Think again if you believe the GOP isn't coming to remove LGBTQ rights, or that same-sex marriage is a settled issue.
Kansas GOP state Representatives Randy Garber, Owen Donohoe, David French, Cheryl Helmer, Ron Highland, Steve Huebert and Bill Rhiley introduced a set of vile and hateful legislation on Wednesday.
The legislation seeks to ban same-sex marriage, legally deny the existence of transgender people, allow harmful and debunked gay conversion therapy, and much more.
One of the bills describes sexual orientation as a “mythology” but that's just where the hate begins.
Said Rep. Susan Ruiz, the first lesbian to serve openly in the Kansas Legislature: “I see who the co-sponsors are and I sit with a couple of them in committee and I'm certainly going to talk to them about that and say, hey, I don't know if you know about it or not, but I'm not a myth… Am I a unicorn?”
The legislation:
Bans Kansas from recognizing same-sex marriage.
Defines same-sex marriage as “parody” marriage” and create an elevated “marriage” option for straight couples with “higher standards of commitment.
Says same-sex marriages “erode community standards of decency”
Quote: ‘Parody marriages have never been a part of American
tradition and heritage and have nothing to do with the substantive due
process clause of the 14th amendment of the constitution of the United
States; The history of parody marriages is that most forms were
illegal until recently or they remain illegal today, and they continue to
erode community standards of decency.'
Bars the state from recognizing transgender people.
Allows harmful, sham, and debunked gay conversion therapy.
Says that LGBTQ people are aligned with the secular humanism movement, calling it a religion and saying the rainbow flag is the symbol of a “faith-based worldview.
Quote: “The sworn testimonies of ex-gays, medical experts, persecuted Christians and licensed ministers demonstrate that there is no real proof that a gay gene exists, that the idea that sexual orientation is predicated on immutability is not proven and that sexual orientation is a mythology, dogma, doctrine or orthodoxy that is inseparably linked to the religion of secular humanism.”
Quote: “The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning
(LGBTQ) community is organized, full and has a daily code by which
members may guide their daily lives, which makes it a denominational
sect that is inseparably part of the religion of secular humanism.”
Quote: “Instead of having a cross, the ten commandments icon, or
star and crescent, the LGBTQ secular humanist community has the gay
pride rainbow colored flag to symbolize its faith-based worldview.”
Quote: ‘The ideas that “a person is born homosexual,” or that “a
person can be born in the wrong body,” or that “a person can come out of
an invisible closet and be baptized gay,” or that “to disagree with
homosexual orthodoxy premises makes you a bigot” are a series of
unproven faith-based assumptions and naked assertions that are implicitly
religious and inseparably linked to the religion of secular humanism.'
Says “The government's endorsement of LGBTQ ideology has amounted to the greatest sham since the inception of American jurisprudence”
Quote: ‘In the wake of the government's endorsement of LGBTQ
ideology, when a secular humanist says that “love is love,” what they
really mean is that they are amenable to government assets being used to
oppress and marginalize anyone who disagrees with their beliefs, which is
a position that is categorically “unloving”‘
Bars public libraries and public schools from participating in programs like “drag queen storytime.”
Quote: ‘In the wake of the government's endorsement of LGBTQ
secular humanism, there has not been a land rush on gay marriage but
there has been a land rush by many secular humanists to infiltrate public
schools and public libraries with the intent to indoctrinate and proselytize
minors to their religious worldview on faith, morality, sex and marriage
with the government's stamp of approval.'
Says LGBTQ advocacy is different from civil rights advocacy for reasons such as: “There are no ex-blacks but there are thousands of ex-gays”
Quote: ‘Skin-tone is genetic and sexual orientation is faith-based.'
Says that in no way can the LGBTQ rights movement be compared to the African-American civil rights movement.
Quote: ‘For any person to suggest that the homosexual civil rights
movement, which is not based on immutability or genetics, is equal to the
race-based civil rights movement, which was actually based on
immutability and genetics, has engaged in an act of fraud and racial
animus in-kind that is intellectually, emotionally, sexually and racially
exploitative.'
Quote: ‘People of color at one point in this country had to ride on the back of the bus, walk to school and drink from colored water fountains,
and for anyone to equate the race-based civil rights plight to the goal of
many secular humanists to entangle the government with their religion is a
per se act of racial animus that is deeply offensive to many people in the
state of Kansas.'
Read the disgusting language in the bill here:
hb2320_00_0000 by on Scribd
Equality Kansas denounced the legislation: “We have never seen this level of extremist vitriol laid out in legislative language. These marriage bills combined are 18 pages of insults and name calling. Fred Phelps would be proud. The sponsors of these bills should be ashamed of themselves.”
The Wichita Eagle reports: ‘The anti-gay marriage bills stand virtually no chance of becoming law. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's first official act in office was to restore non-discrimination protections for LGBT state workers, and she would almost certainly veto such a bill. And although the Kansas Constitution prohibits same-sex marriage, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that gay couples have the right to marry. An immediate court challenge would be expected if the bill ever did become law. Still, the bills mark the reemergence of same-sex marriage as a political issue in the Statehouse at a time when Democrats and some Republicans are pushing for non-discrimination legislation.'
