Responding to the Right-wing without Being an Expert or a Victim
Professor’s pamphlet series challenges grassroots activists

Kansas City, MO, December 30, 2002. “It’s time for new strategies. Everybody remembers the anti-gay soundbites of the right wing. Who remembers what we say even though we’ve been responding to the same old arguments for decades?”

That’s the basis for the first three of a series of pamphlets written by Dr. Robert N. Minor. In “The Fairness Project Series” he intends to change the dynamic of pro-LGBT arguing for every-day people.

“Even if we don’t like it, we know: ‘It’s Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.’ But what do we remember of our own responses where we weigh the possibilities, talk to ourselves in conferences, let the right wing dominate the conversation and set the language, and respond over and over to the same criticisms till we’re exhausted?”

“They have set the agenda. And we’re often stuck. We need practical, every-day, tips on how to get beyond their agenda without having to worry about being experts,” Minor says.

In 2001, Minor, a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas, authored the book Scared Straight: Why It’s So Hard to Accept Gay People and Why It’s So Hard to Be Human (St. Louis: HumanityWorks!). Within a month it was named “Book of the Week” by the premier men’s issues website: www.Menstuff.org. In 2002 it was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award and an Independent Publisher Book Award.

His first three pamphlets published in late 2002 are meant to be practical, how-to-do-it guides that don’t begin with a stance he calls “the victim role.”

“We don’t begun with our own agenda. We respond as if we have something to apologize for. We don’t realize that we’re the healthy ones in this debate. So, we need a consistent, simple approach that will be remembered. And one that won’t get caught up in their issues. We need to stop allowing them to use religion, psychology, and everything else to cover up their prejudices. And we need to quit arguing the same things again and again.”

So, the first pamphlet, “When You’re Having a Religious Argument,” begins with asking what it is about religion that “hooks us” even if we are not religious. “If we reject religion, our anger at religion is still a sign we’re hooked,” Minor points out.

Minor then outlines issues that need recognition by us as we respond and then gives seven practical suggestions to “get down to the real issues beneath religious arguments.”

The second pamphlet arises out of the workshops for LGBT activists Minor has conducted for the last three years at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s “Creating Change Conference.” Entitled, “Burnout, Blowout, and Breaking Up: Navigating the Hazards of Activist Leadership,” Minor sets forth principles and helpful tips to help make LGBT leadership a healthy, growing experience for the leaders. “In progressive activism, the leadership principles developed for business and other institutions that are meant to maintain the status quo, won’t work. But they will cause burnout and bitterness.”

The third pamphlet is meant to change and simplify our responses to the claims of the ex-gay movement. “Case Closed! Responding to Psychological Arguments Against Gay People” gives seven practical tips for responding to the use of psychology to cover prejudices. “Don’t get caught up in arguing psychology,” Minor recommends, “but do understand the unanimous, quarter-of-a-century-old, gay-positive conclusions of the major psychological organizations as well as the psychology of the anti-gay arguments you face.”

The 8-page colorful pamphlets, as well as a press kit and other information on Dr. Minor, his seminars and writings, are available from the Fairness Project at www.fairnessproject.org. For review copies, email fairnessproject@mindspring.com or fax: 816-931-1420. You may contact Dr. Minor directly at rminor@ku.edu.