" ("HIV, help us, there are still gays").
Homosexuality as unnatural , Poland: "Boy–girl is the normal family". This has, in turn, been graffitied to add the word "not" in
Polish, and
two female symbols. Describing homosexuality as unnatural dates back to
Plato,
Aristotle, and
Thomas Aquinas. However, there is no single definition of "unnatural". Some of those who argue that homosexuality is unnatural in the sense of being absent from nature, an argument refuted by the presence of
homosexuality in animals. Others mean that the genitals were created for reproduction (either by God or natural selection) and are not intended to be used for purposes they deem "
unnatural". Proponents of this idea often argue that homosexuality is immoral because it is unnatural, but opponents argue that this argument makes an
is–ought conflation. Some proponents of the "unnaturalness" thesis argue that homosexual behavior is the result of "" or willful sinfulness.
Homosexuality as a disease Nazi propaganda described homosexuality as a contagious disease but not in the medical sense. Rather, homosexuality was a disease of the (national body), a metaphor for the desired national or racial community (). According to Nazi ideology, individuals' lives were to be subordinated to the like cells in the human body. Homosexuality was seen as a virus or cancer in the because it was seen as a threat to the German nation. The SS newspaper
Das Schwarze Korps argued that 40,000 homosexuals were capable of "poisoning" two million men if left to roam free. Some of those who called homosexuality , such as
Traditional Values Coalition head and
Christian right activist
Louis Sheldon, said that if it were proven to be a biologically based phenomenon, it would still be diseased. The Catholic Church still
officially teaches that "homosexual tendencies" are "objectively disordered". In 2016, anti-LGBT rhetoric was increasing in Indonesia under the Twitter hashtag #TolakLGBT (#RejectLGBT), stating that LGBT is a disease. In 2019, Archbishop
Marek Jędraszewski said that a "rainbow plague" was threatening Poland. In 2020, the education minister defended an official who warned that "LGBT virus" was threatening Polish schools, and was more dangerous than
COVID-19.
Homosexuality as a choice or lifestyle Along with the idea of "
homosexual recruitment", the idea of a "
gay lifestyle" or "
homosexual lifestyle" is used by social and religious conservatives in the United States to argue that non-heterosexual
sexual orientations are consciously chosen. However, scientists favor
biological explanations for sexual orientation, arguing that people typically feel no sense of control over their sexual orientation or attractions. The term "gay lifestyle" may also be used disparagingly for a series of stereotyped behaviours. Christian right activists may worry that increasing
LGBT rights will make the "gay lifestyle" more attractive to young people. US media in the 1970s frequently used the term "
alternative lifestyle" as a euphemism for homosexuality. The term was employed in an anti-gay context by opponents of the
Equal Rights Amendment, as well as supporters of California's
Proposition 6, which would have barred openly gay teachers in public schools. In 1977, while campaigning against a local ordinance protecting gay teachers against
employment discrimination, anti-gay activist
Anita Bryant stated, "A homosexual is not born, they are made". US president
Ronald Reagan described the
gay rights movement in opposition to American culture, saying the movement was "asking for a recognition and acceptance of an alternative lifestyle which I do not believe society can condone".
Homosexuality as sinful or ungodly picketing at the
University of Kansas Many conservative Christians consider homosexual acts to be inherently sinful based on common interpretations of scriptural passages such as
Leviticus 18:22 ("You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination"),
Leviticus 20:13 ("If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them"), and
1 Corinthians 6:9–10 ("Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.") Various inflammatory and controversial slogans have been used by opponent congregations and individuals, particularly by
Fred Phelps, founder of the
Westboro Baptist Church. These slogans have included "God Hates Fags", "Fear God Not Fags", and "
Matthew Shepard Burns In Hell". prior to the city's Pride Parade: "God hates lechery" Homosexuality is also frequently considered sinful in
Islam. In some Middle Eastern countries, acts of homosexuality are punishable by death. Anti-LGBT rhetoric and political homophobia are growing in some Muslim countries. Other religious leaders, including Christians, Muslims, and Jews, have denounced anti-LGBT rhetoric. , 2017 The slogan "God made
Adam and Eve, not
Adam and Steve" alludes to a Bible-based argument that homosexuality is sinful and unnatural. A 1970 editorial in
Christianity Today quoted a
graffito in San Francisco that read, "If God had wanted homosexuals, he would have created Adam and Freddy." In 1977, anti-gay activist
Anita Bryant made a similar comment using the phrase "Adam and Bruce". The version with "Adam and Steve" first appeared on a protest sign at a 1977 anti-gay rally in Houston, Texas, featuring
Christian right figures such as
Phyllis Schlafly and National Right to Life Committee founder
Mildred Jefferson. The slogan was also used in "The Gay Bar," a 1977 episode of the sitcom
Maude. In 1979,
Jerry Falwell used the "Adam and Steve" slogan in a press conference cited in
Christianity Today. During the initial outbreak of
HIV/AIDS in the United States in 1985, conservative congressman
William E. Dannemeyer used the slogan to argue that gay men were a threat to public health. The phrase later acquired a certain notoriety, and, when used to name a pair of characters in a work of fiction, helps to identify them as members of a homosexual pair (as in
Paul Rudnick's play
The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and the 2005 film
Adam & Steve). Zimbabwean presidential candidate
Nelson Chamisa said in a 2019 interview that "[w]e must be able to respect what God ordained and how we are created as a people, there are a male and a female, there are Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve". The phrase has been reclaimed by LGBT people and used in blogs, comics, and other media mocking the anti-gay message. Mohamad used it for political advantage in the 1998 scandal involving the sacking and jailing of MP and former
Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim by Mohamad amidst accusations of sodomy that the
Sydney Morning Herald termed a "blatantly political fix-up". Anwar was subsequently subjected to two trials and sentenced to nine years imprisonment for corruption and sodomy. While in New York for a meeting of the United Nations, Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was invited to speak at Columbia University in New York to give a lecture. When responding to a student's question afterward, he said, speaking through an interpreter: "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country." In his native
Farsi, he used the slang equivalent of
faggot, not the neutral term for a "homosexual". Claims that homosexuality is a Western disease have been observed in Vietnam, China, India, Ethiopia and other African nations, as well as among many
Muslims worldwide.
Conflation with pedophilia " The
claim that homosexuals sexually abuse children predates the current era, as it was leveled against
pederasts even during
antiquity. Lawmakers and social commentators have sometimes expressed a concern that normalizing homosexuality would also lead to normalizing pedophilia, if it were determined that pedophilia too were a sexual orientation. A related claim is that
LGBT adoption is done for the purpose of
grooming children for sexual exploitation. The empirical research shows that sexual orientation does not affect the likelihood that people will abuse children. Others have made hoaxes intending to falsely associate pedophilia with the LGBT community by rebranding it as a sexual orientation, including claims that the "+" in "LGBT+" refers to "pedophiles,
zoophiles, [and]
necrophiles", as well as the invented terms "agefluid", "clovergender" (a hoax executed by users of the
imageboard 4chan, whose logo is a stylized
four-leaf clover), and "pedosexual". Starting in 2022, some conservatives, including Chaya Raichik of
Libs of TikTok, started using the terms "grooming", "groomer" and "pro-pedophile" against their opponents and LGBT people over anti-LGBT legislation, such as laws restricting and banning discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. Critics say that these usages of the terms diminish the experiences of sexual assault survivors, smear the LGBT community, and are dangerous in general. That same year, after the arrest of
William and Zachary Zulock in
Walton County, Georgia, United States, right-wing political commentators like
Laura Ingraham and
Charlie Kirk espoused homophobic views, baselessly linking the crimes committed by the Zulocks to their homosexuality. The rhetoric was replicated by Argentine president
Javier Milei in early 2025.
"Gay agenda" Recruitment The charge of "
homosexual recruitment" is an allegation by social conservatives that LGBT people engage in concerted efforts to
indoctrinate children into homosexuality. In the United States, this dates back to the early
post-war era. Proponents were found especially among the
New Right, as epitomized by
Anita Bryant. In her
Save Our Children campaign, she promoted a view of homosexuals recruiting youth. Supporters of recruitment allegations point at "deviant" and "prurient"
sex education as evidence. They express concern that anti-bullying efforts teach that "homosexuality is normal, and that students shouldn't harass their classmates because they're gay", suggesting recruitment as the primary motivation. Supporters of this myth cite the inability for
same-sex couples to reproduce as a motivation for recruitment. Sociologists and psychologists describe such claims as an anti-gay myth, and a fear-inducing
bogeyman. Many critics believe the term promotes the
myth of homosexuals as pedophiles: • In 1977, Anita Bryant successfully campaigned to repeal an ordinance in
Miami-Dade County that prohibited discrimination based on
sexual orientation. Her campaign was based on allegations of homosexual recruitment. Writing about Bryant's efforts to repeal a Florida anti-discrimination law in the
Journal of Social History, Michel Boucai wrote that "Bryant's organization,
Save Our Children, framed the law as an endorsement of immorality and a license for 'recruitment'." • Oregon's proposed 1992
Ballot Measure 9 contained language that would have added anti-LGBT rhetoric to the
state Constitution. U.S. writer
Judith Reisman justified her support for the measure, citing "a clear avenue for the recruitment of children" by gays and lesbians. • In a 1998 debate in the British House of Lords on lowering the same-sex age of consent to 16 (equalising it with the opposite-sex age of consent), former Labour cabinet minister Lord Longford opposed the change by stating that "If some elderly, or not so elderly, schoolmaster seduced one of my sons and taught him to be a homosexual, he would ruin him for life." The age of consent was equalised in the UK in 2001. • A
small newspaper in Uganda's capital attracted international attention in 2010 when it outed 100 gay people alongside a banner that said, "Hang them", and claimed that homosexuals aimed to "recruit" Ugandan children, and that schools had "been penetrated by gay activists to recruit kids." According to gay rights activists, many Ugandans were attacked afterward as a result of their real or perceived sexual orientation. Minorities activist
David Kato, who was outed in the article and a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit against the paper, was subsequently murdered at home by an intruder and an international outcry resulted. • In 1998,
The Onion parodied the idea of "homosexual recruitment" in an article titled "'98 Homosexual-Recruitment Drive Nearing Goal", saying "Spokespersons for the National Gay & Lesbian Recruitment Task Force announced Monday that more than 288,000 straights have been converted to homosexuality since January 1, 1998, putting the group well on pace to reach its goal of 350,000 conversions by the end of the year." According to Mimi Marinucci, most US adults who support gay rights would recognize the story as satire due to unrealistic details. citing it as evidence of a gay conspiracy.
