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Sexual Orientation
10 Myths About the "Gay Agenda"
Anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda is on the rise, often based on these common myths.
Updated September 19, 2024 Reviewed by Devon Frye
Key points
- "Gay agenda" myths have coincided with a surge in anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes and 500+ proposed anti-LGBTQ+ bills.
- Ignorance about centuries of LGBTQ+ activism may fuel myths that political wins involve force or secrecy.
- Dominant groups may misread social movements as threats, due to out-group bias and political self-interest.
- Minority groups that de-center dominant/privileged groups can be pathologized or scapegoated as punishment.
Globally, 71 nations have criminalized being LGBTQ+, and in the U.S., at least 510 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been proposed since 2023.
At the same time, “gay agenda” propaganda has increased and has coincided with a rise in anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes that disproportionately have targeted LGBTQ+ people of color, specifically Black femmes and trans women.
Part of the problem, it seems, is that LGBTQ+ history is largely foreign and unfamiliar to mainstream society. This means that many "typical" heterosexual people may perceive that LGBTQ+ people used force or secrecy to bring about the relatively recent mainstream recognition of LGBTQ+ people’s humanity, when, in actuality, it took centuries of activism and organizing.
This lack of historical context is exacerbated by the fact that people who are politically self-interested can sometimes mistake solidarity around human rights as an adversarial plot, especially if they feel excluded because their identity is de-centered. These individuals may fail to see how the same tactics have been repackaged across groups at different points in time—as well as how interdependent our welfare is.
Relatedly, it’s not uncommon to overestimate the differences between one's own group (ingroup) and an unfamiliar group (outgroup), when sometimes there can be just as many differences within the outgroup. People who seem like they’re plotting together, for example, may actually be working together toward a common goal, despite their differences, because they both believe in the value of their actions—not because of indoctrination.
While some will always remain committed to ignorance, it’s never too late for the rest of us to unlearn. Below are some common myths about LGBTQ+ people or the so-called "gay agenda."
Myth 1: LGBTQ+ people are anti-religion. Many LGBTQ+ people who critique organized religion are concerned with religious abuse, not opposing religion itself. In most cases, it’s neither disbelief in God nor opposition to people’s religiosity that drives their critiques, but instead a pointed questioning of a hateful fixation that certain religions have with LGBTQ+ people.
In fact, organizations like Pride in the Pews have directed LGBTQ+ people toward inclusive religious spaces via innovative tools like its directory of LGBTQ+-affirming Black churches. And the faith of many LGBTQ+ people grows after engaging in artistic and scholarly projects like the documentary "1946: The Mistranslation that Translation that Shifted a Culture," a film that exposes the agenda of editors who included "homosexuality" in the Bible starting in 1946.
Myth 2: LGBTQ+ people are anti-family. Healthy dynamics––not gender roles or family size––are what make a family functional. And LGBTQ+ parents are too busy creating these dynamics to be plotting (allegedly) the institutional downfall of heterosexual marriage.
Research backs this up: Kids of LGBTQ+ parents are just as emotionally stable as kids of heterosexual parents while outperforming them academically, on average. Further, kids with an LGBTQ+ parent (2-3.7 million, or 3 to 6 percent of all kids) often come from the child welfare system, where the state placed them because of abuse, neglect, and/or abandonment—often by heterosexual parents.
Myth 3: LGBTQ+ people are anti-masculinity. Toxic masculinity—not masculinity in and of itself, but the kind that leads to hate crimes—is what most LGBTQ+ people critique.
Healthy masculinity contrasts toxic masculinity, which is rooted in femmephobia, male supremacy, patriarchal violence, rape culture, and more broadly, hierarchy and rivalry. Many butch, masc, and/or transmasculine LGBTQ+ folks embody healthy masculinity.
Myth 4: Gay men infiltrate and manipulate the media to feminize men. Across racial groups, gay men attain more bachelor’s degrees than any other group (52 percent vs 35 percent for straight men), are more likely to major in the arts/humanities, and are twice as likely as straight men to hold advanced degrees—all factors which likely contribute to their overrepresentation in creative/media fields.
