Filthy Rainbow-Stealing Gays

The newest front in the epic battle of Good vs. Evil? Rainbows.

THE RAINBOW HAS BECOME an iconic image for gay rights, representing diversity and unity. But owners of a web-based Christian business believe what they say is its true meaning of holiness has been lost to homosexuals promoting "perversion" and are now [hawking] their own rainbow wares as a way to reclaim the rainbow as a solely conservative Christian symbol.

Business is, of course, the operative word here. As I've vociferously complained previously, hate-mongering against the LGBT community sponsored by Gun-Toting Jesus Brand Religious Intolerance Righteousness is a massive cash cow: "Millions and millions of dollars are raised every year by people professing to preach The Word in exchange for a few dollars (and a few more, and a few more) in the collection baskets, but all they’re really doing is selling a product—a way to cope with a changing world that robs bigots of their undeserved dominion, that tells them they really, at long last, must share equality with non-Christians, the LGBT community, strong women, minorities, and immigrants in the public sphere. They are losing control they were never meant to have, and Christianity 2.0 sells them the righteous anger and victimhood they need. In these desperate people, the hate peddlers have found a ripe market for their wares. The hungry buyers come to the churches and the political rallies with money burning holes in the pockets of their sensible trousers, and they leave satiated, their bellies full of (self-)righteous indignation, with a determination to spread the word about the radical homosexual and feminist agendas, and a keen eye for the slightest proof that their suspicions about the dastardly fags and feminazis and liberals and brown people who threaten their way of life are all true. This is a booming business, and Falwell, Dobson, and Robertson have learned to roll out their product as efficiently as Ford and his Model-Ts. … Hate, like anything else in the American capitalist utopia, can be a splendid business, as long as there are enough interested buyers with cash in hand—and hate flogged under the auspices of religion has the added bonus of being a tax-free enterprise. It’s no surprise that Christ-cloaked bigotry is a booming industry."

And so Take Back Our Rainbow, Inc. has set up shop in the bustling marketplace already built and servicing a primed, cash-in-hand market who are always looking for new ways to spend their money to prove their piety.

Take Back Our Rainbow Inc. sells car magnets, bookmarks and bracelets emblazoned with the "Take Back Our Rainbow" logo. The group claims gay organizations have stolen the rainbow and are "using a holy symbol to promote that (gay) lifestyle."

"We are a company that believes it is time to take a stand for our beliefs and we are asking all Christians to do the same," the business’s website reads. "Let’s all stand up and take our rainbow back. Those who choose to pervert this holy symbol may have well taken the cross or the Christian Fish (symbol). They may soon do this because we are doing nothing to stop the use of our symbols for perversion."

So much execrable nonsense, just like any one of hundreds of similar faith-based business endeavors. The rainbow is a naturally-occurring phenomenon, not a built symbol like the cross or the fish. Even if one believes every rainbow is hand-crafted by the Almighty, he puts them over San Francisco, too.


And, by the by, in all my very gay-filled days, I've never been under the impression that the LGBT community had appropriated the rainbow to "promote that lifestyle," but to illustrate quite cleverly the spectrum of human experience of which they are an unfairly marginalized part. I always felt like I am part of that rainbow, too, as is anyone who celebrates difference, rather than exploiting it for tiresome, loathsome hate-mongering.