These fairy tales are important to the anti-gay right because they form the basis of its claim that homosexuality is a social evil that must be suppressed - an opinion rejected by virtually all relevant medical and scientific authorities. But in addition to hawking that myth, the legions of anti-gay activists who followed have added a panoply of others, ranging from the extremely doubtful claim that sexual orientation is a choice, to unalloyed lies like the claims that gay men molest children far more than heterosexuals or that hate crime laws will lead to the legalization of bestiality and necrophilia.
For the former Florida beauty queen and her Save Our Children group, it was the alleged plans of gay men and lesbians to 'recruit' in schools that provided the fodder for their crusade. Ever since born-again singer and orange juice pitchwoman Anita Bryant helped kick off the contemporary anti-gay movement some 40 years ago, hard-line elements of the religious right have been searching for ways to demonize gay people - or, at a minimum, to find arguments that will prevent their normalization in society.
