[ID: “Tell me the truth, I’m ready to hear it” meme format from Raimi Spiderman 2 film. Mary Jane says that with pleading look on face while Peter Parker answers, “The Satanic Temple cannot help you get an abortion, and it does not deserve your support.” Mary reacts silently, but crushed. /ID]
The Satanic Temple’s Lucien Greaves: “I’m an Aryan king!”
In 2018, audio surfaced of The Satanic Temple co-owner and co-founder Lucien Greaves engaging in a conversation of grotesque Jew-hatred.
CW: antisemitism
In lieu of closed captions, here is the transcript of that exchange, starting at “I think it’s okay to hate Jews if you hate them because they’re Jewish, and they wear a stupid fucking frisbee on their head and walk around [thinking] they’re God’s chosen people.”
Greaves, whose real name is Doug Misicko, was then using a different pseudonym of “Doug Mesner”, and is the first person you hear in the clip. He was co-hosting a 24-hour Internet radio stream with his friend Shane Bugbee and Shane’s wife Amy Bugbee, the other primary two voices in that clip. The laughing person is a caller, one Gerod Staaf.
Hey everyone with a uterus on my friends list. With the current bs events taken place in this horrific time line, I just wanna give ya a PSA. Join the Satanic Temple, Islam, or convert to Judaism. Those religions have a religious and holy book right to grantee the life of the mother. Abortions are mandatory when the life of the mother is stressed or threatened. Don’t let the zealot Christians in our government control you. Take a stand and secure the rights they are trying to take from you. You have options. Don’t let them tell you otherwise.
Converting to Judaism is not the answer you think it is. Spend that time on activism instead.
And TST has never won a religious freedoms case regarding abortion. Not to mention that no Rabbi is gonna accept you as a conversion student if abortion is your driving reason. You have no idea the kind of work that goes into conversion.
Also, related to this discussion, if it were possible for a religious liberty argument to work for someone other than Christian bigots, the Temple’s failures in court establish bad precedent that makes future cases harder for other, much more established religions to argue.
20:02:23Doug Misicko: Well, I tend to feel that racialism can be too general, at times. I think there should be eugenics policy, population control policy, something that ensures quality reproduction. But on racial grounds, I really don’t see it because you got to admit you meet some Black people are smarter than a lot of white people you met and vice versa. And all the rest. And if through the top notch, were the ones breeding, carrying on, that would be the best way to go.
20:02:54Tom Metzger: Yeah, there are gray areas, there’s overlap. But on the other hand, I’m, you see, you might see a white crow sometime too. But most crows are black. [laughter] I mean, if you judge the Black race by it, by its whole, you got you must come up with the idea that the def- definitely an inferior race.
20:03:13Doug Misicko: Well, if that was being the case…
20:03:15Tom Metzger: You’re saying that there’s mixed race, Blacks- mulattos that are sharp and smart. Once in a while there’s a jet black Negro, that’s very smart. Sure there is. And there’s a lot of stupid whites.
20:03:26Doug Misicko: But that being the case, you still wouldn’t have to enact racial laws, you just have to enact intelligence laws. And if that was being the case, then that good segment of the population would have to drop off, you could still do it on an equal level around the board.
20:03:41Tom Metzger: Well, we’ll leave you the project of raising the IQ of the Black race till about 140. And I’ll be standing by when you’re successful.
20:03:51Amy Bugbee: It’s going to be quite a task. I think.
20:03:54Tom Metzger: That’s gonna keep you busy for a long time.
20:03:56Doug Misicko: I don’t think the average white IQ is anywhere near 140.
20:04:01Tom Metzger: That’s true, but on the par, they’re higher than Blacks by probably 20 points. Most of the Third Reich, people, including Hitler, they were all above 120. And most of them are about 140.
20:04:18Doug Misicko: They actually took IQ tests?
20:04:20Tom Metzger: Yes, they did while they were in Nuremberg prison, awaiting trial. And the lowest IQ in the whole bunch was Julius Streicher. And he was 120. So I think if you do a, you know, an IQ test in Europe, among the educated whites, and then try to compare it to Blacks going to any university in the world, you’re going to see a difference. Already, they’ve already done that to where they have upscale Blacks going to these schools down in Maryland. And they were doing worse than a white kid is doing an Appalachia. So no, don’t ever forget race is a very important thing.
