‘They Want To Let Sodomites Queer Our Country’: How Christian GOP Activists Lobbied TX AG On SCOTUS

Several powerful, rich, well-connected far right Christian Republican activists lobbied the Attorney General of Texas instructing him how to respond to the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage.

On June 26, just two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision that ruled same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, Dr. Steve Hotze sent a message to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

“Greetings in the name of Christ our King!,” his email began.

Hotze (image above, at the Supreme Court during oral arguments in Obergefell), a wealthy, well-connected, powerful Christian anti-gay activist and president of the influential Conservative Republicans of Texas, instructed Paxton on how he would like him to respond to the Supreme Court ruling.

“Do what the Louisiana AG has done,” he told the AG. Louisiana had tried to claim it was under no legal mandate to obey the court’s ruling because nothing in the ruling instructed the State of Louisiana specifically to comply.

“The illegitimate SCOTUS ruling does not name Texas, so fight those lousy bastards,” Hotze wrote in the email, as first reported today by the Dallas Morning News, which obtained emails under a Texas’ open records law request. “They hate God and want to let the Sodomites queer our country.”

Hotze, who for decades has been an ardent anti-gay activist, was not the only Christian GOP activist to detail how he would like the Texas AG to respond to the marriage ruling.

Midland energy executive Tim Dunn also wrote Paxton, “urging him to make the resources of the attorney general’s office available to any Texas businesses, schools or individuals who incur governmental penalties for resisting gay marriage,” the Dallas Morning News adds.

“It seems that the AG’s office could represent citizens, churches and schools who … have their constitutional religious liberties attacked — by government,” wrote Dunn, a major financial patron of Empower Texans, led by conservative hard-liner Michael Quinn Sullivan. “That at least would take away their ability to simply bankrupt everyone with legal fees.”

In other words, use taxpayer money to extend anti-gay discrimination efforts – taxpayer money that includes taxes paid by Texas’ LGBT citizens.

Paxton, ultimately, issued a highly questionable memorandum instructing Texas county clerks, judges, justices of the peace, and other state employees that they could cite their deeply held religious beliefs to opt-out of assisting same-sex couples wanting to marry, but also warned they might be subject to legal action if they did.

Dr. Hotze is well-connected with GOP state Rep. Cecil Bell, and was on hand when Bell’s bill, which would literally have defunded same-sex marriage in Texas, was up for a vote.

Just two weeks ago Hotze, whose day job is CEO & Founder at Hotze Health & Wellness Center, made news when he spoke before a new anti-gay Texas group, REAL MARRIAGE: One Man/One Woman For Life.

“If we redefine marriage, the homosexual political movement will force churches, schools, families, businesses and individuals to accept, to affirm, and even to celebrate those who participate in anal sex, or anal sodomy,” Dr. Hotze falsely announced on video. “It will be mandated to be taught to the children in the schools, at an early age, starting in kindergarten. They will be encouraged by their teachers to participate in anal sex.”

 

 

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