The Gay Boogieman
Dave Muskera, M.A.
January 06, 2008
When I was a kid of seven or eight, I didn’t question the reality of Santa Claus, the tooth fairy or the boogieman. While Santa and the fairy were definitely cool and positive, the ol’boogieman was a decided fright. As an adult, I became aware of how these imaginary characters - created and encouraged by “grownups” - had been used to control my wayward behaviors by promising rewards and threatening punishments. Little did I realize,in those young years, that a similar system of promised rewards and punishments would follow me (and most others) into adulthood – but under an umbrella called religion.
The “church” (as well as governments) learned very early in the game that you can control lots of people if you keep them frightened. So the boogiemen of my childhood, and those of so many others, were nothing more than updated versions of the various fearful and dreadful images that had been used over the centuries to frighten people into submission. Frightened people also tend to do less independent thinking. So boogiemen - for children and adults - became and remained fundamental tools used in the control and dominance of people.
Now, as then - and not to allow myself to digress too far into another topic – parents, in their efforts to cope with the wild and wooly behavior of their children and rebellious adolescents, are understandably anxious (sometimes to the detriment of good sense) to use whatever control methods seem familiar and workable. With young children, it’s no surprise that the fearful specter of the boogieman, an unknowable creature lurking in dark recesses and meaning to do us harm, is still used occasionally to frighten youngsters into compliance. Gripped by irrational fears, even the most daring boy or girl will think twice before looking too deeply into the corners of a dark closet or even under their bed. Also keep in mind that with children, while the use of the frightening specter of a boogieman may be mostly an effort at control, its likely side effect is the reduction of curiosity. Why be curious about what’s under the bed if you’re convinced that its some vaguely formed drooling creature just waiting to grab you by the foot and drag you under? Why even go there?
I’d like to believe that contemporary “enlightened” parents don’t often use such silly and potentially harmful child rearing methods. But considering how gullible many adults are today and how many "adult" boogiemen versions they still believe in, I have some serious doubts.
Case in point: I’ll call it “The Gay Boogieman”. As I’ve “hinted” in several previous articles, I really don’t have much of a soft spot in my heart for most of what is referred to as “organized religion”. Did you guess that already? (I prefer a personal spirituality any day). After all, it is mostly organized, formal and fundamentalistic religion that has the long history of parading a never ending stream of “boogiemen” before the flocks.
Some might say that the “devil” (and all his many names) is the archetypical boogieman. But in the intervening centuries, there have been many others. Examples could include witches, demons (of various sorts), left handed people, heathens, infidels, anti-Christs, atheists, vampires and, more recently (depending on who you listen to) - Harry Potter, Teletubbies, Squarebob-Spongpants, Bert and Ernie, Melissa Etheridge, Elton John and, and…..and so forth.
Of late, it certainly seems that the “gay boogieman” is the award winner. Gay and anything to do with gay tops the charts. It’s the most frequently mentioned by fundamentalists and it gets a great deal of media attention. For some, thinking about “gay” and plotting against gays has become an obsession. A cause celebra. Oddly, these same obsessed people loudly keep professing they are “not homosexual” themselves but only doing everyone else a favor by warning of the imminent dangers of the gay scourge - the gay agenda. No other boogieman seems able to assure the outpouring of crowds at city hall meetings set to consider gay rights. No other boogieman convinces parents to donate so substantially to the coffers of whatever anti-gay cause is at the top the meeting agenda. No other boogieman seems to have the power to get so many voters to the polling place so they can see to it that gay people are keep in “their place.” Gay marriage, gay consumers, gay politicians, gay agendas, gay rights, gays in the military…you name it and put the word gay or homosexual in front of it and “it” becomes numero uno on the boogieman list. Maybe I just never noticed before. Maybe religion has always had a front running boogieman other than (or in addition to) the big bad “D”. Maybe I was just not paying attention till the last ten or so years.
