BBC Examines The Late Rev. Jerry Falwell's Legacy

This blogger listened with piqued interest this morning as the British Broadcasting Corporation talked with two Republican analysists about the late Rev. Jerry Falwell's legacy. The Thomas Road Baptist Church founder's homophobia and outrageous statements against lesbians, gays and anyone else who opposed his divisive agenda were widely known. But his role within the Republican Party during the 1980s and early 1990s was equally as important.

The panelists were correct to note the war in Iraq remains the dominant issue in the current election cycle. They are also correct to note the growing discontent among social conservatives about the current Republican Presidential candidates. Log Cabin Republican Executive Director Patrick Sammon told this blogger in an interview last month the GOP must focus on issues which unite Americans if the party hopes to maintain the White House next November. Voter discontent with the war remains high. It seems likely this sentiment will continue -- or even increase -- as the situation in Iraq continues to evolve in the months leading up to the first caucuses and primaries. Marriage and other social issues remain important to many social conservatives and their LGBT counterparts. The current geopolitical realities will almost certainly diminish the impact the anti-LGBT rhetoric Falwell and others used so well in previous elections. Hopefully this trend will become permanent.

The Rev. Jerry Falwell Dies

The Rev. Jerry Falwell, a long-time nemesis of LGBT activists and progressive organizations and political factions, died yesterday after he was found unconscious in his office at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. President George W. Bush, U.S. Sen. John McCain [R-Ariz.] and other GOP Presidential hopefuls, the Rev. Al Sharpton and other religious figures have added their condolences to the already long list of public tributes. But Falwell's vitriolic anti-LGBT rhetoric simply cannot be ignored.

Falwell publicly secured his anti-LGBT credentials with his support of Anita Bryant's efforts to repeal a South Florida gay rights ordinance in the late 1970s. The outspoken minister's categorization of AIDS as God's condemnation of homosexuality further enraged activists while his denunciation of the Teletubbies because he believed Tinky Winky was gay bordered on the absurd. Falwell further vilified himself among progressives after he said gay rights supporters and others caused the Sept. 11 attacks in the days after the tragedy.

The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, CNN and the BBC are among the media outlets to report Falwell's anti-gay legacy. The National Lesbian & Gay Task Force and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation also drew attention to these sentiments in their public responses to Falwell's death.

Falwell certainly became a national [and perhaps mythical] figure who did not fail to influence politics and the movement he helped to create and elevate out of the pews. His many supporters will continue to praise the good work they feel he has done and they will seek to romanticize his life in the coming days and weeks. But he leaves behind a divisive legacy of homophobia and intolerance from which even those within his own constituency have begun to distance themselves. This legacy remains an essential part of the Falwell story that must be told.