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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Read more about this: JMBzine.com News9.com Oklahoman’s For Equality Blue Oklahoma Victory Fund Pam’s House Blend OkEq Advocacy Alert: Representative Sally Kern’s Anti-Gay RantThis is from Oklahoman’s for Equality:
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.
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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More about Sally Kern on Deb’s House Concerts: I’m Listening March 8, 2008 Good As You responds to Sally Kearn’s response to the public’s response to her … March 10, 2008 Oklahomans for Equality Denounce Rep. Sally Kearn’s Anti-Gay Speech March 11, 2008 KOCO Oklahoma City News 5 talks to Sally Kearn, Chuck Wolfe of the Victory Fund, Oklahoma Muslims March 12, 2008 Good As You posts video of Ellen Degeneres calling Oklahoma Representative Sally Kearn March 12, 2008 Absolutely beautiful letter, thoughtful and well written, from an Oklahoma high school senior who lost his mother in the Oklahoma City bombing terrorist attack (to OK Rep. Sally Kearn who said gay people are worse than terrorists) March 13, 2008 My Apology to Sally Kern (formerly referred to as Sally Kearn) March 13, 2008 Advocacy Alert: Oklahomans for Equality hosts press conference regarding Rep. Sally Kern March 13, 2008 Sally, Sally, Sally. You said it’s your right to say anti-gay things. What happened to, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”? March 16, 2008 Calling People Terrorists March 17, 2008 Oklahoma Families to Rally at State Capitol and Call for Meeting with Representative Sally Kern * Solidarity Vigil in Tulsa March 18, 2008 Sally Kern, by your definition, you are not a thinker. March 20, 2008 What Sally Has Wrought March 20, 2008 …………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Hi Deborah
I put this into my own blog today. I just started the blog today–it is a means of both telling my own story of my acceptance of my sexuality–and the things I am trying to do to become more of an activist.
Seeing this video was the tipping point for me. If folks like this are able to make these statements, then the LGBT community needs every voice it can raise.
After many months of anguish in my life, I think this message is what I needed to carry on. Thanks for having it here.