In any case, I don’t think you can argue much against the notion that gays have become the dominant boogieman for many fundamentalists. They repeatedly warn of the impending doom that will occur if gay folks are “granted” the same civil benefits of “marriage” enjoyed by all others. They claim - with no evidence or any explanation of how it would happen - that gay marriage will destroy the family and cause civilization to crumble. They rant about gays infiltrating schools, secretly changing school curriculums and recruiting young and innocent children to replenish homosexual ranks. They claim that even hearing about gay people’s existence can cause a child to become gay or somehow damage them emotionally for life! They rattle other parts of the gay boogieman till many well intentioned folks become frightened and confused. And, like I’ve pointed out - frightened people think less clearly, tend to be more compliant and are also more generous in giving money to support the many multi-million dollar anti-gay enterprises out there fighting on the “battle front of the gay scourge”. Frightened parents, like frightened kids, ratchet down their curiosity and accept as “fact” the boogieman message they get from others. Many don’t go looking to find out what’s really behind all the fuss or to investigate for themselves the realities of a world they may have never before considered. Why do that? If they think they “know” what’s under the bed, why go look “it” in its “perverted” face. Just duck your head, write a check to the nearest ex-gay ministry, put lamb’s blood on your front door and pray that the big bad gay boogieman passes over your home and hearth without a stop.
Benaiah, a trusted minister of King Solomon’s is said to have taught the great ruler lessons in humility and patience by bringing him to an understanding that “…this too shall pass”. An awareness for Solomon that his power, wealth and wisdom would one day all be gone. Well, I know the same is true in the case of the gay boogieman. Someday, another issue will replace gays as being the boogieman “da jour” for religion. Someday, this religious obsession with “gay” will pass. Some newer whipping post will take the blows that now so routinely descend on the backs of gay folks, homosexuality and all related topics. Someday, “gay” and “homosexual” will be only words. Words of no more importance and no more emotional impact than other "people description" words like short or tall, brown hair or red, right handed or left. But, unlike King Solomon, I’d rather not wait. I’m impatient with the notion that “this too” will pass, even though I know it will. Someday.
I hope to live long enough to see the demise of the gay boogieman. To see “gay” drop way down on the list of frightful demons hiding just under the bed of humanity.
But can we hurry all this along? Please?
The “church” (as well as governments) learned very early in the game that you can control lots of people if you keep them frightened. So the boogiemen of my childhood, and those of so many others, were nothing more than updated versions of the various fearful and dreadful images that had been used over the centuries to frighten people into submission. Frightened people also tend to do less independent thinking. So boogiemen - for children and adults - became and remained fundamental tools used in the control and dominance of people.
Now, as then - and not to allow myself to digress too far into another topic – parents, in their efforts to cope with the wild and wooly behavior of their children and rebellious adolescents, are understandably anxious (sometimes to the detriment of good sense) to use whatever control methods seem familiar and workable. With young children, it’s no surprise that the fearful specter of the boogieman, an unknowable creature lurking in dark recesses and meaning to do us harm, is still used occasionally to frighten youngsters into compliance. Gripped by irrational fears, even the most daring boy or girl will think twice before looking too deeply into the corners of a dark closet or even under their bed. Also keep in mind that with children, while the use of the frightening specter of a boogieman may be mostly an effort at control, its likely side effect is the reduction of curiosity. Why be curious about what’s under the bed if you’re convinced that its some vaguely formed drooling creature just waiting to grab you by the foot and drag you under? Why even go there?
I’d like to believe that contemporary “enlightened” parents don’t often use such silly and potentially harmful child rearing methods. But considering how gullible many adults are today and how many "adult" boogiemen versions they still believe in, I have some serious doubts.
Case in point: I’ll call it “The Gay Boogieman”. As I’ve “hinted” in several previous articles, I really don’t have much of a soft spot in my heart for most of what is referred to as “organized religion”. Did you guess that already? (I prefer a personal spirituality any day). After all, it is mostly organized, formal and fundamentalistic religion that has the long history of parading a never ending stream of “boogiemen” before the flocks.
