Michael Heath On Discrimination Against Gays And Lesbians

MAINE - When Michael Heath spoke to more than 100 people at the University of Southern Maine last week, the executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine poked fun at his own image. He reminded his audience that detractors describe him as a hate-filled, vitriolic "Bible thumper."
"Here is the ogre, standing here tonight," Heath said with a smile. His soft-spoken demeanor seemed at odds with his reputation in some circles as an inflammatory and confrontational foe of a new state law that bans discrimination against gays and lesbians.
Heath's disarming jab at his own public persona underscored questions about his style and tone. Is he persuasive or divisive? An effective advocate or an off-putting alarmist? With Election Day only a month away, is Heath's rhetoric, which political scientist Amy Fried of the University of Maine describes as "extremely hot," helping or hurting his cause?
For about 20 minutes that night at USM, Heath spoke about such things as the supposed evils perpetrated by Karl Marx, Charles Darwin and Sigmund Freud. He described the dangers of "a society which chooses disorder over order." He sounded like a conservative academic far removed from the real-world politics of a looming referendum to repeal the gay rights law.
But Heath, by far the most visible opponent of that law and a leader of the campaign to take it off the books, comes across quite differently when the league discusses gay rights in its newsletter or when Heath talks about the issue in his blog, an online diary of sorts.
Last year, for example, Heath used the league's Web site to solicit tips about the sexual orientation of state lawmakers and other Maine officials. That move created a bipartisan furor at the State House, and Heath quickly apologized.
More recently, the league said in its newsletter that it is "perhaps no more than a coincidence" that Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans when a gay rights celebration was scheduled there. The next day, the newsletter insisted that the league was "not blaming the homosexuals for the disaster in New Orleans."
The "sexual disorientation train is chugging along nicely" to hell, according to the league. Many members of the clergy have "gone over to the dark side." The "liberal media" are blindly embracing the gay rights law. "Support for sodomy" is un-Christian. Gov. John Baldacci's "relentless push for gay rights" is driven by out-of-state special interests.
Heath refused to be interviewed for this story, saying through a spokesman that he "is not going to be involved in any sort of article that deals with him, his rhetoric, his modus operandi, his tone, style or tenor." The referendum campaign is about "the radical nature of this law," not about Heath himself, said Tim Russell, the league's spokesman.
Thanks to his forceful style and his long history of fighting anti-discrimination legislation, however, Heath has a higher profile than anyone else on either side of the gay rights divide, according to Pastor Bob Emrich of the Emmanuel Bible Baptist Church in Plymouth.
"It is true that Mike Heath is the lightning rod," said Emrich, an evangelical who also serves as the chief of staff for the Republican minority in the state Senate. "I think he brings it on himself, for the most part," he said. "If he didn't speak in such extremes, (reporters) wouldn't have a story."
from Portland Press Herald