Christian evangelist Mel White, who came out as a gay man in 1991, warned a packed audience in McCormick 101 last night of what he sees as a longterm plan on behalf of the religious right to turn the United States into a Christian theocracy.
White specifically spoke about the political ambitions of Christian conservatives in the context of homosexuality. Throughout the 1970s and '80s, he was known as an important figure on the Christian evangelical right, ghostwriting books and speeches for fellow evangelicals Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Billy Graham.
To support his claim that "religion has become the primary enemy of God's gay, lesbian and transgender children," White described his personal experiences as a gay Christian evangelical.
White discussed the inner turmoil of realizing his homosexuality as a prepubescent boy and his ensuing attempt to hide it. He married in 1962 and had two children.
During his marriage, White underwent extensive therapy designed to change his sexual orientation. But years later, after a failed suicide attempt, he decided to finally reveal his sexual orientation to friends and family.
Since then, White has documented the alleged homophobic message of the religious right by collecting text, audio and video of the movement's leaders speaking on the issue. A large portion of his lecture was devoted to pointing out the similarities he sees between World War II-era Nazi propaganda targeting Jews to current allegedly anti-gay statements from such cultural figures as Falwell and Robertson, his former colleagues.
White read letters sent to him by young questioning or closeted gay boys. Many of the boys, he said, came from Christian families and wanted to commit suicide because they were ostracized by their families and churches.
As the lecture progressed, White's arguments became more political. He recalled recently asking students at another university whether the Constitution or the Bible was more important. White took the students' answer of "The Bible" as a bad omen of things to come. His response to the students: "Without the Constitution, we won't be able to disagree about the Bible."
"The new Federal Marriage Amendment will make [gay people] second-class citizens," he added. "But they're going to get it [passed]. We must understand that the separation of church and state is being threatened. This is not a Christian nation, and must never become a Christian nation."
White expressed concerns about the future of freedom of expression in the United States, saying that most would-be defenders of the church-state separation are either ignorant of or apathetic to the religious right's plans to fight gay marriage and abortion, among other issues.
White took questions at the end of the lecture. One question prompted him to admit that "gay people are notoriously promiscuous." He explained that the limits society places on how gay people can express their love in public causes this phenomenon.
"We have to do it in the dark ... we can't have normal relationships," he said. "We're told not to act out in public, so we wait, wait, wait and then act out. We've got to regulate ourselves."
The lecture was sponsored by the Program in American Studies, the Office of Religious Life, the LGBT Center, the Pride Alliance, the Princeton Justice Project and Princeton Progressive Nation.
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