Sally Kern Can Dish It Out, But She Can’t Take It.
Oklahoma Representative Sally Kern’s anti-gay rant has been very much in the news lately. She continued to defend her hate speech, claiming it was merely the “Biblical truth”. But when given the chance to share her “Biblical truth” with people of the LGBT community (including members of her own constituency) who visited the Capitol on Tuesday, Sally was nowhere to be found.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - An Oklahoma lawmaker rejected demands by gay and lesbian groups on Tuesday that she apologize for anti-gay remarks in which she said homosexuality poses a bigger threat to the U.S. than terrorism.
“I see no reason to apologize for what God says, that homosexuality is a sin,” Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City, said after 300 people rallied at the state Capitol and called for an end to hate speech.
“I will not apologize. I did not say anything false. I did not say anything malicious or hateful,” Kern said. “They are trying to vilify me. That is their tactics.”
Sally said a lot more than “God says homosexuality is a sin” and she knows it. This tactic of saying dozens of hateful lies then trying to claim you merely quoted one or two Bible verses to pretend you’re being persecuted for one’s faith is disingenuous at best. But it works, so they keep using it.
And Sally is not the one being vilified here. She isn’t the one that was identified as “worse than terrorists”, compared to pedophiles and made out to be destroyers of civilizations. So she needs to stop playing the martyr.
Spokespersons for gay and lesbian groups demanded that Kern apologize while calling on the Legislature to adopt hate crimes legislation that would enhance penalties for crimes directed at gays and lesbians.
“Hateful speech leads to hate crimes,” said Rob Howard, executive director of the Cimarron Alliance Foundation in Oklahoma City. Howard said there were more than 7,700 hate crimes in the nation in 2006, including 79 in Oklahoma.
Howard and other speakers questioned how Kern can take an oath to uphold the state Constitution but then condemn a segment of the state’s population.
“Freedom of speech does not belong to Representative Kern alone,” said Howard, adding that gay and lesbian groups have a “moral imperative” to speak out against her remarks.
“If we do not condemn hate speech from an elected public official, we in effect endorse it,” said the Rev. Robin Meyers, pastor of the Mayflower United Church of Christ in Oklahoma City. “This represents the state of Oklahoma in a way that is deeply offensive.”
I doubt Sally Kern will ever recognize what she said as hate speech. No doubt she’ll keep defending it as “the truth” as stated in her Bible. But what she said was hate speech, and the fact that she said it in her capacity as an elected official gives the words that much more power. She should be doubly ashamed for what she has said, and for defending herself in the way she has.
Members of the group had planned to invite Kern to the noon rally but were told she had already left the Capitol. No state lawmaker attended the rally.
Kern said she was pleased that gay and lesbian groups expressed their views.
“That’s great they came to the Capitol. This is a free country. They’re exercising their First Amendment right,” Kern said.
But she said she was not interested in speaking to members of the group. She said she has received more than 30,000 e-mails about her comments, including some threatening ones, and that an activist had tried to intimidate her husband, a Baptist minister, by showing up at his church on Sunday.
“They’re sending out letters and making calls in my district. And they really want me to come down and talk to them?” Kern said. “It would be like throwing myself to the lions. That’s a metaphor.
“When I am wrong, and it is brought to my attention, I will apologize.”
If she feels she is so justified in her words then why doesn’t she have the spine to stand there and back them up to the people she have harmed with them? I guess it’s only safe to make hateful statements like that in the safety of a closed room when she knows she’s among other bigots like herself. But if one is going to hold public office, one needs to have the spine to stand up for what one says against opposing opinion. It appears Sally the coward doesn’t have that. No surprise. Bullies typically don’t.
