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So telling little gay kids that they were born broken and are going to Hell isn't abuse?

Don't you dare say that it doesn't happen or that it doesn't matter. Don't you dare.

To me it seems like calling that the fault of "religion" seems roughly analogous to blaming the concept of "government" for the actions of a specific city or state/province government? (that is, either 1 or 2 levels below a national government , though I might have made a mistake with the analogy there)

Not all religions/versions of a religion are the same.

I acknowledge that an analogy is not always a particularly strong argument, but it was the first responce I thought of, and it seemed an acceptable responce to me.

Also, it might have made more sense to respond a few levels up, not sure what would have made the most sense to reply to.

It isn't a bad analogy. My counterargument is that local government policy can usually be changed a lot more easily than religious dogma, especially dogma surrounding who to demonize. Maintaining a strong notion of who is in the in-group and who is in the out-group seems to be an important mechanism in maintaining tribal cohesion.

My point is that religions seem prone to demonizing people as a quick and easy way to define themselves and maintain cohesion. Look at all the really nasty doctrinal splits through history.

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