20:05:01Amy Bugbee: Absolutely, I know my sister always says how Blacks have only been civilized for a few 100 years so, they’re never going to catch up. You know, my, I’m never gonna be older than my older sister. So…
20:05:15Tom Metzger: I’ve heard that. Some estimates are that they are supposedly around 250,000 years behind, as a race. And of course, I’m not convinced we even come from the same source. I have, I have a very hard time believing that.
20:05:34Amy Bugbee: I agree with you. I think that there’s different species of humans or human related beings. I don’t think that we’re necessarily the same species as Blacks or Asians, you know, or any number of other races.
20:05:52Tom Metzger: If you’ll read the works of Carlton Kuhn, he pretty much brings forth the idea of separate development of the races in different areas of the world. Not all in Africa. We may have come from another planet for all I know,
19:34:58Doug Misicko: Alright, Tom. A book came out about a couple weeks ago called “A Hundred Little Hitlers”, about a case that you were indirectly involved in. Where you were sued for supposedly inciting some skinheads to kill an Ethiopian. Have you read it? And what do you think of it?
19:35:12Tom Metzger: Yeah, yeah, I read it. And that was Eleanor Langer. She spent about 10 years writing that book. And she’s been here in Fallbrook, where I live, two or three times, and she’s done a million interviews, and it’s reasonably fair book. There are some errors, in it and exaggerations, but uh…
19:35:30Doug Misicko: Like what?
19:35:32Tom Metzger: Well, she said that I didn’t chase the defendants around or I mean, these witnesses around enough like David Rosella and get their deposition. And she seems to forget, I was a working man, I didn’t have the money to chase ‘em around and Morris Dees was paying the main witness, 5-600 bucks a month. He took him on trips and fishing trips in the Gulf of Mexico. Offered him a part in a movie and then he paid him, got him a house to live in, got him a job and paid him off, all the time up until the Supreme Court refused to hear our case. So, he was hiding these witnesses, so I couldn’t oppose them and I just didn’t have the money or the expertise to chase him around the country. And I don’t remember every little thing, mistake, because some of them are just little errors he made but then towards the end of the book, she says that Dees has access to my PO Box, which she knows better than that, because I took her to the PO Box and let her watch me open it up and take the money out and take- take the letters out and all that kind of stuff. So.
19:36:46Doug Misicko: So you got along with her generally, the author?
19:36:49Tom Metzger: Pardon me?
19:36:49Doug Misicko: You got along with her. The author of the book.
19:36:51Tom Metzger: Got along with her pretty well, she’s Jewish, but she seemed to be pretty fair. Once in a while you run into one like that.
19:36:58Doug Misicko: So not necessarily being Jewish is something you have against somebody, or is it?
19:37:04Tom Metzger: Well I-uh I certainly would in a lot of ways, look at them carefully. But if they treated me right, and they were honest with me, then I’d give them respect.
19:37:15Doug Misicko: So it’s the Jewish belief you object to not the bloodline?
19:37:18Tom Metzger: It’s the mindset that many of them had. I mean, what we’re dealing with is hybrids, when you talk about Jewry. You have you have aryan Jews, biologically aryan. You’ve got Chinese Jews, biologically Chinese. And you’ve got Black- like lots of Jews that are biologically Black, but they’re Jewish. So that part of it I think is a mindset.
19:37:49Doug Misicko: So you mean they’re Zionists? They’re, they’re following a Zionist movement. They’re part of an international cabal?
19:37:53Tom Metzger: This cult has been around for a long time, you know, from the Middle East. And then, of course, a hybrid, mixed-race person who happens to be Jewish, is number one mixed race. Don’t accept them anyhow. So I, I’m pretty much of the belief that a person is biologically white and obviously white and European to look at them, that they can, they can quit being Jewish. I mean, many people quit being Baptist and Catholics. So why couldn’t they quit being Jewish?