Some might say that the “devil” (and all his many names) is the archetypical boogieman. But in the intervening centuries, there have been many others. Examples could include witches, demons (of various sorts), left handed people, heathens, infidels, anti-Christs, atheists, vampires and, more recently (depending on who you listen to) - Harry Potter, Teletubbies, Squarebob-Spongpants, Bert and Ernie, Melissa Etheridge, Elton John and, and…..and so forth.
Of late, it certainly seems that the “gay boogieman” is the award winner. Gay and anything to do with gay tops the charts. It’s the most frequently mentioned by fundamentalists and it gets a great deal of media attention. For some, thinking about “gay” and plotting against gays has become an obsession. A cause celebra. Oddly, these same obsessed people loudly keep professing they are “not homosexual” themselves but only doing everyone else a favor by warning of the imminent dangers of the gay scourge - the gay agenda. No other boogieman seems able to assure the outpouring of crowds at city hall meetings set to consider gay rights. No other boogieman convinces parents to donate so substantially to the coffers of whatever anti-gay cause is at the top the meeting agenda. No other boogieman seems to have the power to get so many voters to the polling place so they can see to it that gay people are keep in “their place.” Gay marriage, gay consumers, gay politicians, gay agendas, gay rights, gays in the military…you name it and put the word gay or homosexual in front of it and “it” becomes numero uno on the boogieman list. Maybe I just never noticed before. Maybe religion has always had a front running boogieman other than (or in addition to) the big bad “D”. Maybe I was just not paying attention till the last ten or so years.
In any case, I don’t think you can argue much against the notion that gays have become the dominant boogieman for many fundamentalists. They repeatedly warn of the impending doom that will occur if gay folks are “granted” the same civil benefits of “marriage” enjoyed by all others. They claim - with no evidence or any explanation of how it would happen - that gay marriage will destroy the family and cause civilization to crumble. They rant about gays infiltrating schools, secretly changing school curriculums and recruiting young and innocent children to replenish homosexual ranks. They claim that even hearing about gay people’s existence can cause a child to become gay or somehow damage them emotionally for life! They rattle other parts of the gay boogieman till many well intentioned folks become frightened and confused. And, like I’ve pointed out - frightened people think less clearly, tend to be more compliant and are also more generous in giving money to support the many multi-million dollar anti-gay enterprises out there fighting on the “battle front of the gay scourge”. Frightened parents, like frightened kids, ratchet down their curiosity and accept as “fact” the boogieman message they get from others. Many don’t go looking to find out what’s really behind all the fuss or to investigate for themselves the realities of a world they may have never before considered. Why do that? If they think they “know” what’s under the bed, why go look “it” in its “perverted” face. Just duck your head, write a check to the nearest ex-gay ministry, put lamb’s blood on your front door and pray that the big bad gay boogieman passes over your home and hearth without a stop.
Benaiah, a trusted minister of King Solomon’s is said to have taught the great ruler lessons in humility and patience by bringing him to an understanding that “…this too shall pass”. An awareness for Solomon that his power, wealth and wisdom would one day all be gone. Well, I know the same is true in the case of the gay boogieman. Someday, another issue will replace gays as being the boogieman “da jour” for religion. Someday, this religious obsession with “gay” will pass. Some newer whipping post will take the blows that now so routinely descend on the backs of gay folks, homosexuality and all related topics. Someday, “gay” and “homosexual” will be only words. Words of no more importance and no more emotional impact than other "people description" words like short or tall, brown hair or red, right handed or left. But, unlike King Solomon, I’d rather not wait. I’m impatient with the notion that “this too” will pass, even though I know it will. Someday.
I hope to live long enough to see the demise of the gay boogieman. To see “gay” drop way down on the list of frightful demons hiding just under the bed of humanity.
But can we hurry all this along? Please?
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