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"We know people are using the deaths of queer folk, many of whom were latinx/POC, to further an agenda of islamophobia and racism. This must not be permitted - our bodies must not used as bricks to build their hateful walls." -- Robot Hugs, 2016-06-14 [emphasis added]

"Don't let straight people use our deaths to justify their ugliness and hate. Anyone who uses tragedy to codify hate is not an ally; they'll be looking for their next target soon enough." -- ibid. (artist's commentary below comic)

A comment deleted by a friend who bemoaned (among a list of other things) LGTBQ people calling out groups that have amplified homophobic currents in US culture ... tl;dr version: (a) saying "can't we just all get along?" while ignoring how one group has been and still is harming the group complaining about it, is not "peace", it's saying it's more comfortable to excuse the behaviour than to do the work to fix it; (b) saying "please stop hitting us" is not an "attack"; (c) denying GBLTQ members full participation in their religious communities will still be part of the problem, but if It's strictly an inside-the-church issue, that church doesn't get specifically named as an exceptional example at times like this. Anyhow, here's what was apparently too much (which I suppose illustrates an important distinction between "friend" and ally):

You missed an important thing about the Evangelicals: the rhetoric there that I've seen hasn't been "blame it all on them", it's been, "you don't have to make this all about Islam to explain the actions of one not-very-religious American, when our whole culture is steeped in homophobia," and persistent attacks on LTGBQ people by Evangelicals are a particularly visible example. Not just Evangelicals, but right-wing politicians trying to cater to them OR using rhetoric of hating and fearing the Other to draw in not-particularly-religious social conservatives. And every [expletive]ing script writer who makes gay or trans people a punch line. And every jerk who unthinkingly misgenders Caitlyn Jenner, Chelsea Manning, or even Ann Coulter (who isn't trans, but that's supposed to be the "joke", accusing her of being trans to put her down -- the only lasting effect of which is to throw actual trans people into the "use as punch lines" category). And everybody who either uses casual homophobia as humour or as an in-group shibboleth. Everyone who uses "gay" either as an indistinct signifier of "bad in some way" or as the most hateful thing they can think of to call somebody. Everyone who tries to dictate when trans people should "disclose" and to whom, and whether violence upon finding out someone attractive is trans is a "natural" (i.e. excusable) reaction. And TERFs who make enemies out of the very people who could be their biggest allies in "deconstructing gender" because they'd rather try to get other people to hurt us and talk about wishing for us to die, And every church of any denomination -- or synagogue or mosque -- that excludes LGTBQ people from leadership, from full inclusion as participants in their religious community, who "debates" the significance of our very existence. Or that says, "oh, we fully accept and love our GTLBQ members, but please don't talk about it too much or bring in too many more like you because we're afraid that'll turn us into "a gay church". Have you not noticed that people are saying we can't let any of that go, can't excuse any of it when examining why an American would shoot up a gay bar? Or did you only notice that Evangelicals got name-checked in the middle of that and decide to make it all about them?

And blame lies at the feet of everyone making Latinx people punch lines or bogeymen -- making them the only visible face of illegal immigration, handwaving the existence of ones who are here legally to make every reference to Latinx people about borders, stereotyping them the same way we used to stereotype African Americans which is the same way Europe used to stereotype Jews and now stereotypes the Rom, talking about Latinx Americans as if they weren't "really American" but forever alien no matter how many generations their families have been Americans. Everyone sharing and spreading those memes is culpable too, in making it easier for someone to go and shoot up a gay bar on Latinx Night. Last I checked, that wasn't an Evangelical issue (but it is a frequent right-wing thing).

But we can't name the problems and the participants without people who would be more comfortable upholding the status quo complaining that our pointing out the riptide of hate underneath the surf of American culture is "being divisive" and "making the problem worse". (How do we start fixing this if we don't talk about it and call out those who promote it (maliciously or unthinkingly)?)

But oh, we're "zealots" for naming names. Screw you. This wasn't some abstract "attack on the idea of America" -- the choice of targets made it political while the bodies were still falling, not just after we heard the news and started talking about it.

But as long as we've mentioned Evangelicals, let's examine why they're named above. For the last 35+ years, the loudest, most hateful voices speaking out against TGBLQ people have identified themselves as Evangelicals, been backed by Evangelical organizations, and have claimed that their doing so is rooted in their faith. Not the ones making jokes about gay and trans people or casually saying "no homo"; the ones telling people to be afraid of us, calling us pedophiles, telling people first to be scared of the thought of gays and lesbians in bathrooms, and then to be scared of trans women in bathrooms (as they erase trans men). The people trying to pass laws against us have overwhelmingly not only identified themselves as Evangelical, they have insisted that these are religious positions -- Evangelical positions, and they try and try to make people think that therefore they're default Christian positions -- even as other Christians have disagreed and even some individual Evangelicals have said, "uh, can we maybe turn this ship around? I don't think we're helping..." Again: Evangelical churches have gotten behind this, so it's not just a few loudmouths trying to drag their names into it.

And when called out on bigotry, they again cast it as a religious matter and frame equality as an "attack" on their faith. We all can see how the so-called "religious freedom" bills are not about being allowed to practice one's faith, only about getting away with harming those they demonize. So when critiquing their actions over the past few decades to poison the public discourse gets framed as an "attack" on Evangelicals? Yeah, screw you, we see it for what it is: just wanting to deny responsibility for their own part in this whole mess.

Evangelicals are the reason disagreements get framed as being "between LTBGQ people and religion," erasing not only the large number of LGBTQ Christians, but also erasing all the denominations and congregations saying, "we don't have a problem with queerfolk," or, "that's an inside-our-church issue, not a public moral crusade". Evangelicals picked this fight. You don't get to complain when we say, "Hey, they've been hitting me." At least, don't expect to be taken seriously when you do.