19:38:27Shane Bugbee: Right, but people of Jewish bloodline can also quit being Jewish.
19:38:29Tom Metzger: I don’t necessarily buy the Jewish bloodline idea. I know that gets me in trouble with some people. But I used to take that track. But I think that may be a mistake. I believe it’s a cultural mindset thing. And though they may have lived in one area for a long time and adapted a certain blood connection, they can’t be… They can’t be really connected to a race. I mean, as a race. As a Jewish race. I think really, that’s where there’s been some mistakes made. I get in trouble with a lot of right wingers because they want to just push the Jewish race thing.
19:39:14Doug Misicko: Well, they are a distinct phenotype…
Hey everyone with a uterus on my friends list. With the current bs events taken place in this horrific time line, I just wanna give ya a PSA. Join the Satanic Temple, Islam, or convert to Judaism. Those religions have a religious and holy book right to grantee the life of the mother. Abortions are mandatory when the life of the mother is stressed or threatened. Don’t let the zealot Christians in our government control you. Take a stand and secure the rights they are trying to take from you. You have options. Don’t let them tell you otherwise.
Converting to Judaism is not the answer you think it is. Spend that time on activism instead.
And TST has never won a religious freedoms case regarding abortion. Not to mention that no Rabbi is gonna accept you as a conversion student if abortion is your driving reason. You have no idea the kind of work that goes into conversion.
Also, related to this discussion, if it were possible for a religious liberty argument to work for someone other than Christian bigots, the Temple’s failures in court establish bad precedent that makes future cases harder for other, much more established religions to argue.
In an email to Lead Stories on May 11, 2022, Ric Simmons, the Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer Professor at the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University, wrote that RFRA would not likely be a substantial enough claim:
Laws that ban or restrict abortion apply indiscriminately to everyone, so there would be no religious exemption to them under the first amendment, and it would be difficult to argue that obeying the law would create a substantial burden to exercising their religion (it may, of course, impose a substantial burden on women generally, but that is not RFRA’s test).
[Mark Tushnet, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law emeritus at Harvard Law School] wrote in detail to explain the full complexity of this issue
1. If the new member holds the beliefs associated with the Satanic Temple sincerely, and not opportunistically, she would be able to claim protection under the federal RFRA for actions against her by the federal government (not at all likely under current statutes because there aren’t many federal statutes regulating those who have abortions) and under state RFRAs where they exist (in about 20 states, I believe, but of course, you should check).
2. A sincere belief would trigger RFRA protections but that doesn’t mean that the action would in fact be protected. All RFRAs allow the government to override the religious belief for compelling reasons, and governments would certainly argue that protecting what they regard as human life is a compelling reason. I’m reasonably confident that the governments would prevail on that ground – so, in the end, I think it unlikely that joining the Satanic Temple would actually provide protection against prosecution for having an abortion.
3. In addition, the point in #1 about “sincerity” is important. Courts have been reluctant to find that a litigant isn’t sincere in asserting her religious beliefs, but everyone’s aware of the fact that the more personal benefit you get from the claim, the more likely it is that you’re not sincere in asserting what your beliefs are. I think there’s a decent change that many judges would find that people who joined the Satanic Temple recently and didn’t do anything else weren’t sincere – but again that might vary depending on what each individual member actually does.
Samuel D. Brunson, the Georgia Reithal professor at the Loyola University Chicago School of Law, wrote in an email on May 11, 2022, that he’s “pretty sure that the Satanic Temple is positioning itself to challenge anti-abortion legislation in various states.”
The federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, as well as most (if not all) state-level RFRAs don’t say that the government cannot infringe on a person’s free exercise rights under any circumstance at all. Rather, they say that to infringe on an individual’s religious practice, the government must have a compelling governmental interest and the law it enacts must be the least restrictive means of furthering that interest.
Is it possible that a member of the Satanic Temple can successfully challenge laws against abortion based on a religious belief in bodily autonomy? Yes, it is possible. But I suspect that the state would have the better argument.
