Deb’s House Concerts

This youtube video contains the audio tape of an Oklahoma legislator speaking to a small group about “the gay lifestyle” and “the homosexual agenda”. This kind of attitude has been around for as long as I can remember.

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It seems to me that people who think like this woman are the ones who have an ‘agenda’, and it is one that aims to keep non-straight people marginalized and unequal (even though the targets of speech like this are people who have families, work, pay taxes, own homes, volunteer, are citizens of this country …. the list is long).

She says,

The homosexual agenda is destroying this nation. Okay? It’s just a fact.

Not everybody’s lifestyle is equal, just like not all religions are equal.

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That is not the right kind of lifestyle. It has deadly consequences.

For those people involved in it, they have more suicides.

And, they’re more discouraged. There’s more illness.

… It’s the death knell for this country.

I honestly think it’s the biggest threat our nation has,

even bigger than terrorism or Islam.

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I tried to introduce a bill last year that would notify parents …

We have the gay-straight alliance coming into our schools. . .

One of my colleagues said We don’t have a gay problem in our community… well you know what, that is so dumb. If you have cancer in your little toe, do you just say that I’m going to forget about it since the rest of you is fine? It spreads! This stuff is deadly and it is spreading. It will destroy our young people and it will destroy this nation.

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I’ve heard talk like this for much of my life. It is not new. But, it never ceases to amaze me.

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Why can’t we (humans) just live together peacefully? Why is it necessary to call other people “the biggest threat our nation has, even bigger than terrorism” just because you disagree with them?

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If it were not for people whose goal is to keep some of the population of this country unequal, there would not be a need to work for equality.

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She talks about an agenda to indoctrinate children to ‘accept the homosexual lifestyle’. The only indoctrination of children I’ve seen has been by people who want to be sure children learn to judge and hate, rather than to accept each person as he or she is.

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I had written a different ending to this post (after the quotes), and it was lost when I tried to save the post. (sigh)

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I just want to put this up on my site in hopes that more people will think about this issue. The reason people who don’t fit the ’straight’ model have to work for equal rights is because those in power have made sure to keep equality out of reach for all these years.

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The idea of there being an agenda was one imagined by those whose agenda has always been one of marginalization, exclusion, judging people they view as different (to use the nicest terms that are used) and denying equal rights to others.

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Although anti-gay speech is a depressingly common element of U.S. political discourse, rarely does one hear the pure poison recently spewed by Oklahoma State Representative Sally Kern in a YouTube video now circulating on the Internet with astonishing speed.

 

Unaware that her remarks to 50 supporters were being taped, Rep. Kern offers a shocking anti-gay tirade in which she asserts that homosexuality is “the biggest threat that our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam.” She adds, “No society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than, you know, a few decades.”

While Rep. Kern rants, fellow members of the Oklahoma state legislature seem unwilling to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender citizens. Oklahoma is one of 17 states whose hate crimes laws do not encompass sexual orientation and gender identity & expression. Despite last fall’s senseless murder of Steven Domer, a 62 year-old gay man killed by Aryan supremacists in Oklahoma City, it is highly likely that the legislature will kill four bills that propose to amend the state hate crimes statute.

Let Rep. Kern and her colleagues know that hate speech is dangerous, that such words create a climate where physical assaults and killings are more likely, that it is abhorrent for a public official to use her authority to discriminate and defame law-abiding, contributing citizens.

 

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Call or write your legislator (remember phone calls and handwritten letters are far more effective than email) and share your outrage at Rep. Kern’s remarks. Urge them to demand that revision of Oklahoma’s hate crimes law be considered by the full legislature.

 

To find your legislator, search here.

Contact Rep. Kern:

Capitol Address
2300 N. Lincoln Blvd. Room 332
Oklahoma City, OK 73105

Phone: (405) 557-7348

Email: sallykern@okhouse.gov

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Deb’s House Concerts

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There is a post on Shakesville that beautifully explains how mysogyny harms men as well as women.

Two excerpts are below:

If you are living in a misogynist, sexist society where privilege is awarded automatically by virtue of manliness/maleness or perceived manliness/maleness, and therefore, being womanly/female is an undesirable (if not despicable) position, then you are going to work hard to avoid the culturally-acceptable traits of womanliness.

This, I believe, is one of the tragedies of sexism for men in our culture — the abrogation of their right to “have a heart” — a full-range emotional body.

