Oklahoma Pol: Gays 'Biggest Threat Our Nation Has'
According to Oklahoma lawmaker , gays are more of a threat to America than terrorists. Also, they are 鈥済oing after our young children, as young as two years of age,鈥� 鈥渋nfiltrating鈥� city councils across the country, and have completed a hostile takeover of Eureka Springs, Ark.
These were just a few of the bizarre assertions in the anti-gay tirade Kern spewed at a recent appearance at a community event for supporters. Last week, the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, a Washington, D.C., political group posted the on YouTube.
Ironically, Kern represents a district in Oklahoma City, a community that became all too familiar with the true danger of terrorism when the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was bombed in 1995. She sits on the House of Representatives鈥� Education and Human Services Committee and chairs the Social Services Committee.
While Kern鈥檚 claims were astounding, they were hardly original. In fact, taken together they鈥檙e a greatest hits medley of unhinged claims currently in vogue among anti-gay extremists and propagandists.
What follows is Hatewatch鈥檚 breakdown of four of Kern鈥檚 most outrageous quotes and their likely dubious sources:
鈥� As a matter of fact, studies show that no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than, you know, a few decades. So it鈥檚 the death knell for this country. I honestly think it鈥檚 the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam.鈥�
This reads like it was lifted straight from the boilerplate rhetoric of the , an international coalition of anti-gay militants based in Latvia that has a strong presence on the West Coast of the United States. Watchmen leader Alexey Ledyaev has repeatedly claimed that gays are taking over the West in order to prime the culture for an even more radical conquest by Islamic terrorists.
鈥淒id you know that the city council of Eureka Springs [Ark.] is now controlled by gays?鈥�
Earlier this year, the anti-gay released ," a 28-minute DVD that purports to show how the resort town of Eureka Springs, Ark. [pop. 2,350] was taken over in a homosexual coup. 鈥淯sing deceitfulness and lies, homosexuals maneuvered themselves into positions of power and then used those positions to promote their agenda,鈥� reads an AFA press release promoting the DVD.
鈥淭hey [gays and lesbians] have more suicides, they鈥檙e more discouraged, there鈥檚 more illness, their life spans are shorter, you know, it鈥檚 not a lifestyle that is good for this nation.鈥�
鈥淭his stuff [homosexuality] is deadly and it is spreading. It will destroy our young people and it will destroy this nation.鈥�
Though she doesn鈥檛 cite specific data, Kern鈥檚 claims about the deadly lifestyle and shortened life spans of gays and lesbians are probably fueled by the pseudo-scientific reports of crackpot psychologist , a popular speaker on the anti-gay lecture circuit of the Christian Right who portrays gays and lesbians as dangerous, diseased perverts whose average life span is only 45 years. Cameron鈥檚 work has been thoroughly discredited by mainstream social researchers. One of his most infamous studies found that 鈥渓esbians are 300 times more likely to die in car accidents than heterosexual women.鈥�
The day after the recording of Kern鈥檚 comments was posted to YouTube, a local television reporter her if she truly believes that homosexuality is more of a threat to American than terrorism. 鈥淵es I do,鈥� Kern replied. She then added that she would not apologize for her views and that she stood by all her claims. 鈥淚 say nothing that I can't verify with facts,鈥� she said.
