I became aware of this because someone posted it on Facebook. I know that this kind of hate speech happens every day in homes, schools, and churches across the country, but this particular audio clip immediately generated a lot of angry responses from people whose blood boiled when they heard it.
On Harris' website, he apologizes for unintentionally offending people, but doesn't retract his original opinion. He also complains that many people have misquoted what he actually said, yet he does not offer a transcript or video of the sermon to prove his point.
One thing that really stood out to me is his presumption of the dad's role as family disciplinarian. Harris tell dads to "snap" the wrist of a young boy as soon as undesirable behavior is shown- like playing dress up at four years old with women's clothes, and to "reign in" a daughter that doesn't strive to make herself more beautiful. This is really about gender-identity formation, not sexuality. It is not uncommon for people to make this confusion, especially when they have no out gay people in their life. People are so caught up on gender roles that they equate them with sexuality. Even worse, people confuse the normal, exploratory play of young children with expressions of gender and sexuality.
Harris should watch what he says, because the medical community is onto him. An article published last week in the New York Times elaborates on the results of a scientific study which demonstrates something that the rest of us have "known" forever: if someone is an over-achiever at being belligerently homophobic, maybe they're gay. Freud's concept of a "reaction formation" turns out to be testable and true at least part of the time.
The good news: Pastor Harris has apparently never heard of "lipstick lesbians" who will fly safely under his radar because they look, act, and smell like "girls"! And about that limp wrist...
"You can be gay, but you don't have to be a faggot."
activist, spoken-word artist, and host of Generation Q on 88.7 WRSU
