HB 2320, would define same-sex marriages as “parody marriage,” was recently introduced in the Kansas State House. The “parody marriage” category would also include polygamous marriages, marriage between a person and and animal and marriage between a person and an object.

The bill goes on at length about secular humanism and calls the Obergefell marriage equality decision an “egotistical judicial putsch.” The bill affirms conversion therapy, but mostly is about morality, or at least the author’s definition of morality.

From the bill: “A person has the free-exercise right to conduct a marriage ceremony that does not involve a man and a woman and other rituals that are in accord with such person’s self-asserted, sexual orientation and to live as married people do, free from governmental interference, as long as the ceremonies and lifestyle practices do not conflict with other state and federal law.”

What the bill doesn’t acknowledge is that marriage-equality for same-sex couples is law.

Kansas state Rep. Ron Highland co-sponsored the bill, but what he wasn’t thinking when he signed on as a co-sponsor was that his daughter is lesbian. And she was not happy with her father.

On her Facebook page, Christel Highland wrote:

“My name is Christel Highland, and my Father, Representative Ron Highland of Wamego, KS was a co-sponsor of the legislation, bill HB2320, that will likely never make it to Governor Laura Kelly’s desk for veto. As a proud member of Kansas City’s LGBTQ+ community, a Mother, a Partner to the love of my life, an Artist active in my creative community, and a hard-working Businessperson, I am personally offended by the egregious nature of Kansas Representatives’ proposed legislation, most notably, my father’s. This is the letter I sent to him.”

This has been a strange and difficult week indeed.My name is Christel Highland, and my Father, Representative Ron…

Posted by Christel Highland on Wednesday, February 20, 2019

After receiving the letter, Highland withdrew as a co-sponsor of the bill and said he was wrong to co-sponsor it, according to the Wamego Times.

— David Taffet