‘It’s Not About Hate’
Republican Missouri State Representative Rick Brattin this week told his fellow lawmakers that people who are gay aren’t human. That’s effectively what he said when arguing against an amendment that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender status.
The bill itself would, as Progress Missouri says, “gut current workplace, housing and public accommodation discrimination protections for women, religious, and racial minority groups.” In other words, make it legal to discriminate against LGBT people, women, people of color, and people of faith.
The Kansas City Star says the legislation would make it “more difficult to prove discrimination cases against former employers …Â requiring workers who claim discrimination in wrongful termination lawsuits to prove that bias was the explicit reason they were fired.”
Rep. Brattin is apparently all for that, especially when it comes to gay people.
“When you look at the tenets of religion, of the Bible, the Qur’an, of other religions,†he said Monday, “there is a distinction between homosexuality and just being a human being.â€
Here’s Rep. Brattin, introduced as the “Gentleman from Cass,” the county he represents.
Later in the audio he attacks transgender people, saying it’s not wrong if business owners don’t want “someone who was a guy yesterday to show up as a girl today.” He adds business owners should be able to ban “crossdressers.”
Rep. Brattin insists, “it’s not about hate.”
Lest anyone thinks Rep. Brattin is “only” anti-gay, in 2014 he sponsored a bill that would require a woman considering an abortion to obtain “written, notarized consent” from the father first. Unless, and yes, he used these words, it was “a legitimate rape.”
The year before, Rep. Brattin filed a bill that would require schools to teach children that “destiny” is a valid theoretical substitute to evolution.
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Audio via Progress Missouri
Image via Facebook
Hat tip: Joe.My.God.
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