Opinion: We Are Human, Not An Ideology
Recently, a Utah politician, Trevor Lee, spat the dummy because a local football team created a rainbow version of their logo to mark the start of Pride month. Lee referred to LGBTQIA+ civil rights as a “political ideology”.
Well, it’s my turn to spit the dummy! Being gay, bisexual, lesbian, trans, non-binary or intersex has nothing to do with ideology and everything to do with biology. Socialism is an ideology. Neo-conservatism is an ideology. Christianity is an ideology.
Ideology refers to a system of beliefs. Being gay is just the way we are born. When you first realised you were gay, I’ll bet you didn’t think, “Now that’s a system of beliefs I can get behind!”
LGBTQIA+ identities are natural variations of the human experience, not ideological constructs. To suggest otherwise is absurd. It’s like saying that having brown hair is an ideology. Is being left-handed a movement? Is being short an agenda? Is having freckles a political position?
Saying we are an ideology is not just false, it’s dangerous, and those who choose to do so, do it for a very specific purpose. The aim is to polarise public opinion against us by making it sound as though there is a scary, organised political conspiracy, whose objective is to overthrow straight people! When anti-LGBTQIA+ politicians and others label our sexuality “ideology,” they imply that it’s something we choose rather than something innate. No, we did not sign up for this. Our sexuality is our factory setting, and our Pride is not an ideology; it’s simply refusing to live with shame.
Ideology also implies propaganda – like it’s being taught or as though we’re on a recruitment drive!
“When they label our sexuality ‘ideology,’ they imply that it’s something we have chosen rather than something innate.
The aspect of this that I find interesting, and infuriating, is that it’s them who are driven by ideology. Denying our civil rights, denying our existence, campaigning to marginalise us, describing us as a danger to society – all come from an ideological base. They attempt to diminish our rights by suggesting that we will overturn traditional values, weaken public morality, and even undermine national sovereignty.
This language has been a key tactic in the global backlash against LGBTQIA+ rights. In Russia, Poland, and Hungary, political leaders speak of “LGBT ideology” as representing a foreign threat to national identity. In Africa, it’s decried as a decadent perversion of the white West. In the US, conservative figures use “gender ideology” or “trans ideology” to inflame fears about what’s taught in schools.
Even “moderate” Pope Francis said, in a 2015 interview with Italian journalists for the book Pope Francis: This Economy Kills, that “gender theory” is incompatible with the “order of creation,” comparing it to nuclear arms as an example of an unnatural sin against God.
The term “gender ideology” was invented by conservatives in the 1990s to demonise sexual rights, especially after same-sex marriage began gaining ground, says sociologist Eric Fassin. Author Judith Butler has written that the aim of reducing complex issues of identity into catchphrases like “gender ideology” is done with the intention of causing moral panic. And Australian academic Denis Altman has said, “It transforms vulnerable minorities into ideological enemies.”
The end game is justifying discrimination.
So, if you are part of this terrifying and dangerous “LGBTQIA+ ideology,” look out! They’re coming for you. Might I suggest you join the cult of brown hair instead?
Now, the problem for politicians like Trevor Lee and others who are ideologically driven is that ideology can’t keep up with reality. Eventually, the way they want the world to be doesn’t match what’s happening out their window.
Even with a MAGA President and with hundreds of anti-trans and anti-LGBTQIA pieces of legislation in the works across red states, most Americans still support the civil rights of LGBTQIA+ people. According to a 2024 PRRI survey, 76 per cent of Americans favour laws that protect LGBTQ people from discrimination. A 2023 Gallup poll found that 71 per cent of Americans support same-sex marriage. A 2024 Pew Research Centre study reported that 64 per cent of adults believe society should be more accepting of transgender people.
Despite the ongoing political backlash, the fear-mongering is not resonating. We have friends everywhere!
This piece was first published as Who Is The Real Threat? in DNA #306.
