Anti-Gay Activist’s Extremism Unleashed When His Wife Left Him – For A Woman

A Texas social conservative became an anti-gay extremist and activist after his wife left him for a woman. 

Attorney Jonathan Saenz reportedly was always a social conservative. In 2011, as his bio reads, Saenz “headed the Liberty Institute offices at the Texas Capitol in Austin where he served as Director of Legislative Affairs and Attorney for Liberty Institute.” 

But later that year something happened, and Saenz changed jobs, becoming the head of a local virulently anti-gay group, Texas Values.

Why?

According to an exclusive report by John Wright at Lone Star Q, just “months before Jonathan Saenz became president of the anti-gay group Texas Values, his wife left him for another woman, according to Hays County district court records obtained by Lone Star Q.”

The revelation could help explain Saenz’s seemingly abrupt transformation from socially conservative lobbyist to homophobic firebrand.

Saenz, a devout Catholic, has been a right-wing operative in Texas for many years — working on abortion and religious liberty cases as a staff attorney for the Plano-based Liberty Legal Institute as far back as 2005.

However, it wasn’t until recently that Saenz emerged as one of the state’s best-known — and most extreme — anti-LGBT voices.

Court records indicate that Saenz’s ex-wife, Corrine Morris Rodriguez Saenz, is a member of the LGBT community who was dating another woman when she filed for divorce from Saenz in August 2011.

In early 2012, with their divorce still pending, Saenz would take the helm of Texas Values after the organization spun off from the Liberty Legal Institute, where he’d risen to chief lobbyist.

In March of last year, The New Civil Rights Movement reported on an open anti-gay letter to the Boy Scouts of America signed by over 60 Texas Republican elected officials. The letter, which originally appeared on a website run run by Saenz, Texas Values, had been lauded by anti-gay hate group head Tony Perkins.

GLAAD’s Commentator Accountability Project reports that Saenz has claimed that homosexuality is “dangerous and risky sexual activity that can fiercely jeopardize a person’s well-being,” and has said that marriage equality will lead to people marrying their own stepchildren. 

“My heart breaks for you,” GLAAD reports Saenz saying, “if you are currently choosing to live a sinful sexual lifestyle while also trying to convince others that it is also okay to live a sinful lifestyle without making any efforts to change or resist sin and temptation. You can make a decision today to ‘go and sin no more.’ It’s not too late. It’s never too late.”

Wright’s extensive and thorough exposé exposes some of the hate and homophobia exhibited by Saenz.

Corrine Saenz, Jonathan’s now ex-wife, in 2011 “sought to modify” a court order barring her girlfriend, Ercilia M. Paredes, “from having contact with the Saenzes’ children,” Wright reports.

“Ms. Paredes is not a threat to the children or their welfare,” the motion stated. “The injunction against Ms. Paredes is an extreme attempt to merely further control Corrine M. Saenz.”

Corrine Saenz also alleged that Jonathan Saenz’s Motion for Enforcement contained “patently false allegations in an attempt to further harass and burden [her].”

In addition to seeking the order barring Paredes from being around the children, Jonathan Saenz’s attorney made discovery requests and issued subpoenas seeking information about Corrine Saenz’s relationship with her girlfriend.

In one discovery request, Jonathan Saenz’s attorney sought all records related to “travel, entertainment, meals or gifts with or for Ercimin Paredes.” Another discovery request sought any photos or videos showing Paredes with Corrine Saenz and the Saenzes’ children.

“Both Corrine and Jonathan Saenz agreed to psychological evaluations as part of the divorce, but results aren’t included in the case file,” Wright reports. “However, court records suggest Jonathan Saenz had a prior history of mental health treatment. During discovery in the divorce, Jonathan Saenz sought to compel his ex-wife to produce all records in her possession ‘pertaining to the psychiatric, psychological, counseling or other mental health treatments of Jonathan Saenz, including but not limited to any documents relating to any consultations or treatments during their marriage.'”

 

Image by The Texas Tribune via Flickr and a CC license