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Jewish World Review / Nov. 2, 1998 / 12 Mar-Cheshvan, 5759
Don Feder
Loving response to a hateful conference
"YOU KILLED MATTHEW SHEPARD," a woman shrieked at me as I walked into a Claremont
Institute conference in Los Angeles a week ago. The emotion contorting her face did not
approximate compassion.
The conference -- "Making Sense of Homosexuality," co-sponsored by the National
Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) -- was unanimously
condemned by the L.A. City Council, picketed by rabid protesters, who invaded its forum at
the Biltmore Hotel (verbally assailing those in attendance), and driven from its original venue
at the Beverly Hilton.
NARTH is an organization of psychiatrists and psychologists who believe homosexuality is
a treatable developmental disorder. Claremont is a think tank composed of what its
president, Larry Arnn, calls "natural law conservatives."
The conference was indeed a fearsome affair. Speakers included three MDs, five Ph.D.s,
lawyers, legislators, a member of the California advisory panel to the U.S. Civil Rights
Commission and me.
Its hate-filled rhetoric included the observation by Hadley Arkes, a professor of
constitutional law at Amherst College, that the gay-rights movement "shows not the least
degree of tolerance for anyone who would call into question, even gently, the rightness of
the homosexual life."
Another dangerous demagogue heard from was Eleanor Durham, a Seattle attorney and
mother of a second-grader, who explained how activists got a "gay-affirming" curriculum
into the city's schools.
Referring to gay marriage, Arkes cautioned, "Marriage cannot be detached from what some
might call the 'natural teleology of the body': namely, the inescapable fact that only two
people, not three, only a man and a woman, can begat a child." Gasp, how hateful!
The left is determined to squeeze the last ounce of advantage out of the tragic murder of
Matthew Shepard. "The constant degrading of homosexuals is exacting a toll in blood,"
Jonathan Alter writes in Newsweek.
This argument is bizarre. Does Alter actually believe that some yahoo in the hinterlands is
saying to himself: "NARTH believes homosexuality is a developmental disorder. Hmmm. I
guess that means I'll have to go out and bash a queer."
In December 1997, when a 14-year-old opened fire on a prayer group at his Paducah, Ky.,
high school (killing three), I don't recall my side blaming those who regularly savage
Christian conservatives as a threat to church-state separation. ("The constant degrading of
people of faith is taking its toll in blood.")
Following the Shepard tragedy, Professor Robert George, who teaches political theory at
Princeton, received an e-mail from a former graduate student, who -- with barely concealed
contempt -- wondered when conservatives would denounce the killing and other attacks on
gays.
George replied that when Brian Peterson and Amy Grossberg murdered their newborn and
the New Jersey prom mom dumped hers in the trash, he didn't ask his liberal friends when
the pro-choice crowd was going to get around to rejecting baby-killing.
George, "I paid my liberal friends the courtesy of supposing that, despite what I believe to
be their gravely mistaken views about abortion, they no more wish to promote infanticide
than I do."
Sad to say, this political good will flows in only one direction.
If the city council and hysterical demonstrators are right (and my hands are bloodstained),
how could I have saved Matthew Shepard? By abandoning deeply held beliefs? By
rejecting objective evidence and denying reality? By engaging in self-censorship?
The weekend that I was in Los Angeles, Amy Tracy was in Boston. Former press secretary
to NOW President Patricia Ireland and an ex-lesbian, Tracy was invited by an evangelical
group to speak at a number of area colleges.
Boston College canceled the event. Wellesley organizers were informed that Tracy could
only speak if a "Christian" lesbian shared the forum.
What we have here is a conspiracy to deny First Amendment rights. If the left can use the
RICO Act against clinic protesters, why can't the right use it against those who harass
conferees and pressure hotels and colleges into canceling events?
As Arkes would say: You established the principle. If it applies to us, it applies to you. Are
we clear on that?
The L.A. City Council is comprised of offensive jerks who think with their glands. "These
people (Claremont and NARTH) are not just about spewing hate, they are about putting
actual lives in danger, mine included," shrilled Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, a lesbian.
Don, a murderer?
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