Will the LGBT alliance fall apart?

On Aug. 13, 2012, a local pastor addressed a meeting of the Springfield, Mo., City Council. He spoke to a packed house called out by a contentious subject: ending discrimination against gays, lesbians, and the expanding universe of transgendered people. After an apparent fire-and-brimstone denunciation of the nondiscrimination ordinance, Pastor Phil Snider of Brentwood Christian Church pulled a switcheroo: “I’m sorry. I brought the wrong notes with me this evening. I borrowed my argument from the wrong century.” He had been reading direct quotes from white preachers of the 1950s supporting racial segregation. “All I have done is simply take out the phrase ‘racial integration’ and substituted it with the phrase ‘gay rights,’” he said. His speech went viral, especially after George Takei of Star Trek fame posted it on his website.

Sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) ordinances have been proposed or enacted all over the United States, most noisily in Houston, Texas. But no town is immune, even Springfield, which boasts more churches per capita than any other city of its size in the country. After that hot August night in 2012 the council voted to table the proposal and appoint a task force to study the issue further. Last fall the task force advocated expanding the religious exemption in the bill so that religious organizations would not be prohibited from “limiting the sale, rental or occupancy of dwellings that it owns or operates for other than a commercial purpose to persons of the same religion.” The council approved the amended bill 6-3, and immediately a recall petition began circulating. Within a month, the opposition had a voice, an organization (Springfield Citizens United), and 2,658 signatures, more than double the total needed. The referendum won a place on the ballot next Tuesday.

The task force expected this, warning of “potential harm to Springfield’s reputation in the wake of a potentially divisive campaign.” Potentially divisive is right—but who started this? It looks like a lose-lose: If the ordinance is repealed, it leaves Springfield unchanged except for bruised feelings and damaged relationships. But if the ordinance stands, seeds of division will be planted not only between SOGI supporters and opponents, but also between the SOs and the GIs. Linking arms in solidarity with the new frontier of transgenderism may prove to be a tactical error for gays and lesbians.

At the beginning of the gay rights movement, we were told that sexual orientation was hardwired and immutable. But gender identity is fluid and subjective. This looks like a profound contradiction. The infamous “restroom issue” consumes conversation about SOGI laws, but that’s just the beginning. Over the horizon are anatomical men competing on women’s sports teams, gay-transgender-multiple marriages, and the pronoun revolution. There’s only so much upheaval a society can take, especially when it comes to simple facts of everyday life, like which restroom door to go through. Pastor Snider’s support for simple “gay rights” is not clear-cut as he supposes, and the backlash could be 10 times worse than the status quo.