Police shoot dead Berlin Pride van and knife rampage suspect, officials say

Ravjot Mehek Singh, a queer Sikh activist and award-winning filmmaker, added on: “As a Sikh in post 9/11 America, the racist attacks I experienced growing up in a predominantly White community left me traumatized and in doubt of my own identity. With my queerness, I get attacked oftentimes by my own community of conservative Sikhs, especially online where I am constantly doxxed and my videos collect thousands of hateful, violent comments. Because of my intersectional identity, I switch between facing threats from Americans and my own community – creating an often endless loop of hate… But Sikhi was founded to include all people regardless of gender or social standing, and I hope that the work I do alongside other brilliant advocates helps push for that equality to be acknowledged in its truest form.”

This paper uses anti-LGBTQ bias within evangelical Christianity as a case study to explore how nationalist movements justify prejudicial positions through framing privileged groups as victims. Since Anita Bryant’s late 1970s crusade against what was dubbed the “homosexual agenda,” white evangelicals have led a national movement opposing LGBTQ rights in the United States. Through a commitment to ensuring sexual minorities are excluded from civil rights protections, white evangelicals have contributed to a cultural and legal landscape conducive to anti-LGBTQ structural violence. This opposition is most often understood as rooted in love, and not in bias or hate, as demonstrated during long-term ethnographic research among white evangelical churches in Colorado Springs. Engaging with theories of morality and nationalism, this article argues that most biased political movements understand their motivation as defending a moral order and not perpetuating bias. In this way they can justify structural violence against subordinated groups.