The Åke Green Effect

Swedish pastor Åke Green partook in the campaign against Proposition 8 in California. He has become something of an international hero to the homophobic movement after he was prosecuted for hate speech. Although the legal case against him had nothing whatsoever to do with same-sex marriage, Christian organisations in California used it to insinuate that marriage equality would result in religious speech being criminalised. The fact that Åke Green was acquitted even under the strict Swedish hate-crime legislation never seemed to decrease his propaganda value. On the contrary, the distortion of his case seems to have worked wonders.

Sherri Shepherd of ABC’s The View is proof of the devastating Åke Green effect.