Sam Brownback: Today's example of small-minded, hate-driven "Christianity"

In a move that shocked progressive advocates in Kansas, the state’s Republican governor on Tuesday issued an executive order to remove discrimination protections for gay, lesbian and transgender state employees. State employees in Kansas can now legally be fired, harassed or denied a job for being gay or transgender, critics said. Gov. Sam Brownback said an 2007 executive order by Kathleen Sebelius, then the state’s Democratic governor, went too far by not getting legislative approval to bar job discrimination for sexual orientation and gender identity…. “This executive order ensures that state employees enjoy the same civil rights as all Kansans without creating additional ‘protected classes’ as the previous order did,” Brownback said in a statement announcing the replacement of Sebelius’ executive order with his own.

It’s humorous, really; removing discrimination protections from the LGBT community in the name of “equality.” Those who believe Gov. Brownback’s actions to be appropriate are, I suspect, also consumed by the belief that Christians are a persecuted majority. Neither belief has any basis in truth, though it does feed into the Christian Right’s collective delusion that, as the Chosen Ones, they and only they should be privy to basic human rights.

Brownback’s argument that guaranteeing equal rights and treatment for the LGBT community should only be done through legislation is as specious as it is self-serving. He knows the Kansas Legislature would be amenable to equal rights at about the same time Hell freezes solid. He can rest on his argument, secure in the knowledge that it allows him to hold tight to the fantasy that he’s protecting the will of the people. If the majority of people oppose equality for the LGBT community…well, ain’t democracy grand?

Except that human rights shouldn’t be subject to a vote. A majority shouldn’t get to determine that a minority class simply isn’t worthy of equal treatment (even as they’re expected to pay the same taxes as the Chosen Ones). And one man consumed by hatred and self-righteous piety shouldn’t have the right to relegate that minority class to second-class status.

Here’s a thought experiment that might be of some value: Try replacing “gay, lesbian, or transgender” with “Republican”:

[T]he state’s…governor on Tuesday issued an executive order to remove discrimination protections for Republican state employees. State employees in Kansas can now legally be fired, harassed or denied a job for being Republican, critics said.

I’d submit that if our little thought experiment became reality, equality would become instantly become law in Kansas. Honestly, I think it might do everyone some good is this were to actually be the case for awhile. Nothing like seeing how the other half lives, eh?