‘There’s Male and Female and Gay’: GOP Lawmaker Calls Gay People a ‘Third Sex’

Anti-Gay Lawmaker Says Acceptance of LGBT People Will Result in Christianity Being ‘Practically Doomed’

A Republican state representative from Topeka, Kansas, told his fellow lawmakers that the Supreme Court’s rulings on same-sex marriage and gay people have effectively created a “third sex.”

Rep. Dick Jones today said the “Supreme Court has, in fact, established a third sex for all intents and purposes. So there’s male and female and gay,” the Topeka Capital-Journal reports.

He also urged his fellow lawmakers to “not forget that gay is strictly a sexual preference.”

“It’s not a separate sex,” he clarified.

Jones was speaking at a “religious freedom” hearing that included two anti-gay religious extremists. Washington State florist Barronelle Stutzman, who opted to appeal a discrimination lawsuit she lost that was brought against her, even though she was ordered to pay only $1000, and her Alliance Defending Freedom attorney, Kelly Fiedorek. There were no pro-equality advocates invited to address the committee.

Rep. Jones, apparently speaking to Stutzman, said, “until we get the public to accept that” being gay is strictly a sexual preference, “your desire to live in your Christian ethic, I think, is practically doomed, and I’m sorry to say that.”

Of course, Jones is incorrect. Being LGBT is not a “preference,” it is an innate and inherent characteristic of a person, just as being heterosexual is.

Equality Kansas director Tom Witt “called Jones misinformed,” the Capital-Journal reports. 

“Had this not been a one-sided presentation, we would have had an opportunity to set him straight on his understanding of what sexual orientation actually means,” Witt said. 

Witt also posted these tweets during today’s hearing:

While the committee was not considering any legislation in conjunction with today’s hearing, Kansas lawmakers recently have been waging an all-out campaign against LGBT people. Republicans in the Kansas legislature are trying to ban same-sex couples from adopting or even fostering children. Last year, GOP Gov. Sam Brownback signed a sweeping and far-reaching executive order to “protect” religious conservatives, in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage for same-sex couples.

 

EARLIER:

Kansas Republican Sparks Outrage After Demanding Sexist Dress Code For Women

GOP Lawmaker Moves To Ban Same-Sex Parents From Fostering Children With ‘Family Structure’ Proposal

GOP State Lawmaker: Same-Sex Couples Have No ‘Right’ To Be Foster Parents

 

Image via Kansas State Legislature