As much as we want an easy, costless way to deal with potential anti-abortion laws in a post-Roe world, something that seems easy and slick and too cute by half is probably not going to work. Protecting a woman’s right to choose is, rather, going to require us to do the hard work of demonstrating, writing to representatives, and voting for people (at the federal and state levels) who will ensure that that right is protected.
the Satanic Temple’s approach is clever. And it highlights a real inconsistency among people who insist both on untrammeled religious liberty and prohibitions on abortion. But joining the Satanic Temple is unlikely to allow an individual in, for instance, Texas or Louisiana ignore state abortion bans.
Thinking about getting involved with the Satanic Temple again because of the recent stuff going on
Back when I was a fledgling atheist, I still craved a kind of religious structure in my life. TST delivered on that but for atheists. I quietly left after a while because they aren’t actually good at winning lawsuits, and a few of the big-name people there have kind of a sus history.
@positivelyatheistYeah, definitely recommend pumping the brakes on that one, friend.
hey everyone! this is just your gentle reminder that TST (the satanic temple) is notoriously bad at winning it’s court cases.pleasedo not rely on them to fight for your legal right to abortion. please do not donate to their abortion fund when it’s been a proven grift from the start. there are plenty of reliable, productive grassroots orgs. that you could donate to instead.
to help combat all the misinformation that’s been passed around, i’d like to link a couple of trustable abortion/birth control resources below! i’ll also be adding dependable orgs. that you could donate to! reblog this for your mutuals who live in states where their reproductive rights could be threatened.
abortion/birth control resources:
Planned Parenthood: one of the most reliable sources for birth control available. by downloading the app, you can get a prescription for daily birth control sent to your pharmacy or directly to your mailing address. they also offer other methods of birth control, such as IUDs and rings.
Plan C Pills: a super helpful website that directs you to multiple sources for abortion pills from third-party providers. It has a price-check option, so you can find a price that works for you. they also offer abortion support and counseling if you feel you need it.
Aid Access: probably one of the best choices for abortion pills if you are less than 10 weeks pregnant. they source their medication from trustable pharmacies. based in india, they will provide you with abortion pills via mail. they also have financial support for those who cannot afford the cost of these medications. they have doctors you can contact, and instructions for every step of the process.
Women on Web: they offer abortion pills via mail as well as consultations. they also have an accurate pregnancy calculator that can help you figure out how far along you are. it’s super important that you check out the page where they’ve debunked several at-home abortion methods.
groups to donate to:
Planned Parenthood: they’re actively working to fight against the implication of unconstitutional laws such as the texas abortion ban.
American Civil Liberties Union: although their focus is not exclusively on abortion, they have a long history of successfully defending individual rights in court. they plan to do the same with recent anti-abortion legislation.
Avow: a C4 non-profit dedicated to fighting the recent abortion laws in texas.
You know even before the whole possible overturning Roe V Wade bullshit started happening, I was comfortable with the idea of never partaking in reproductive acts.
Now that has increased twenty fold and I’ll maim and kill any man who even so much as thinks of taking off his pants in my presence.
I highly recommend to anyone who sees this to join The Satanic Temple or an organization similar to it. Their 3rd tenet protects your right to bodily autonomy, not just abortion, and its completely free to sign up.
Last time I checked, membership cards are 25 dollars and also come with a certificate(they actually have some really cool designs you can choose from), stickers, and stuff like that. It’s not required to be a member though.
Here’s a link to their website, I highly encourage that you check it out, especially if you are a uterus-owner
And no, they don’t practice animal sacrifices or anything like that.
Tldr they believe in science and being a decent human being
I still recommend reading through their website, they have FAQs and their mission statement that spell it out better than I do.
We understand you had the best of intentions here, but you definitely should not believe The Satanic Temple’s marketing about itself because they have lost all of these relevant court cases so far, and arguably are actively harmful to the cause of reproductive autonomy and abortion access.
It sucks, yeah. There is no “one weird trick” to get an abortion using a religious liberty loophole, and unfortunately The Satanic Temple is literally profiting off of the misconception they push and people want to believe is true.
There are other things about TST and its owners that suck, but in regards to this, not being able to show how they’ve been effectiveand not being willing to show where the money is actually going ought to be enough.
The only thing worse than rainbow capitalism? Queerbait rainbow capitalism.
