A quick heads-up before we start the show today,

there are several pieces of archival audio in today's episode

that include people using homophobic slurs.

This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedantam.

For generations, gay people were the target of noxious stereotypes in the United States.

Quayers and the homosexuals.

The second you see your son dropping the limp wrist, you rock over there and crack that wrist.

Halls of worship and airwaves were full of hateful propaganda.

AIDS is the judgment of God. And that's the title of the sermon propaganda. AIDS is the judgment of God.

And that's the title of the sermon tonight.

AIDS, the judgment of God.

Built a great, big, large fence.

Put all the lesbians in there.

Gay rights advocates are outraged over a ruling yesterday by a Virginia judge,

which denied a mother custody of her son because she's a lesbian.

The judge said the relationship is, in his words,

illegal and immoral.

Illegal and immoral.

Illegal and immoral.

And have that fence electrified until they can't get out.

Feed them. And you know what? In a few years they'll die out. In classrooms, workplaces, and social settings, homophobes targeted gay people

with violence. And Matthew Shepard was beaten last weekend tied to a wooden fence by two men who met Shepard

...