Please forgive me if I sound obtuse, but when I hear the words: “gay agenda”, I immediately think: “Gays fighting to have the same rights everyone else has” (Mainly before SSM)
And that’s not a bad thing at all. That’s a good thing.
Am I missing something here?
Nope, that’s exactly what it is. And it is a good thing, unless you’re homophobic.
The people who used that term were implying that gays had an agenda that differed from the things “normal, decent” people wanted. They wanted to impose their “lifestyle” on others and force them to be accepted.
It’s the idea that drove such nonsensical ideas as SSM somehow ruining traditional marriage.
Have you SEEN their agenda? Lisa Frank is fun, but not when you want to be taken seriously.
Totally without an extensive analysis of the actual body of usage:
Gay’s rights = “Gays fighting to have the same rights everyone else has”
Gay agenda = Them homersexuals are trying to make my grandbabies gay with them there parades and homersexuals kissing on TV
Saying someone “has an agenda” isn’t necessarily implying something bad in all contexts, I guess. But it often implies motives that are self-serving and hidden from others.
PS: my co-worker used to refer to our boss’s “gaygenda,” which was okay because it’s funny and he was her ex-husband.
Heh, I just used that term, ironically, on this MB this morning. For some on the anti-gay side, there was a sense that there some conspiracy by gays to “take over”. Not sure what, exactly, they were supposed to be taking over, but it’s just a general feeling that “they are up to no good”. Maybe even recruiting more people to be gay, or something.
If you remember the episode where Ellen came out to the character played by Laura Dern, there is a scene at the end where she is given her toaster-oven for meeting her recruitment goals. It was very funny.
Because the only people who actually use the term imply that it’s not just “seeking equal rights”. It’s like if someone talks about the “feminist orthodoxy” - do you think they have a positive opinion of said orthodoxy?
Because having equal rights is somehow threatening to some people.
Conservapedia is actually useful at times, to see what Conservatives think the issue is. According to them:
(emphasis not mine)
If you’d asked some people a few years ago, they’d have said the gay agenda was about destroying moral values and replacing them with with orgies, the elimination of marriage in favor of a different partner every night, so that children didn’t have stable homes (but gays don’t have children, so they don’t think of that!) and people walking around in outlandish clothes that are not only garish, but blur the distinction between men and women.
Seriously, some people thought gay people wanted to turn America into a cross between a drag show, and a hippie commune where everyone slept with everyone.
This sort of thing always reminds me of this debate between William F Buckley and some Moral Majority guy back in the early 1980’s. The MM guy was claiming that if Cocaine was legalized, everyone would be doing cocaine. Buckley said “I won’t be. Will you?” The MM guy stammered and Buckley said, “Ok, so not everyone then?”
My former gamer buddy’s psycho wife was constantly on about this stuff while Obama was President. How they’re going to force people in the military to be gay :rolleyes: and stuff like that.
Just alarmist statements to cover up their own discomfort with things outside of their carefully constructed little boxes.
Oh, and let’s not forget Pedophilia. Won’t someone think of the children?
That is some batshit crazy right there.
The Real Gay Agenda: To have the same rights as every other citizen and to be allowed to pursue their own happiness just as everyone else does.
Honestly, if anyone thinks it is otherwise, you’re listening to the wrong people.
I have always felt that the term “gay agenda” was rather demeaning and degrading as well, since it implies that “gays” aren’t individuals, with the same variety of motivations, drives and ideals as “regular folk,” but are a monolithic “them” to be fought reflexively.
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So, that’s an exaggeration. But it’s not completely disjoint from what might be called the liberal agenda. Here are some actual liberal ideals that map roughly to those:
Sex between consenting adults is okay, even if they aren’t married to each other. (And with the permission of anyone they are married to.)
People who aren’t comfortable in the sex role they are assigned at birth should be tolerated, and allowed to take on the trappings of the sex role they prefer. Or even call themselves non-binary and hover between sex roles.
People wearing unusual cloths in public should be tolerated and treated with respect.
Hmm, even liberals mostly support stable homes for children, but think it’s okay of those homes are headed by two women, or two men, or three people in a mutually committed relationship.
More liberal than gay, but hey, close enough.
“Agenda” makes anything sound bad.
“Hillary Clinton is trying to get her policy platform enacted” = might sound good.
“Hillary Clinton is going around trying to promote her agenda” = sounds self-serving, cunning, and power-hungry.