“Arguing against homosexuality is hate speech!”. Many anti-queer statements are hate speech, e.g. promotion of murder, but others are along the lines of “People shouldn’t act on same-sex attraction because...”. Quite a few conservatives complain that the latter form of argument is dismissed as “hate speech”, even though “People shouldn’t drive SUVs because...” is never taken to mean you hate SUV drivers.
That’s not the worst argument in the world. “People shouldn’t act on same-sex attraction because...” is closer to the central archetype of hate speech than “People shouldn’t drive SUVs because...” is. And the full argument is probably something like “Arguing against homosexuality is hate speech, and therefore harms homosexuals.” — which is a sloppy argument, but a cleaned-up version would be “Arguing against homosexuality encourages people (through the magic of virtue ethics) to view homosexuals as vicious. And it legitimizes (through the affect heuristic) the established pattern of homophobia. Therefore, you should not argue against homosexuality. By the way, hate speech shares these features.”
“Arguing against homosexuality is hate speech!”. Many anti-queer statements are hate speech, e.g. promotion of murder, but others are along the lines of “People shouldn’t act on same-sex attraction because...”. Quite a few conservatives complain that the latter form of argument is dismissed as “hate speech”, even though “People shouldn’t drive SUVs because...” is never taken to mean you hate SUV drivers.
That’s not the worst argument in the world. “People shouldn’t act on same-sex attraction because...” is closer to the central archetype of hate speech than “People shouldn’t drive SUVs because...” is. And the full argument is probably something like “Arguing against homosexuality is hate speech, and therefore harms homosexuals.” — which is a sloppy argument, but a cleaned-up version would be “Arguing against homosexuality encourages people (through the magic of virtue ethics) to view homosexuals as vicious. And it legitimizes (through the affect heuristic) the established pattern of homophobia. Therefore, you should not argue against homosexuality. By the way, hate speech shares these features.”