Hate

The US right is stoking anti-LGBT hate. This shooting was no surprise

[...] There’s a grim routine, these days, to the mass shootings in America. Some elements remain constant from shooting to shooting. Usually, the gunman is a young white man, and usually, he has a history of violence against women. There will have been mental health episodes, or previous run-ins with police. But none of this history will have stopped him from getting a gun. American mass shooters tend to use automatic or semi-automatic long guns, the kind that aren’t available to civilians in other countries. Almost always, they purchased them legally ...

Yes, this is the scenario Republicans have created with their gun fetish and their homophobia.

But it's not just politicians, it's also religious institutions. The Catholic church preaches homophobia. It is still on the books that gay people should not have any romantic or sexual relationships because these are all "intrinsically disordered". It is preached that gay couples should not be allowed to be married. It is preached that gay couples should not be allowed to adopt children. And this is preached to the faithful from womb to tomb.

But it's not just preaching, which the chuch has the right to do. It's that the church lobbies. The church uses its reputational clout and millions of dollars to affect our political system, to influence legislation that affects not just Catholics, but everyone in the United States.

And at the root of all this preaching and all this lobbying is the underlying belief that there is something wrong with gay people. Oh, sure, the church will add disclaimers ... "it's ok to say bad things about gay people, but don't physically hurt them" ... "the church loves gay people, despite how we treat them". This disingenuous passive-aggressive blame-shifting BS fools no one.

It's past time we held not just politicians accountable but the chuch too, for centuries of hate speech and action that results in violence. It is not backed up by the bible, much less by science.