Further, the media commonly depicts gay men as hyper-feminine not because gay men are allegedly plotting a takeover, but because many heterosexual men seem more comfortable laughing at overblown stereotypes than identifying with masculine queer characters who are relatable.
Myth 5: Kids are too young to know they’re LGBTQ+. According to GLSEN, forty-five percent of students in grades 3-6 reported that their peers used the word “gay” in a derogatory way. Students also reported hearing many other anti-gay/trans words, like “d-ke,” “f-ggot,” “fairy,” “lesbo” and “sissy.” Many of these youngsters might claim to be heterosexual, if asked; yet anti-LGBTQ+ adults wouldn’t consider that problematic. These adults struggle to comprehend that a romantic orientation doesn’t require sexual exposure/experience and that adults, not kids, sexualize love.
Myth 6: LGBTQ+ people “force” their queerness on others, especially kids. At least 22 states have not banned adults from subjecting LGBTQ+ minors to abusive conversion “therapy”, and 1,300 conversion “therapists” actively practice in the U.S. Their work is the epitome of non-consensual interaction with kids. Yet, as recently as 1978, California legislators proposed a bill to fire openly gay teachers, under the guise of “protecting” kids from queer predators.
The kicker? Eighty-two percent of child predators who did respond to a survey about their sexual orientation identified as heterosexual (some did not respond, drastically reducing the figure).
Myth 7: Being LGBTQ+ is a “lifestyle” choice or byproduct of one’s environment. In the words of TS Madison: “Lifestyle is, I don’t go past row-six on the plane. Lifestyle is, I need a black car everywhere I go. Life is, I am gay. Life is, I am trans. Life is, I am lesbian. Life is, this is me. This is not a ‘style’ or something that I can just—if I lost this tomorrow—find another way.”
Likewise, one’s environment doesn’t dictate sexual orientation. For example, video games, music videos, and half-time shows geared toward the hetero-male gaze don’t sway gay men. So, why would gay media sway heterosexual boys and men?
Myth 8: Being LGBTQ+ increases the risk of suicide. In 1973, 5,854 of 10,000 psychiatrists voted for the American Psychiatric Association to declassify homosexuality as a psychiatric disorder (“sexual deviance/perversion”). Unfortunately, even today, some people continue to weaponize psychiatry in service of hetero-supremacy by victim-blaming LGBTQ+ folks for minority stress.
In reality, LGBTQ+ folks face bias in banking, education, employment, faith communities, healthcare, housing, the military, prisons, policing (e.g. 42 percent of gay Black men report police harassment), and courts (e.g., “gay panic defenses” for murder and HIV criminalization). The connection between these kinds of structural trauma and suicide is well-documented.
Myth 9: LGBTQ+ people are mostly young. Until 1969, police routinely raided LGBTQ businesses and nightlife establishments. And only in 2003 did Texas strike down its “Homosexuality Conduct Law.” These repressive laws—which often made it actively dangerous for members of older generations to be "out" publicly—are just a couple of reasons “out” LGBTQ+ people tend to be younger.
What's more, doctors and reporters dubbed AIDS “gay cancer” when it reached an epidemic level in July 1981. Some think this is why Reagan never said “AIDS” until September 17, 1985. Although AIDS wasn’t exclusive to gay men, thousands died waiting for Reagan to take action.
Today, these deceased men would be 60+. Fortunately, LGBTQ+ elders now have advocacy organizations like SAGE, as well as growing movements for LGBTQ+ senior living facilities.
Myth 10: LGBTQ+ people are mostly white. Forty-two percent of LGBTQ+ folks are non-white, and we have been influential throughout history, even if we weren’t accounted for.
Bayard Rustin, for example, was Dr. King’s Quaker mentor who taught him about non-violent civil disobedience, who reframed the 1963 March on Washington to be about freedom and jobs to signal the need for civil rights protections, and who coordinated the "I Have a Dream" speech.
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Yet, homophobic Black pastors pressured Dr. King into persuading Bayard to give all credit to Dr. King. Ironically, racist LGBTQ+ folks did the same thing to Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera.
The parallels illustrate the common experience of being a queer and/or trans person of color.