OK, so this definitely borders on making fun of The Satanic Temple just to make fun of The Satanic Temple, but somehow they managed to take rainbow capitalism and make it even worse last year.
Hail Pride ️ Pride Month is just around the corner and we want to take a moment to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community! In that spirit, we’re excited to announce that our new pride merch is available in the TST Shop at
OK! A buncha Satanists are queer people, esp. TST members. Let’s see what they had?
Sure. Yeah. Not everything needs to be “rainbowy” or in pride colors to represent queer pride, right? Of course not. Satanists tend to dress in black a lot. Fine.
But what about the buttons! The preview image made them look colorful!
ALT
Uh… that just looks like a random collection of “The Satanic Temple” pin-on buttons with the logo in various colors, including a few “The Satanic Temple - Salem”, which is the same location as the “Salem Art Gallery”, the physical headquarters of The Satanic Temple and where they sell a bunch of in-person merchandise.
Did- did they just throw together a bunch of buttons they already had on hand and then call them “Pride buttons”?
That does certainly seem the case, yes.
“Wait a second, @QueerSatanic,” we can already hear someone saying. “The Satanic Temple does great gay pride content year-round. So what if their Pride month collection was last minute. TST probably didn’t even think about needing it because they’re so oriented toward queer issues all the time.”
That is an absolutely great point to make, thank you so much not letting us go astray.
Indeed, TST logo patches doseem to include a TST logo with rainbow colors.
Anyway, look, The Satanic Temple would not be any betterif they were selling more rainbow stuff for Pride Month. Certainly, they’ve sold rainbow stuff in the past. It’s just funny that they didn’t bother to do anything for 2021 until the very last minute, and did the ol’ bait-and-switch with their marketing, disappointing a lot of people.
ALTALT
It really is a nice touch that rainbows are everywhere except the actual products they offered, right?
Speaking of Pride Month and The Satanic Temple’s interests there, let’s check in on New Jersey and how one trans member there is feeling about a local would-be chapter.
To be fair, “We will use your face to promote us, but we don’t want you involved in leadership, and we just want to make money off of Pride celebrations” is very on-brand for The Satanic Temple. As are the TSTer comments reacting to criticism as healthily as we’ve come to expect
The only thing worse than rainbow capitalism? Queerbait rainbow capitalism.
OK, so this definitely borders on making fun of The Satanic Temple just to make fun of The Satanic Temple, but somehow they managed to take rainbow capitalism and make it even worse last year.
Hail Pride ️ Pride Month is just around the corner and we want to take a moment to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community! In that spirit, we’re excited to announce that our new pride merch is available in the TST Shop at
OK! A buncha Satanists are queer people, esp. TST members. Let’s see what they had?
Sure. Yeah. Not everything needs to be “rainbowy” or in pride colors to represent queer pride, right? Of course not. Satanists tend to dress in black a lot. Fine.
But what about the buttons! The preview image made them look colorful!
ALT
Uh… that just looks like a random collection of “The Satanic Temple” pin-on buttons with the logo in various colors, including a few “The Satanic Temple - Salem”, which is the same location as the “Salem Art Gallery”, the physical headquarters of The Satanic Temple and where they sell a bunch of in-person merchandise.
Did- did they just throw together a bunch of buttons they already had on hand and then call them “Pride buttons”?
That does certainly seem the case, yes.
“Wait a second, @QueerSatanic,” we can already hear someone saying. “The Satanic Temple does great gay pride content year-round. So what if their Pride month collection was last minute. TST probably didn’t even think about needing it because they’re so oriented toward queer issues all the time.”
That is an absolutely great point to make, thank you so much not letting us go astray.
Indeed, TST logo patches doseem to include a TST logo with rainbow colors.
Anyway, look, The Satanic Temple would not be any betterif they were selling more rainbow stuff for Pride Month. Certainly, they’ve sold rainbow stuff in the past. It’s just funny that they didn’t bother to do anything for 2021 until the very last minute, and did the ol’ bait-and-switch with their marketing, disappointing a lot of people.
ALTALT
It really is a nice touch that rainbows are everywhere except the actual products they offered, right?
