The introduction addresses how gay activists memorialized select people as martyrs in order to influence national debates over LGBT rights. In particular, the chapter lays out how religion shaped both the process of gay political memorialization as well as gay assimilation in the United States more broadly. The introduction additionally covers the history of American gay activism, the rise of assimilatory tactics following the American AIDS crisis, and the promotion of gays as “normal” citizens. As became common at the turn of the twenty-first century, many gay activists argued that gays were just like straights and, therefore, deserving of equal rights. The chapter also details how Protestant sexual standards shaped the nation’s ideas about acceptable sexual citizens and, in turn, how gay activists promoted Protestant values as necessary for the rights of full American citizenship.
Denial of Equal Rights to Religious Minorities and Non-Believers in the United States
