If states are indeed ‘laboratories of Democracy’, this one is cooking meth.
- Miles Kurland
Continuing the (“small government”) Republican obsession with what people do behind closed doors, Oklahoma hatemeister Sally Kern (“Two stupids don’t make a smart”) is doing her best to legislate the LGBT community out of the Sooner State. Even though more than 7 in 10 Americans now live in states where same-sex marriage is the law, Kern (“How is it that evil, crazy, and unbalanced all got seats at the table?)” is having none of it.
In Kern’s Oklahoma, a place fully accessible only to good, God-fearing, White Christian heterosexuals, those who insist on being gay will be cast out like so much garbage. And they deserve it, don’tchankow, for working so hard to force the Homosexual Agenda down our throats (recognition of irony in 4…3…2….). How dare they breath the same oxygen we do?
If Kern’s legislation passes, it may well make it virtually impossible for the LGBT community to exist in Oklahoma. Hmm…almost like they planned it that way, huh? There are three separate bills, whose collective intent is to essentially legislate gays out of existence…or at least out of Oklahoma.
HB1599, the Preservation and Sovereignty of Marriage Act, would literally defund same-sex marriage.
“No employee of this state and no employee of any local governmental entity shall officially recognize, grant or enforce a same-sex marriage license and continue to receive a salary, pension or other employee benefit at the expense of taxpayers of this state,” the bill reads. “No taxes or public funds of this state shall be spent enforcing any court order requiring the issuance or recognition of a same-sex marriage license,” it adds.
Because gays threaten our safety and moral fiber Just. That. Much…which explains why Kern refers to the need for this law as an “emergency.” Evidently she’s figured out that Teh Gayz are out to make all of us fabulous, especially their children…and that’s just too much for a confirmed homophobe like Kern, who takes her job protecting Oklahomans from Teh Gayz seriously. VERY seriously.
HB1598 is aimed at ensuring parents are legally enabled to force their children to undergo therapy based on junk science and religion that most major medical organizations have labeled harmful, dangerous, and ineffective.
“The people of this state have the right to seek and obtain counseling or conversion therapy from a mental health provider in order to control or end any unwanted sexual attraction, and no state agency shall infringe upon that right,” it reads. “Parents may obtain such counseling or therapy for their children under eighteen (18) years of age without interference by the state.”
Called the “Freedom to Obtain Conversion Therapy Act,” HB1598 would allow practitioners of junk science and religious lunacy to promise to fix “broken” people and cure them of “The Gay.” It could more accurately called the “Freedom to Teach Children That They’re Unworthy Act.” Never mind that conversion therapy has been proven as ineffective as it is abusive, Kern continues to believe “The Gay” is a curable disease, something that can and should be fixed. Never mind that
Ex-gay, reparative, or conversion therapy is known to cause depression and may increase the risk of suicide.
Kern will say it’s about helping and protecting Oklahomans who want to be free of being gay. She just has a funny way of showing it.
HB1597…would allow broad discrimination encoded into the law. A take on the increasingly popular Religious Freedom Restoration Acts that are sweeping the country in the wake of legalized same-sex marriage, Kern’s legislation specificaly targets LGBT people for discrimination.
If Kern’s bills were to pass, it’s entirely possible that merely being gay in Oklahoma could be a life-threatening condition…because the most basic of services could be denied to someone merely on the basis of their sexuality.
An LGBT person could literally be shunned by their entire town, unable to purchase food, rent or buy a home, buy a car, gasoline, insurance, clothing, or even electricity. They could find no doctor in their town will provide medical attention. If an LGBT person were to have a heart attack, a private ambulance service or EMT could legally refuse to assist or take him or her to the hospital. That hospital, if private, could legally refuse them service under Kern’s law.
Yay, America!! Yay, Oklahoma!! For there you shall find souls brave enough to let a gay person die in order to protect the sanctity and primacy of their religious beliefs. They can have the safety and security of knowing that in doing so, they’re making Oklahoma a more righteous and godly placed.
And you wonder why I don’t believe in God??
[Kern] has characterized gays as “dangerous,” “sinful,” and as “an enemy who wants to destroy us,” and said gays have hijacked freedom and equality “to destroy the future of America.” She has claimed that gays and homosexuality are “more dangerous” than terrorists and labeled same-sex marriage “debauchery.” Kern in 2011 was officially rebuked for racist and misogynistic comments he made on the House floor.
Kern certainly seems to spend a lot of time thinking about gays, doesn’t she? One might reasonably begin to wonder what she’s so afraid of? Or did she just decide that he best and most promising path to prominence was to be as hateful as she possibly could be?
The LGBT community is neither “dangerous,” “sinful,” nor “an enemy who wants to destroy us.” That sort of thing is characteristic of the rhetoric of someone terrified of Teh Gayz for reasons she’s probably unwilling to admit- even to herself. That fact is that most gays only want one thing- equality. They want to have the same rights as any other American. They pay the same taxes as heterosexuals, so why shouldn’t enjoy the same rights and benefits?
I can’t begin to understand how someone like Sally Kern could be so thoroughly stewed in hatred and prejudice. Then again, since I don’t have to wake up next to her every morning, I don’t have to. I can merely marvel that someone so obviously lacking a heart and soul holds a position of power in Oklahoma state government…which says as least as much about her constituents as if does her.
Still, I can’t help but wonder what she’s so afraid of? If it’s true that we hate in others what we most fear in ourselves, Kern’s bound to be in for a real surprise, eh?
