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| Rev. Jerry Falwell, a leading opponent of gay rights, once successfully derailed efforts to remove sodomy laws from D.C.’s books. (Photo by Steve Helber/AP) |
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HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS
By: JOSHUA LYNSEN COMMENTS
 
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ghostwrote “Strength for the Journey” and “If I Should Die Before I Wake” for Falwell, said he was never able to shake Falwell of his belief that “homosexuality is the degradation of manhood.”
White said Falwell firmly believed that God created a chain of command that placed men above all else on earth, and that gays “broke that chain of command,” interrupting “what God had planned” for the world.
“He sincerely believed what he said,” White said. “But you can be sincere and stupid — and he was sincerely stupid.”
White said he would not celebrate Falwell’s death, but that the world “lost a tremendous homophobe” Tuesday.
“Jerry was the face of fundamentalism and the face of homophobia,” he said. “And now that that’s gone, how can we not celebrate the quiet that’s left behind? Not the death of a man, but the quiet that’s left behind when he’s gone.”
A softer side?
In a surprise move, HRC formally thanked Falwell for appearing to speak out in favor of gay rights in 2005.
Falwell had discussed potential Supreme Court nominees with President Bush before a pick was named that year. During an August 2005 appearance on MSNBC, Falwell raised eyebrows when he said he was not troubled by reports that nominee John Roberts had done volunteer legal work for gay rights activists on the case Romer v. Evans.
In that case, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the state of Colorado could not create laws with the sole intention of discriminating against gay men and lesbians.
Falwell told MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson that if he were a lawyer, he too would argue for civil rights for gays.
“I may not agree with the lifestyle,” Falwell said. “But that has nothing to do with the civil rights of that … part of our constituency.
“Judge Roberts would probably have been not a very good lawyer if he had not been willing, when asked by his partners in the law firm to assist in guaranteeing the civil rights of employment and housing to any and all Americans.”
When Carlson countered that conservatives, “are always arguing against ‘special rights’ for gays,” Falwell said that equal a
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