Screen Shot Youtube Billy Hallowell Reports: While pro-life individuals and organizations assembled at more than 300 Planned Parenthood locations nationwide on Saturday to protest undercover videos that purport to show the sale of tissue from aborted fetuses, Satanists held a dramatic counter-protest of their own. Members of the Satanic Temple of Detriot assembled outside of a clinic in Ferndale,…
It’s critical that children understand that there are multiple perspectives on all issues, and that they have a choice in how they think… “Satan” is just a “metaphorical construct” intended to represent the rejection of all forms of tyranny over the human mind. Our point is that if you let one religion into the public schools you have to let others, otherwise it’s an establishment of religion.
The “After School Satan Clubs” focus on science and rational thinking, promoting benevolence and empathy for everybody – while providing an alternative voice to the Bible-centered after school clubs. After School Satan Clubs do not teach children to believe in supernatural beings named Satan or perform Satanic rituals.
In the Illinois Capitol rotunda this month, several traditions are being celebrated. There’s a Nativity scene for Christmas, a menorah for Hanukkah, and then something a little different: an arm holding an apple, with a snake coiled around it.
It’s a gift from the Chicago branch of The Satanic Temple. Called “Snaketivity,” the work also has a sign that reads “Knowledge Is The Greatest Gift.”
Nearby stands a sign in which the state offers a civics lesson — and explains it didn’t have much of a choice:
“The State of Illinois is required by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution to allow temporary, public displays in the state capitol so long as these displays are not paid for by taxpayer dollars. Because the first floor of the Capitol Rotunda is a public place, state officials cannot legally censor the content of speech or displays. The United States Supreme Court has held that public officials may legally impose reasonable time, place and manner restrictions regarding displays and speeches, but no regulation can be based on the content of the speech.”
Illinois Secretary of State spokesman Dave Druker toldThe State Journal-Record the temple has the same rights as religious organizations. “This recognizes that.”
The Satanic Temple calls itself a “non-theistic organization” in its application to install the display.
In a GoFundMe campaign to raise $1,500 for the display, the group explainsits mission: “The Satanic Temple—Chicago will no longer allow one religious perspective to dominate the discourse in the Illinois State Capitol rotunda during the holiday season. … Please consider what you may do to help us bring Satan to Springfield!”
“TST and its members have deeply held religious beliefs that bodily autonomy is a fundamental right.
Join The Satanic Temple’s fight for Religious Reproductive Rights by making a recurring donation via your state or the state closest to you.
In 11 states, egregious laws have been passed that restrict or inhibit access to abortion, make unreasonable demands on patients or practitioners, or endanger the health, safety, or wellbeing of our members. This is a violation of our Third Tenet - bodily autonomy - and Fifth Tenet - living in accordance with the best scientific understanding of the world. As a federally recognized religion, the right to practice our beliefs is protected under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Our ongoing legal battles in the fight for Reproductive Rights cost immense amounts of money. We need your help.” - The Satanic Temple
“Please join the fight for Reproductive Rights by making a recurring donation. Select your state or the state closest to you to donate.
A rally will be held at the capital of the state who raises the most money. The winner will be announced after the campaign ends on Oct. 31, at 11:59 p.m.
Once your donation has been made, the governor of your chosen state will receive a postcard informing them that, due to their actions, a donation has been made to TST in their name.
As a federally recognized religion, the right to practice our beliefs is protected under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
A concerted effort to insert theocratic law into US legislation has resulted in egregious laws that restrict or inhibit access to abortion, make unreasonable demands on patients or practitioners, or endanger the health, safety, or well-being of our members.
Lawsuits are a necessary part of an ongoing battle that we are aggressively fighting to preserve the rights of women and all our members.
