Facebook Heterosexual Pride Page Compares LGBT People to Nazis
Proud heterosexuals â a small and nameless handful of them, anyway â are on the march. And theyâre not being very nice about it.
Back in June 2012, the Facebook page âHeterosexual Awareness Monthâ (HAM) was created to âcelebrate heterosexuality.â According to the pageâs administrators, who are (though one goes by âDr. HAMâ), July is âHeterosexual Awareness Month.â The pageâs mission is to âeducate the world, commemorate our heritage, celebrate our culture, and liberate our people.â The site goes on to say that Heterosexual Awareness Month is meant to highlight straight peopleâs âgrowing struggle of the rights and related civil rights put in jeopardy.â
The page includes status updates, images and comment threads that range from mild to . And though Dr. HAM that âI would like to say we are not about hate in any way,â the facts seem to pretty plainly belie him. HAM moderators have posted comments about âthe gay agendaâ and baselessly linked homosexuality to pedophilia. They have posted Photoshopped images like the one of a gay pride marcher whose sign has been altered to read, âMy Butt Hurts.â One post compares the âfertile gardenâ of heterosexuality to the âtoxic waste zoneâ of homosexuality. Another urges gay people to stop âacting like animalsâ and âevolve already.â HAM allows most anyone who agrees with it to post comments. But you will be banned, it says, if you post âaccusations of racismâ or if you call women derogatory names. Comments supportive of LGBT people do appear on the threads, but are typically followed by anti-gay responses.
Now the site has gone one further. On Tuesday, its administrators posted an image ostensibly meant to educate readers in âRecognizing Hate Symbolsâ so they can know âwhat to look for when confronted by anti-democratic forces which continue to threaten our civil society.â The first symbol is a Nazi swastika. The next symbol is a rainbow flag, a representation of gay pride. And the symbol after the flag is a white power logo. The next day, it posted a mocked-up image portraying a Nazi soldier flying a rainbow flag, along with the following tagline: âThey have ways of keeping you silent. Know the dangers of the rainbow.â A HAM administrator exhorted readers to print out the picture out and hang it in public locations.
Also this week, one of the status updates referred to their oppositionâs âbenign but perverse agenda.â Earlier this month, HAM posted a photo of a gay pride event and claimed that one of the men on a pride float was pointing at his next child love interest. In yet another post, HAM claims that accepting homosexuality leads to affirming it, which then leads to âsomething more perverse.â Comments on that post include the claim that gay people endanger children. One explicitly â and without scientific basis â links homosexuality to pedophilia: â[G]ay âmarriageâ equals gay adoptions. Gay adoptions equals many sexually abused children.â
In November 2012, HAM posted an image with the words, âGay marriage is nothing more than a pain in the butt. Avoid butt pain. Support true marriage.â Another âtipâ from the same month: âHeterosexual tip #953: A colon is not a uterus.â A post in December 2012 cross-posted an image meant to warn about âgay bowel syndrome,â terminology coined in the 1970s that is now considered both derogatory and medically incorrect among many medical professionals. Another post features an image of the late Dr. Charles Socarides, a former president of the group that claims that homosexuality can be âcured,â and his infamous quote: âHomosexuality is a psychiatric disorder, there is no question about it. It is a purple menace that is threatening the proper design of gender distinctions in society.â
There have been complaints to Facebook about this page, but the organization has declined to take it down. Under its , Facebook states that it does not permit hate speech, and that it does ânot permit individuals or groups to attack others based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability or medical condition.â Apparently, claiming that gays are pedophiles, sick, unnatural, perverted, and a danger to society and heterosexuals doesnât meet those criteria, although Facebook did not respond to a request from Hatewatch yesterday to explain its thinking.