Tag Archives: Sally Kern

Oklahoma House panel hears bill to reinstate ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ for state’s National Guard

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Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City

Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern once called gays a bigger to America threat than terrorists, and Oklahoma certainly wouldn’t want terrorists in its National Guard. So according to Kern’s logic, that must mean the state shouldn’t allow gays and lesbians in its National Guard, either.

In January, State Rep. Mike Reynolds introduced a bill that would allow anyone eligible to serve in the military on Jan. 1, 2009 — 20 days before Barack Obama was inaugurated as president — to serve in the Oklahoma National Guard.

The bill would put the state at odds with military policy — which has allowed gays to serve openly since the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” last year.

Last week, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network Executive Director Aubrey Sarvis wrote to Gen. Craig R. McKinley, the National Guard Bureau Chief, and asked him to come out against the bill.

“If a state National Guard ‘fails to comply with a requirement of this title, or a regulation prescribed under this title, the National Guard of that State is barred, in whole or in part, as the President may prescribe, from receiving money or any other aid, benefit, or privilege authorized by law,’” Sarvis warned McKinley.

In other words, if Reynolds’ bill passes, Oklahoma could lose $300 million from the federal government.

Sarvis also wondered what will happen to service personnel in the Oklahoma Guard who have come out since the repeal of DADT.

“Would those who have come out since the repeal of DADT be discharged?” he asked. “And if the Oklahoma National Guard mobilizes into federal service, will gay and lesbian guard members from Oklahoma be allowed to serve openly while deployed in accordance with DOD and National Guard Bureau policy, only to be demobilized and discharged under Oklahoma’s DADT law?”

The Oklahoma Daily weighed in with its opinion: “A ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ rule for Oklahoma National Guard is wasteful and disrespectful to guardsmen.” John Aravosis of AmericaBlog has a different idea — call their bluff and let them hang themselves.

The Oklahoma House Veteran and Military Affairs Committee is scheduled to hear arguments about the bill this afternoon, according to the Oklahoma LGBT group The Equality Network.

UPDATE: Oklahoma Sen. Al McAffrey reports that the bill has been sent to a different committee where it will die.

“The bill reinstating Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in the Oklahoma National Guard is dead!” McAffrey wrote. “It was pulled from the Veterans Committee and reassigned to the Rules Committee, where the Chairman will not hear the bill. It’s good for our state that this bad piece of legislation will not proceed.”

—  David Taffet

Openly gay candidate Al McAffrey elected to Oklahoma Senate in special election

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Sen. Al McAffrey

Oklahoma has its first openly gay state senator after Al McAffrey, 63, was elected Tuesday in a special election.

McAffrey was first elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 2006 and easily won reelection in 2008 and 2010. In the Tuesday election, he won with more than 66 percent of the vote, according to the Daily Oklahoman. He will be sworn into office next week.

He was endorsed by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund.

During his time in office, McAffrey was a leader on legislation supporting senior citizens, education issues and access to affordable health care. He was also one of the state House’s most vocal critics against Republican Rep. Sally Kern and her anti-gay agenda.

McAffrey’s district includes much of Oklahoma City. With his election, Democrats have 16 seats in the state Senate and Republicans have a 32-seat super-majority.

—  David Taffet

HRC wonders why Oklahoma leaders haven’t condemned Sally Kern’s latest anti-gay remarks

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Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern

Last week we told you about Republican Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern’s latest anti-gay rant, in which she repeated her infamous three-year-old claim that homosexuality is a bigger threat to the U.S. than terrorism (listen to the audio below).

In response to Kern’s rant, the Human Rights Campaign is asking people to send emails to Oklahoma legislative leaders calling on them to denounce Kern’s statements. So far, the campaign has generated more than 200,000 emails, according to HRC. However, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin and House Speaker Kris Steele — both also Republicans, naturally — have remained silent.

“The silence of Governor Fallin and Oklahoma’s legislative leadership is deafening, particularly given the number of people we now see calling on them to speak out,” HRC President Joe Solmonese said in a press release today. “Enough is enough. Sally Kern has a long track record of outrageously slandering LGBT Americans, ethnic and religious groups, and women. It’s time for Oklahoma’s leaders to stand up to her bigotry and hold her accountable for her remarks.”

Don’t hold your breath, Joe.

