Also slavery is ok

It's the same kind of energy as the people who came up with the story of Adam and Eve, who were punished for SEEKING KNOWLEDGE and not just trusting what their superior told them. And the religious right still resents women even though Adam made the exact same choice (or perhaps more importantly, the whole thing was just made up in the first place).

But it's not really mental gymnastics making them go after these books. It's all about power and they know that their power depends on people remaining stupid as well as LGBT people remaining in denial because each one that willingly comes out of the closet likely won't continue supporting conservatives and might even bring a few others with them, if they are the "I hate this until it's someone I love, then I support this" type. As much as we hear about stories of families breaking up because of right wing bullshit, there's probably a nontrivial amount that decide their relationship is more important than arbitrary hate and don't stick in the "you're just one of the good ones" camp.

And I've come to see that the root of the issue is that people on the far right see the world differently from moderates who see things differently from the left. The difference is that the right knows they have to use arguments that resonate with their political opponents, even if they aren't very effective at it. Words are just one of their sets of tools they can use to either gain power or stall their opponents by making them counter another argument they don't really care about but still yell loudly.