Why Gay Kiss-Ins Will Never Sway Anyone’s View
If you run in pro-life circles, you probably have seen intercessors with a red strip of tape across their mouth that simply says “LIFE.”
It’s called a Silent Siege. These pro-lifers are identifying with the silence of the preborn who have no voice to defend themselves.
Organized by Bound4LIFE chapters across America, these intercessors are silently praying—not protesting—for women who enter abortion clinics like Planned Parenthood. They are standing in agreement with Jesus, the Great Intercessor, concerning the holocaust of abortion.
Bound4LIFE intercessors are respectful.
They don’t harass passersby.
They don’t condemn or guilt-trip women.
They don’t hold picket signs depicting aborted babies.
They just pray … silently and publicly.
They just intercede for preborn life.
They just stand for an end to abortion in this generation.
And they don’t seek to purposely offend anyone.
Not so with gay kiss-ins. According to a recent Reuters report, Russian police detained 20 people recently when gay activists tried to stage a kiss-in outside parliament to protest against a draft law banning the promotion of homosexuality among minors.
“Police hauled away the protesters shortly before the lower house, the State Duma, was due to hold the first of three readings of the legislation,” Reuters reports. “If approved by the two houses of parliament, and signed by President Vladimir Putin, the law would ban the promotion of gay events across Russia and impose fines on the organizers.”
This isn’t the first—or even the most publicized—gay kiss-in. Gays staged what they called “National Same-Sex Kiss Day” at Chick-fil-A restaurants last August just days after former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day. Activist Carly McGehee said she wanted to start the “kiss-in” because just boycotting the fast-food chain doesn’t go far enough. Some billed it as the greatest protest since Occupy Wall Street as thousands of gays and lesbians planned to make out smack dab in the middle of a family restaurant. But in city after city, National Same-Sex Kiss Day was largely a flop, especially when compared to the outpouring on Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day that broke the chicken chain’s sales records.
Then there was the November kiss-in in France. Gays took to the streets of Paris to show their support for a marriage equity bill that would give gays the right to marry each other and adopt children. French gays took part in a similar kiss-in protest just weeks earlier. And in 2009 the Mormon temple in Salt Lake City was the site of a kiss-in protest over the arrest of two homosexuals police detained for smooching in front of the same building.
Gay kiss-ins are juvenile. They didn’t sway public opinion in the Chick-fil-A controversy and they won’t sway public opinion in France—or anywhere else. One reason is that, unlike the Bound4LIFE prayer meetings, gay kiss-ins purposely seek to offend people who hold traditional values. That’s the wrong motive for any messenger because it shuts the ears—in this case the eyes—of those you are trying to convince.
Gay kiss-ins only further alienate the people gay rights advocates need to win over. And gay kiss-ins are insensitive to the presence of children, who don’t need to witness any two people—gay or straight—swapping spit in public.
Gay kiss-ins are an immoral protest that clearly demonstrate why those with traditional values are resisting special rights for gays and lesbians. If we let gay kiss-ins force us to fold up our traditional values tent and give place to the same-sex agenda, what’s next?
Jennifer LeClaire is news editor at Charisma. She is also the author of several books, including Did the Spirit of God Say That? You can email Jennifer at [email protected] or visit her website here. You can also join Jennifer on Facebook or follow her on Twitter.