Continue reading “HRC wonders why Oklahoma leaders haven’t condemned Sally Kern’s latest anti-gay remarks” »

—  John Wright

With 9/11 anniversary approaching, Sally Kern reminds us that homosexuality is the real threat

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Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern

Right Wing Watch reports that Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern has doubled down on her claim, first made in 2008, that homosexuality poses a greater threat to the U.S. than terrorism. Here’s RWW’s transcript of Kern’s remarks during an Aug. 31 interview with Peter LaBarbera of the hate group Americans for Truth About Homosexuality:

You know if you just look at it in practical terms, which has destroyed and ended the life of more people? Terrorism attack here in America or HIV/AIDS? In the last twenty years, fifteen to twenty years, we’ve had maybe three terrorist attacks on our soil with a little over 5,000 people regrettably losing their lives. In the same time frame, there have been hundreds of thousands who have died because of having AIDS. So which one’s the biggest threat? And you know, every day our young people, adults too, but especially our young people, are bombarded at school, in movies, in music, on TV, in the mall, in magazines, they’re bombarded with ‘homosexuality is normal and natural.’ It’s something they have to deal with every day. Fortunately we don’t have to deal with a terrorist attack every day, and that’s what I mean. …

It’s more dangerous, and yes I think that it’s also more dangerous because it will tear down the moral fiber of this nation. We were founded as a nation upon the principles of religion and morality, if we take those out from under our society we will lose what has made us a great nation, we will no longer be a virtuous people, which we see happening already. And without virtue this nation will not survive.

The audio is here.

—  John Wright

Sally Kern: Gays (and Gaga) are the real haters!

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Rep. Sally Kern

In case you missed Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern’s appearance on Tim Wildmon’s American Family Radio, she was on promoting her new book, The Stoning of Sally Kern.

Wildmon is the president of the hate group the American Family Association. Kern is the legislator whose district includes a large number of those killed in the Oklahoma City bombing, but who says that homosexuals are a bigger threat to this country than terrorists.

On the show, Wildmon said, “Nobody hates the individual homosexual.”

That’s great to know.

“To me what is hateful is when those people who say ‘you’re born this way, there’s no hope in change, you’re stuck in this, deal with it,’ that is hate,” Kern responded. “There’s no hope in that.”

Continue reading “Sally Kern: Gays (and Gaga) are the real haters!” »

—  David Taffet

What’s Brewing: Rick Perry deluded; Okla. sees big jump in gay couples; American backs ENDA

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Your weekday morning blend from Instant Tea:

1. Gov. Rick Perry is apparently operating under the delusion that he’s a minister and the state of Texas is his church, according to the transcript of a speech Perry made to East Texas business leaders in May to raise money for his “day of prayer and fasting” in Houston on Aug. 6. “At 27 years old, I knew that I had been called to the ministry,” Perry said, according to the transcript obtained by the Houston Chronicle. “I’ve just always been really stunned by how big a pulpit I was gonna have. I still am. I truly believe with all my heart that God has put me in this place at this time to do his will.”

2. New Census data released today shows a big increase in the number of same-sex couples in Oklahoma. Anti-gay State Rep. Sally Kern says she isn’t surprised but finds the situation “regrettable”: “I think the influence of the church plays a factor here, we have more churches today … that are saying homosexuality does not go against biblical truth,” Kern said. “Another factor is homosexuality is being taught in our schools as a normal and acceptable lifestyle, so when that happens, you are going to have more young people coming out of school who have a more favorable attitude towards homosexuality.”

3. Fort Worth-based American Airlines has again expressed support for the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban workplace discrimination against LGBT people. In a letter to members of Congress, the airline writes: “On behalf of our 80,000 employees, American Airlines is proud to express our strong support for S. 811 and H.R. 1397, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would extend basic job protections to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans. We are proud to have been the first major airline to implement same-sex domestic partner benefits, first to implement both sexual orientation and gender identity in our workplace non-discrimination policies, and first to have a recognized LGBT employee resource group – GLEAM. Our endorsement of ENDA is consistent with our longstanding ‘Statement of Equal Opportunity.’ The principles fostered by ENDA are consistent with our corporate principles in treating all employees with fairness and respect.”

—  John Wright

Sally Kern has a new website … or does she?

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Sally Kern has a new website — SallyKern.com, also known as “Sally Kern: Bashing Gays for Jesus.”

Well, maybe it’s not hers. Maybe one of our readers just happened to notice that Kern had never registered her name as a domain, and neither had anyone else. Steve Rider deals in domain names regularly with his company, Steve’s Web Hosting (where you can also learn about the Gay Agenda).

