God Hates Fags.

I am so sorry I had to use such an offensive word in my title, but I wanted to get the attention of those who need to read this the most. Below is a video showing Russel Brand (a UK comedian) interviewing two members of the Westboro Baptist Church, who are renowned for their vocal hatred of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) community.

The following is my personal views and opinions regarding this video and this subject in general. Please feel free to watch the video and make your own conclusions. I wrote down my thoughts while watching the video…

• Firstly, the men from the Church give Russel Brand a sign saying “Fag Pimp Brand”. How charming is that? Not only is that so offensive to those from the LGBT community, it just seems childish and unnecessary. It also suggests they associate the word ‘gay’ with prostitution. For those of you who may be confused, prostitution is where someone gets paid to perform sexual acts. Being gay is where you are attracted to someone of the same sex. These terms are not interchangeable.
• The men from the Church say that they love everyone in the audience, and by telling them they are sinning they are proving their love. If you encourage sinning, such as homosexuality, then you hate the person because they’re going to hell. You encourage the hatred of a group of people because you love them? This just doesn’t make sense to me. Can we not just love everyone and let God decide who deserves to go to heaven? Surely, God will let you into heaven if you promote the love and acceptance of everyone who doesn’t cause harm to others? But if you show hatred to someone who has caused no harm, then won’t you go to hell?
• The phrase “God hates fags” was mentioned. I hate this expression. God hates no one. Are you God? No. Why are you speaking for him, when, if he truly hated gay people wouldn’t he just kill them all off if he’s the all powerful being he is depicted as? Surely God has allowed people to be born with different sexuality, and we should embrace and accept this. In fact, it is repeatedly mentioned throughout the Bible that love of everyone is the most important thing- and this is mentioned so much more than the idea that homosexuality shouldn’t be allowed.
• Russel Brand mentions that there are more important issues that we should be focusing on. I agree with this. I think people of all religions, races, genders, sexualities etc. should unite to try and end issues that are hurting people. For example, one in five women worldwide will be raped. And one in seven men worldwide will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. Or the fact two million children each year will die because they can’t access clean drinking water. Is the fact that some people are not heterosexual of more importance than uniting to try and solve these problems? Picture this: if every time someone made a sign saying they hate gay people, each time someone bullied someone for their sexuality, and each time a protest was made against gay marriage, they donated money to charity instead. Or they protested against animal cruelty, or they just simply smiled. Wouldn’t that be a much better use of our time?
• Ghandi is going to hell. This made me giggle a bit, but also cry a little on the inside. He’s going to hell because he said the phrase “God loves the sinner, but hates the sin”. See I quite like this quote, I think it shows that God loves you no matter what, he just doesn’t agree with your actions sometimes. But let’s just ignore the years of non-violent protests and civil rights work Ghandi carried out to improve the lives of others. This seems like such a twisted view of life and I think it’s quite sad.
• I don’t like that they say gay people are perverts. Perverts are people whose sexual behaviour is not seen as “normal” and is unacceptable in our society, so in their eyes the LGBT community are perverts. But in my opinion their sexuality is normal for them, just like it’s normal for me to be attracted to men. I believe that as long as a relationship involves adults who give consent then it shouldn’t matter what sexuality someone identifies as and I think it is so offensive to call someone a pervert when they are not doing anything to hurt someone.
• “God’s love is for everybody”. This was spoken by one of the gay men in the video and I couldn’t agree more. Everyone who embraces God deserves his love, and who are we to say that they can’t?

Although I am not gay, I support anyone who is a member of the LGBT community and I really hope that in the future I won’t have to write posts like this because there will be no discrimination. I am also not religious, I do not believe in any God. I do believe in the principles of religion though, love and unity and acceptance and hope. But I don’t agree with people who use religion to promote hate against people.

Thank you for reading 🙂