Initially thinking that the clip was some sort of skit from "Saturday Night Live," I didn't believe the proclamation by Oklahoma legislator Sally Kern that "studies show that no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than ... a few decades" was one of sincere sentiment. But when I didn't hear the audience laugh, my blood ran cold.
I don't know about the likes of Rosie O'Donnell or Ellen DeGeneres, but with my schedule as it is, I don't think I'd have time to corrupt the children of America, like Kern suggests.
"I'm not gay-bashing," is heard later on. But then what are you doing? This incident is reminiscent of the hateful comments spewed by Don Imus last year regarding a Rutgers basketball game.
And I wonder if it's Kern's elected position keeping her from meeting a similar consequence.
I have yet to hear any word suggesting Kern also be suspended from her extended airtime. And Kern didn't just let a homophobic slur slip from her mouth, but instead gushed a three-minute-plus spatter of lunacy, expressing her disgust for this "homosexual agenda" that "is destroying this nation."
I think of our country's suffering economy, worldwide poverty, global warming and the fact that many feel a bomb is a better form of expression than a phone call, and wonder if homosexuality could seriously be considered, as Kern suggests, "the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism." If so, then let's corral all the gays on the planet and shoot them off into outer space, away from all the innocent and angelic heterosexuals of the world.
The homeless would have shelter. The hungry would have plenty to eat. All war would cease. And universal healthcare would finally be instituted in the United States. But sadly, Sally Kern's view of an idealistic world isn't reality.
She analogizes that the gay population of America is like a rapidly infecting cancerous tumor, and I'm reminded of the morbid teachings of the West Boro Baptist Church, who picket the funerals of dead soldiers and run a cute little Web site called GodHatesFags.com.
They believe a good portion of the evil in the world comes from the mere existence of homosexuals. What scares me more than the words themselves, is that it isn't just a family-run church spreading this kind of hatred, but also an elected official.
Prejudice will always exist, and no amount of activism will ever quell such a problem, but I can't help but be disappointed in the human society of the 21st century for allowing this to continue.
Kern is concerned with the gays of this nation "infiltrating city councils" and warping the heterosexual normality of this country into some sort of disease-ridden abomination against mankind. And to that I say to my fellow "gays," if she is convinced that we're a power that needs to be dealt with, then why not write in to our papers and call her office and show her just what we're made of? To paraphrase Bonnie Raitt, let's give her something to talk about.
