Discussion of campaigns to silence Gay voices and Gay identity, through, for example, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell or through policies attempting to prevent Gay youth from organizing in schools, is fairly commonplace in the literature on Gays’ legal status. It is not difficult to see that Gays have been systematically prevented from speaking. In this chapter, I explore the underexplored and inverse problem of too much speech – specifically in the form of the cacophonous propaganda campaign to dehumanize Gays and dispirit our allies.

As with the Nazi propaganda campaign to dehumanize Jews by normalizing anti-Semitism, thus making violence against Jews easy (to which I analogize later), when Gay hating becomes the norm – is normalized through state-sponsored propaganda (called “free speech” or “free expression”) – then killing and other forms of abuse of Gays become easy. In response to the emergency of which such a system is an essential part, this chapter offers a substantive equality theory of freedom of speech. In doing so, it examines what I term “anti-identity” speech and its effects on its targets. Anti-identity speech, as a method of categorization, is broader and more appropriate than “hate speech.” Anti-identity speech does not require the use of individualized insults or epithets and can be delivered quite effectively and aggressively with a smile and a soft voice. To understand the nuance, one must think of James Dobson, not David Duke. Its targets are almost always minorities who are unpopular because of certain inescapable identifying traits. They are always traditionally marginalized and systematically disadvantaged peoples.