“I have taken on Sally as a pet project,” said Rider, who describes himself as “a retired elderly homo with no respect for the Sanctity of Bigotry.”

Rider said when Kern first made national news with her “gays are more dangerous than Islam or terrorists” comment, “I discovered that she had never registered a dot-com domain in her name, so I took care of that for her.”

He has lots of fun stuff on the website, including a video from when Ellen Degeneres tried to call Kern on the air. And Wanda Sykes explaining she hopes Kern moves up in government so that she can pull the troops out of Iraq and attack West Hollywood.

In Kern’s new book, Stoning Sally Kern, she accuses the media of taking her out of context. Well, Ryder’s website allows you to hear her comments in their entirety. For example, let her tell you in her own words that blacks are in prison because they don’t want to work hard.

Oh, and in case you want more information about the book, Rider has registered Stoning Sally Kern as well.

In an interview this week with the conservative Tulsa Beacon, Kern compares same-sex marriage to marrying animals. The article describes Degeneres as “an avowed lesbian.”

But Kern explains that she doesn’t hate anyone. Everyone should have equal rights — it’s just that legislators should put biblical law before the Constitution.

“I am always being accused of hating homosexuals. I don’t hate anyone. This isn’t a matter of hating someone or trying to deny them their equal rights. All American citizens have equal rights under our Constitution. This is trying to get acceptance for a behavior that is specifically mentioned in God’s Word that is wrong.”

Kern’s book will be available on July 5. We’ve requested a review copy from the publisher.

—  David Taffet

Sally Kern points to Dallas Voice as source of evil

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Our good friend, Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern, has a new book coming out called The Stoning of Sally Kern: The liberal attack on Christian conservatism-and why we must take a stand.

Poor Sally. The liberal media is attacking her. And just who is this liberal media? Well, she clearly identifies it as us. Here’s a quote from her book:

“Publications such as Dallas Voice and The Advocate ran on line articles commending my opponent and bashing me.”

Well, if quoting her in context is bashing, we’ll take full credit.

Here’s what she said:

“I honestly think it’s the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam, which I think is a big threat.”

The “it” she was talking about is homosexuality. And that wasn’t some off-handed comment. It was part of a state proclamation that other state elected officials condemned.

And just to make sure she wasn’t misunderstood, she also said:

“Here in America we’ve had what maybe three known real big terrorist attacks on our nation. But every day our young people especially, all of us, but our young people especially are in a sense bombarded with the message that homosexuality is normal and natural.”

We also pointed out that Kern’s district is adjacent to the one where the Oklahoma City bombing took place. People from her district were killed. But gays are a bigger threat.

Here’s my interview with her opponent, Brittany Novotny. I’m not sure that I “commended” Novotny. I merely reported that the New York Times said she had a chance to win. I quoted the candidate calling her opponent an extremist. And Kern would have had the same opportunity if she returned a phone call.

I can’t wait to read the entire book so we can do some more Kern-bashing.

—  David Taffet

WATCH: CNN on Sally Kern vs. Brittany Novotny

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—  John Wright

Brittany Novotny fires back at Sally Kern

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Brittany Novotny, the transgender candidate who’s challenging anti-gay Republican State Rep. Sally Kern in Oklahoma, has issued a statement responding to an attack last week from a Kern supporter who called Novotny a “confused it.” In the statement titled “How do we move Oklahoma forward?” Novotny notes that Kern issued a statement Sunday attempting to distance herself from the attack:

In a statement released today, Rep. Kern claims that she has “repeatedly asked [her] supporters not to use any degrading or insulting comments toward [me].” Unfortunately, the evidence indicates this is not the case. In a speech on August 7, 2010, Rep. Kern told supporters:

“And this year, in 2010 election, I have a very interesting race, I have an individual who was born a man, has had a sex change operation, and now considers themselves to be a woman. So, if you live in my district or know anyone who does, please get the word out. Because if I say anything about it, it’s gonna look like I’m smearing, and I’m not, it’s just a fact. And ‘they’ talk about it themselves. (Emphasis added).”

Does this rhetoric sound like someone asking her supporters not to use any degrading comments? Does this rhetoric sound like someone who is trying to keep the campaign about the issues facing Oklahomans?

When I announced my intention to run for this seat, Rep. Kern said she planned to keep this campaign focused on issues. As you are now aware, she has failed to keep her word on that count.

Novotny also posted the above video ad, accusing Kern of ignoring real issues to promote “her narrow social agenda” and “her own extremist interpretation of the Bible.” Ya think?

—  David Taffet