Homosexual conspiracies "Homintern" During the
Cold War, anti-queer commentators in the United States sought to link homosexuality and
Communism, using the terms "homintern" and "
homosexual mafia" as shorthand for a purported homosexual conspiracy in the arts. "Homintern" is a reference to the "
Comintern", the Soviet-sponsored international organization of communist political parties. According to historian
Michael S. Sherry, the term was probably used jokingly among artists and writers in England in the 1930s to mock the idea of a powerful
cabal of queer artists. Coining of the term has been attributed to various writers, including
W. H. Auden,
Cyril Connolly,
Jocelyn Brooke,
Harold Norse, and
Maurice Bowra. Sherry coined the phrase "homintern discourse" to refer to American conspiracy theories targeting gay artists, many of whose works were prominently used as propaganda in the
Cultural Cold War against the Soviet Union. During the
second Red Scare in the 1950s, the "homintern" was invoked by American Senator
Joseph McCarthy, who used it to claim that the administrations of
Franklin D. Roosevelt and
Harry S. Truman were set on destroying America from within. According to Sherry, the "homintern discourse" began to decline with the growth of
1960s counterculture and skepticism about the United States' role in the Cold War and
Vietnam War.
"Gaystapo" The term "Gaystapo" () was coined in France in the 1940s by political satirist
Jean Galtier-Boissière for the
Vichy education minister,
Abel Bonnard. It was subsequently applied by
National Front leader
Jean-Marie Le Pen to
Florian Philippot, whom he accused of being a bad influence on
Marine Le Pen.
"Gay mafia" English theater critic
Kenneth Tynan wrote to
Playboy editor Auguste Comte Spectorsky in 1967, proposing an article on "The Homosexual Mafia" in the arts. Inspired by this idea,
Playboy would subsequently publish a panel discussion on gay issues in April 1971. The similar term, "velvet mafia," used to describe the influential gay crowd who supposedly ran Hollywood and the fashion industry in the late 1970s, was coined by
New York Sunday News writer
Steven Gaines in reference to the
Robert Stigwood Organization, a British record company and management group. "Gay mafia" became more widely used in the US media in the 1980s and 1990s, such as the American daily
New York Post. The term was also used by the British
tabloid The Sun in response to what it claimed was sinister dominance by gay men in the
Labour Party Cabinet.
"Lavender mafia" While the term "Lavender Mafia" has occasionally been used to refer to informal networks of gay executives in the US
entertainment industry, more generally it refers to Church politics. For example, a faction within the
leadership and clergy of the
Roman Catholic Church that allegedly advocates the acceptance of
homosexuality within the Church and its teachings.
"Gay lobby" The term "
homo lobby" or "
gay lobby" is often used by opponents of LGBT rights in Europe. For example, the Swedish neo-Nazi party
Nordic Resistance Movement runs a "crush the homo lobby" campaign. According to the German newspaper
Der Tagesspiegel, advocating for LGBT rights could accurately be called
lobbying. The term ('gay lobby') is insulting because it is used to suggest a powerful conspiracy that does not actually exist. In 2013,
Pope Francis spoke about a "gay lobby" within the
Vatican, and promised to see what could be done. In July 2013, Francis went on to distinguish the problem of
lobbying and the
sexual orientation of people: "If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?" "The problem", he said, "is not having this orientation. We must be brothers. The problem is lobbying by this orientation, or lobbies of greedy people, political lobbies,
Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies. This is the worse problem." == Anti-transgender rhetoric ==