Toward the end of July, members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, led by their pastor, Fred Phelps, have scheduled to hold protest rallies in three sites in Iowa: Waukee’s Jewish Historical Society, Ames on the Iowa State Campus, and Marshalltown at Marshalltown Community Theater, which is performing the play “The Laramie Project” profiling the life and murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard.

On their website godhatesfags.com, Phelps and company direct their protests against “…the Jews…[who] arrested, falsely accused, prosecuted and then sentenced [Jesus] to death…” and because “God hates Iowa” for being “the first to begin giving $ to little [homosexual] perverts for no other reason then they brag about being little perverts.”

Phelps, in his own distorted way, continues the centuries-old linkage of the many clear and stunning connections between historical stereotypical representations and oppression against Jewish people and lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgendered people (LGBTs). I divide these historical interconnections into five basic categories:

1. Religious Condemnations: Throughout the ages, people have cited certain biblical passages to justify persecution and denial of legal protections of LGBTs and Jews, even though there is great disagreement among religious scholars over the interpretation of these passages.

2. Immature Developmental Stage: Jews and LGBTs have been represented as an immature developmental stage: Judaism as an intermediate or immature religious stage on the way to Christianity -the advanced, mature faith—and the Hebrew Bible as only a prelude to the eventual coming as Jesus; and homosexuality and homosexuals as constituting immature human development.

3. Immutable Biological Types: By the late nineteenth century, both Judaism and homosexuality had come to be viewed by the scientific community as distinct “racial types,” with immutable biological characteristics -a trend that increased markedly in the twentieth century of the Common Era.

4. Abuse and Recruitment of Children: A crucial point in the psychology of scapegoating is the representation of minoritized groups as subhuman forms that “recruit,” molest, and kill children of the dominant groups, and accordingly, both Jews and LGBTs have long been accused of being dangerous predators of children.

5. Domination and Destruction of “Civilized” Society: While the dominant society has frequently been concerned that Jews and people attracted to others of their sex can “pass” without detection into the mainstream, they have also historically portrayed these groups as rich and powerful conspirators whose aim is to control, manipulate, and eventually destroy societies.

A central tenet of Jewish tradition is Tikkun Olam: meaning the transformation, healing, and repairing of the world so that it becomes a more just, peaceful, nurturing, and perfect place. In going over the representations of Jews and LGBTs, I have a hope -a hope that we can all join together as allies to counter these representations, and to defeat these and all other forms of oppression. I ask us to join and go out into our lives, and work for Tikkun Olam. Let us transform the world.

– Warren Blumenfeld is an assistant professor of curriculum and instruction at Iowa State.