On July 31st, 2019 The Satanic Temple filed an appeal to a federal lawsuit in Missouri. The appeal is based on a 1989 decision handed down by the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals “which explicitly states that the life of each human being begins at conception is ‘an impermissible state adoption of a theory when life begins.’ ” The appeal is to the same court. We need your help to continue the fight. “ - The Satanic Temple
LGBTQ+ inclusion, the 7 Tenets & my experience within The Satanic Temple UK - Neil Currie
Hail Satan, my name is Neil. I am guessing that as you are reading this blog you have at least a passing interest in The Satanic Temple. And, given the title of the post I’m hoping you have more than a passing interest in the LGBTQ+ community and its experiences. Whilst deciding on writing this blog post I decided that for it to make sense I would need to start in the past. I grew up in the UK, in fact, other than a short sojourn in Barcelona, my experience of the LGBTQ+ “community” is predominantly one grounded in the UK.
A little about me, I came out as queer in the late 1980s in a small town in Yorkshire, of course, there was no LGBTQ+ community (although at this point in queer history it was just LG, the B was added around 1989 the rest later). In order to try to find my tribe I had already been exploring the post-punk and goth scene in Leeds, this was centred around a now legendary club called Le Phonographic. Some of you reading this may remember it and if you were there between 89 and about 92 may even know me. After coming out I was welcomed with open arms by this community and as the UK in the 80s and early 90s was still less than welcoming to LGBTQ+ people, the community was very tight knit. Although it was tight knit, it was very welcoming and whilst being predominately very white and often with separate Women’s and Men’s spaces, it was diverse, diverse in the sense that it didn’t matter if you were a goth, or a rocker or a disco bunny, there was little or no fem shaming like there is today. I felt welcome in both my communities. In fact, in the 90s there were even queer clubs specializing in “Alternative” music, which were generally packed to capacity. Fast forward to 21st century LGBTQ+ community, it has become homogenized with difference being used as a tool to shame. Okay, all well and good but what does this all have to do with The Satanic Temple and the 7 Tenets you ask. Well, hopefully I can translate the confusing mess of thoughts into a coherent post.
The homogenization of our culture and “difference” being used as a tool to shame is not unique to the LGBTQ+ community, The Right is yet again on the rise and whilst the moderate right have historically simply been the other side of the isle to my own political standpoint in the UK our Conservative party are sliding towards becoming a party of the far right. This move emboldens those in the wider community who would seek to further oppress minorities and more specifically seek to remove those protections in law we have achieved over the last few decades. It is this march to the right that I, to some extent, blame for the LGBTQ+ community becoming less tolerant of difference.
For some time now I have been following The Satanic Temple in the US, watching what they have been doing with interest and wondering about how to get involved. I am an Atheist, I do not believe in Magick or superstition, so TST’s brand of Satanism really appealed. After reading the Seven Tenets:
This made my mind up and I joined up through the website. Of course, like everyone else I tried to find a chapter near me. At the time I joined, the UK only had a “friends of”, we have now been granted official chapter status. Since joining the UK chapter (friends of at the point I joined), I very quickly found I was making a new family, one that accepted everyone as they were, through upholding the Tenets my person was accepted without question. There was no expectation for me to have to change to fit in, I simply am, what I am. And, my experience, is these are not just words, we have had some amazing discussions on such varied and wide-ranging topic, not all about LGBTQ by any means. But, through these discussions and members and allies have shown they actively live the tenets. I have found, I suppose, what I had in the post-punk and goth scene of the late 80s. People who genuinely believe and live the seven tenets, as part of their truth, as part of their life. This may all seem obvious and are asking does this need to be said?
I have to say I honestly think it does. For those of us, through who we are, are often singled out for abuse and exclusion by the state, state sponsored actors, or just those members of our society deem who or what we are to be outside of what they view as acceptable ways of “being” to find a place where we are not simply accepted, but, through the very core of the beliefs that the community we are joining actually live. We are validated, we are supported and defended.
Words are insufficient to get across how this feels and what it means., certainly to me, as I realise, I cannot speak for everyone in the LGBTQ+ community. So, I guess this is my “love letter”, if you like to The Satanic Temple. A clumsy metaphor I know but I am at a loss for a better one. I must also stress, this is MY experience, My personal view. But one I felt important to get across so those members who have not experienced what it is to be “other than” in this world could understand the very meaningful impact finding this “family” has on people.
The views in this article are that of the writer, Neil Currie, based on his own personal experiences, and should be treated as such.
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