There seems to be little rational reason for the fundagelicals to latch onto creationism either - or at least not in preference to relativity-denial, geo-centrism, etc., etc. It's simply biology's bad luck that evolution became the symbol of the scientific, technological, cultural and ethical advances during the 19th century that the fundagelicals so abhor.

Similarly, homosexuality may have simply been targeted because it was associated with one of the sides in some forgotten church schism about something else entirely. Or as a result of a particularly deranged pope, cardinal or inquisitor. Or something else lost to the mists of time and history.

That being said, however, I think that there is something to the idea put forward elsewhere in this thread that it may have to do with the fact that the Church decided that outbreeding the competition would be desirable. This also fits with the doctrine that sex for pleasure is Bad and Sinful, even to the extent that it justifies (to the Church's mind, if to no-one else's) the sanctioning of HIV-AIDS denial and lying about condoms.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.

Anyway, if we focus on the Bible Belt for a moment, where's the "specificity" of homophobia. There's a pretty vehement history, only 40 or so years in the past, of picking on other minorities too.

And we can see there clear historical reasons (including the size of the prominent racial minorities and external pressures for change) that explain why "gay right" hasn't progressed there as "quickly" as for some other minorities.

One key issue however is that there's a string of homophobic lines through the Bible that maybe made it easier (back in the 14th century) to start a movement using gays as a target group:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bibh.htm
http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bibh3.htm
http://www.religioustolerance.org/hombiblnt.htm

I would suggest that there are fewer lines that are as easily used to justify racial intolerance, largely because:

The "Middle East" area, sat between Africa and Europe was an area where people of many skin tones lived and mixed. There wasn't the homogeneity to promote a full on "pick on those people who look different" ideology.

Of course the "Dutch Reform Church" did construct a Biblical case for apartheid, but that came quite a bit later on. I'd argue that is possibly because it's much harder work.

Of course, since we're speculating, I've also read that the crusade against homosexuals started in the medieval era from political roots, because a few politically powerful church orders had a lot of gay members and those who opposed them found this a handy way to attack them. But that was in a book that has long since passed from my possession, so I can't quote anything useful.