About a year ago, an interview of Ben Shapiro was circling on Facebook. When asked about his stance on marriage equality, he responded by saying that the government should stay out of marriage.
Why were libertarians not calling for the government to stay out of marriage prior to gay people demanding the right to marry?
Because couching homophobia in blanket declarations of freedom from state control is a way to appear open minded while remaining homophobic. It’s coded homophobia.
Just like when the Lethbridge right showed up to the school board meeting in 2016 in response to a school board policy respecting trans students’ right to use the washroom that best matches their gender. The right was asking that all students be treated equally, that no student should receive special treatment. They tried to hide their transphobia in blanket declarations of equality. But it’s coded transphobia. They try to appear open minded and progressive, but everyone else on the right knows what they’re talking about.
Coded bigotry is the foundation of dog whistle politics.
