South Dakota State Senator Compares LGBT Parents to Pedophiles

Bill Allowing Discrimination Against LGBT Families Advances in Mount Rushmore State

In a townhall meeting known as a “legislative crackerbarrel,” one South Dakota lawmaker chose some very pointed language to defend a proposed bill that would allow government-funded discrimination against LGBT families and other couples seeking to adopt children. 

Republican State Senator Phil Jensen, who believes adoption agencies should have the right to discriminate against LGBT families asked, “Should a known pedophile be allowed, be allowed to adopt? There are reasons this is not allowed.” Jensen later clarified his comments to NewsCenter1, saying, “The point I was making is that, there was moral judgment in that decision.”  

Phil Jackson’s moral judgment has been noted. 

In many states, the government sub-contracts its child welfare programs to religious agencies. These agencies get government grants and funding, and, because they recieve taxpayer funding, agree to serve all eligible citizens. South Dakota’s SB 149 would protect these agencies from an adverse action against them if they choose to discriminate – in other words, it would allow them to pick and choose who they could serve and still receive government funding. 

According to Jim Kinyon, Executive Director of Catholic Social Services, very few South Dakota agencies receive taxpayer funding. “We don’t receive state funding so what we are really doing, is we’re continuing to function out of our own faith, tradition, and spiritual practice.”

That doesn’t seem to matter to Senator Jensen, who continued to levy insulting – and untrue – statements against LGBT people. He described his own family’s adoption, noting that he had adopted a Native American child through a non-religious adoption agency. 

With no demonstrable need for SB 149 and no evidence that LGBT couples were chasing after religiously affiliated adoption agencies in South Dakota, one can only assume that Senator Phil Jensen was merely looking for an opportunity to compare LGBT people to pedophiles. 

In his grandstanding, Senator Jensen noted that “Our country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, there is no getting around that.” It seems the only question we have is, when did bearing false witness and smearing an entire group of people become part of Judeo-Christian values?