Men feel — because they’re human. They experience moments of tenderness, and vulnerability, and emotion (yes, emotions other than rage) — as well as moments of compassion, and receptivity, and passivity.

The problem is: They can’t express that without looking like a woman. Which, in a sexist, misogynist society, would be a bad thing. A thing that loses you jobs, and gets you called “pussy”, and “mangina”, and subjects you to suggestions that you “sit to pee” — which would all be BAD, because being anything like a woman/female human is BAD.

Bad and wrong.

and,

Eve-In-The-Garden-Bad-Apple Wrong.

Condemning-The-Entire-Human-Race-To-An-Awful-Existence Wrong.

This is one of the tolls of sexism and misogyny for men — they are robbed of their hearts.

Which to me, is tragic.

My father is 81 now, and 17 years ago, just after his retirement, I went with him and my mom to see the movie “The Doctor”. The theater was crowded, so I sat in a seat in the row directly in front of my mom and dad, and during the film, I heard this distinct sniffling behind me, and assumed it was my mom. As we left the theater, I noticed my dad’s eyes were all swollen and puffy.

I said: “Were you the one who was crying?”

He replied: “Yeah. I don’t know what it is. Ever since I retired, I just cry at almost anything . . . . . . . . It’s kind of a relief.”

I was curious about this. I understood that there was probably a very basic shift from needing to wear the “mask” (required of both men and women) in the work environment (being “businesslike” or “professional”=not showing emotion) — but I suspected that there was something more.

Since one of the prime stereotypes of what it is to “be a man” in this society is that you are valued for the profession that you have, and the work you produce, it seems to me that my father’s retirement from his profession was also, in some way, a resignation from some need to adhere to an entire range of stringent cultural expectations of maleness.

His softening has continued through the last 17 years, and he and I had a particularly sweet moment where we were both blubbing away together at a Little House on the Prairie re-run during a visit. Friends have reported similar “softening” in their elderly fathers.

Think about this the next time you hear someone say the words: “Be a man!”

Actually look at the situation in which this comes up, and think about what is being demanded. In my experience, it usually means: Shut up about your feelings. Grit your teeth and bear your pain and don’t let anyone know you’re feeling it. Don’t show it on your face, don’t talk about it, square your shoulders and your jaw and carry on like everything’s OK — hide it however you can.

That, to me, is unbearably sad.

Deb’s House Concerts

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Soulforce

“The purpose of Soulforce is freedom for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people from religious and political oppression through the practice of relentless nonviolent resistance.”
Wherever you are on your journey of faith,
Whatever your sexual orientation or gender identity,
Whatever your religion, race, age, ability, color, or creed,
You are welcome to join us in learning, teaching, and applying
the ’soul force’ principles of relentless nonviolent resistance
as taught by Gandhi and King
as we work together to stop spiritual violence
against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people
that flows out of the teachings and actions
of religious leaders and their communities of faith. -The People of Soulforce

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Six Soulforce Beliefs

Let these six Soulforce truths help set you free

Six Soulforce Beliefs About Myself

1. I am a child of a loving Creator, a daughter or a son of the Soulforce at the center of the universe.*
2. I am loved by my Creator exactly as I am. My sexual orientation is not a sickness to be healed nor a sin to be forgiven. My sexual orientation is a gift from my Creator to be accepted, celebrated, and lived with integrity.
3. I am not an accident. I have a purpose. I was shaped by my Creator to love God and to assist in God’s eternal struggle to win justice for all Her children who suffer injustice.
4. I will not discover my purpose nor realize my power (my own soulforce) until I join my Creator in doing justice (making things fair for all.)
5. When I join my Creator in doing justice, my own life will be renewed, empowered, and made more meaningful.
6. In serving others, it is as much my moral obligation to refuse to cooperate with evil as it is to cooperate with good.

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Soulforce Online Videos

	Dear Dr. Dobson: An Open Video Letter to Focus on the Family (29 minutes)
	There’s A Wideness in God’s Mercy: Video Interview with Dr. Lewis Smedes on Romans 1 (29 minutes)
	Homosexuality: The Debate is Over. The Verdict is In. Not a Sickness! Not a Sin! (50 minutes)
	How Can I Be Sure That God Loves Me, Too? A Sermon by Rev. Dr. Mel White. (24 minutes)
	The Trials of Rev. Jimmy Creech. (28 minutes)
	Rodney Powell: Thoughts on the Soulforce Equality Ride. (5 minutes)
	Focus on the Facts: Dotti Berry and Robynne Sapp (11 minutes)