Republican Christian Extremist Lawmaker Repeats Infamous Charge From 2008 Speech
State Rep. Sally Kern on Wednesday stood in the Oklahoma House chamber and delivered a speech announcing that gay people are worse than terrorists – again. The 69-year old Baptist was delivering her retirement address and her colleagues did not object or interrupt.
“Yes in 2008 I did say that the homosexual agenda is worse than terrorism,” Kern admitted in her speech Wednesday. “Now we all know that terrorism destroys lives, property and brings devastation. Just look at where we are today in our society. A man who feels like a woman can go into a ladies’ restroom now. A florist, a baker, a photographer are being ruined financially because they wouldn’t participate in a same-sex wedding, since it goes against their sincerely held religious beliefs. Same-sex marriage has been forced on every single state by the courts,” Kern lamented.
She claimed that “in schools all across the nation children are being encouraged to try the homosexual lifestyle and even to play-act being the opposite sex, because they could be a transgender. And homosexuals are even wanting churches to be punished for just sharing what the bible says if it contradicts what they want,” she claimed. Kern did not offer any proof.
“I didn’t apologize in 2008 and I don’t apologize today either because God’s word has not changed. Things are worse today than they were then and I’m afraid they’re going to just get worse.”
Kern, who has made her career by denigrating gays, Blacks, Muslims, and other minorities, was referring to these remarks she had made in 2008:
“Studies show that no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than, you know, a few decades. So it’s the death knell of this country. I honestly think it’s the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam – which I think is a big threat, okay? ‘Cause what’s happening now is they are going after, in schools, two-year olds…And this stuff is deadly, and it’s spreading, and it will destroy our young people, it will destroy this nation!”
That was not the last time Kern said gays are worse or “more dangerous” than terrorism.
In 2011, in an interview recorded to mark the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Kern again compared gays to terrorism.
“It’s more dangerous, and yes I think that it’s also more dangerous because it will tear down the moral fiber of this nation.”
In a TV interview just months earlier, Kern actually denied that she had said gays are worse that terrorism.
Wednesday evening, LGBT activists responded.
“Representative Kern’s words were not funny, they were not deeply held beliefs or opinions, they were lies and hate speech in no uncertain terms,” Freedom Oklahoma executive director Troy Stevenson said in a statement. “In a state where so many lives have been destroyed by terrorism, these statements were not only offensive to the community she attacked, they are offensive to the survivors of terrorism and the families of the victims.”
“There is clear and undeniable evidence that proves this type of vitriol leads to harassment, intimidation, and self-hatred amongst LGBTQ identified youth. There is no doubt that this type of rhetoric leads to violence, self-harm, and worse. The Representatives’ final speech before her colleagues was shameful, and will be remembered as the capstone of a career built on hatred and discrimination – for that I pity her.”
Calling her “the nation’s leading proponent of anti-LGBTQ hatred,” Freedom Oklahoma notes that over the past 12 years, “Rep. Kern has introduced dozens of bills aimed at stripping rights away from LGBTQ Oklahomans.”Â
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Image by David Glover via Flickr and a CC license