The Advocate (June 9, 2010) - Oklahoma state representative Sally Kern, who has called gay people more dangerous to the country than terrorists, will face a transgender opponent, attorney Brittany Novotny (pictured), in the general election for the Oklahoma City seat this fall.Novotny, the state's first known transgender candidate, filed papers to run Tuesday.
According to the Tulsa World, Novotny, 30, said she would not focus the campaign on her gender identity, while Kern said she would avoid the issue.
“Novotny said Kern is pushing her personal agenda instead of focusing on issues that are important to House District 84, and because of that, the state and Kern's Oklahoma City district have suffered,” reports the World.
Kern, a Republican, and Novotny, a Democrat, may debate each other once this fall during an annual community forum.
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Why does story this delight me so? Read the open letter I wrote to Sally Kern 2 years ago following her statements that the two great threats facing America today are homosexuals and Islam:
March 21, 2008
Recently, State Representative Sally Kern (R-OK.) gave a speech dealing with gays in America. Her talk was intended for a small audience of supporters. Unbeknownst to her, the legislator’s comments were recorded and have since been widely distributed.
Many have been quick to condemn Rep. Kern from a place of moral indignation. I’d like to add my voice to theirs and, in the process, perhaps expand the conversation by addressing some of Mrs. Kern’s assertions. Here, then, is my open "constructive" letter to Mrs. Kern on gays, Islam, indoctrination, and the machine of bigotry:
March 21, 2008
Mrs. Sally Kern
Oklahoma State House of Representatives, District 84
2713 Sterling Avenue
Oklahoma City, OK 73127
Dear Representative Kern,
Do you write your own speeches? If so, it might be time to call in a little assistance. In once recent address, dealing with homosexuality in America, you got most of your facts wrong, and the few accuracies you did put forth were knit into the sort of convoluted logic my grandmother used to describe as "cattywumpus." While I’m no professional speechwriter, perhaps I can help you sort some of this out.
You started off with a useful observation:
"[Homosexuality] has deadly consequences for those people involved in it. It has more suicides. They’re more discouraged. There’s more illness. Their life spans are shorter."
Then you went cattywumpus on us:
"You know, it’s not a lifestyle that is good for this nation."
Brava, Madam Representative for noting that being gay in American indeed has deadly consequences! But wait ... so does being Black in America. And for that matter, so do being poor, coming from rural Mississippi, and being Latino. Perhaps, then, none of these ’lifestyles’ are good for the nation. (Here’s the scary part: you seem intellectually unable to differentiate between cause and effect, victim and perpetrator.)
If you systematically tell people they’re no good, hang them from trees, tie them to fences, tire-iron them on the street, look the other way while police harass them, deny them loans, fire them from their jobs, make them ride in the back of the bus, and prevent them from formally expressing love for their partners, it doesn’t make them particularly cheerful. Instead, it causes stress, illness, reduced life spans and a bevy of behavioral concerns like alcoholism and homelessness. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1989)
You, Madam Representative, stand by the side of the road and point with disdain to a man who’s been beaten, his body and spirit broken. You report only that he’s dirty and won’t get up on your command. But all the while, it was you calling for his subjugation. This is not just absurd, it’s the backbone of fascism. Look it up. (Robert O. Paxton. The Anatomy of Fascism. Alfred A. Knopf, 2004)
"I honestly think it’s the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorists, or Islam, which I think is a big threat."
Now your ignorance is plainer to see. Still, I want to give you the benefit of the doubt here. I want to believe that you, in your better moments, can distinguish between terrorist Islamic extremists and the peaceful billion-plus practitioners of one of the world’s great faiths. It requires skill akin to that necessary to sort out the face of bomber Timothy McVeigh, who robbed Oklahomans of lives and innocence, from that of your cousin Earl in Lake Aluma, Oklahoma, with whom your biggest beef is that he should get off the couch and do a better job of minding the yard. They’re both pale, blond and speak with a twang. But only one of them blows up people.
(Then again, maybe you can’t grasp the difference between Muslims and Islamic extremists. Maybe everyone who doesn’t look or worship like you is a potential terrorist. I pray this is not the case.)
One of the reasons our great nation was founded was to ensure freedom of religious expression for all. For you, an American lawmaker, to condemn Islam -- practiced peaceably in the U.S. by over 8 million citizens -- as ’a big threat’ is chilling. For that matter, can you explain to me, in concrete terms, how your or your constituents way of life is threatened by the overwhelmingly law-abiding Muslims in America?
I’m discouraged that I now feel the need to parade out statistics regarding Islam and American Muslims like a spokesperson for an Islamic-American organization. I do it to make a point, and more so to draw a line in the sand. Rep. Kern, when you speak ignorantly and hatefully against one group of people, you demean us all. And I will stand beside other oppressed Americans, as groups like the NAACP have stood beside me, in the face of your rhetoric. So here we go:
Nearly all would agree that terrorism in any form is an evil upon society. It is also true that your brand of blanket condemnation of those marginally different from yourself (i.e. Muslims as a group) causes the same pessimism and ’discouragement’ you note among gays. Discouragement turns to outrage. Outrage turns to desperation and fervor.
When this fervor spills over into violence, it’s inexcusable and simply must be denounced. On this, I imagine we’re in full agreement. But, Rep. Kern, do you honestly wonder why people suffer when you continue to condemn them? Are you so coocooned in fear and isolationism that you’ve lost a basic understanding of human dignity and spirit?
You could have stopped, Rep. Kern. But you went on with your speech:
"It’s a matter of fact, studies show that no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than, you know, a few decades."
(Let me pause to remind readers there are also those who flatly deny the Holocaust happened. To my knowledge, however, none are State Representatives.)
But to the point, this assertion was the easiest to disprove. Just which facts and studies are you citing, Congresswoman? From which institutions? Are you, perhaps, referencing studies that exist in your imagination? Because here’s what a 30-minute ’study’ on wikipedia.org turned up:
"I tried to introduce a bill last year that would notify parents, err, schools had to let parents know what clubs their students were involved in and the reason I did that bill, primarily, was this: we had the gay-straight alliance coming into our schools. Kids are getting involved in these groups, their lives are being ruined, the parents don’t know about it."
Once again, Rep. Kern, you’ve turned logic on its head by confusing victim and perpetrator.
I challenge you -- present me with one real case of a student’s life being ruined as a direct result of their joining a gay-straight student alliance. Do so, and I (or The Trevor Project, or the Gay-Straight Alliance Network) will reply with a hundred cases where high school students were harassed or otherwise had their lives ’ruined’ (your choice of words) because of intolerance from misunderstanding classmates, closed minded teachers -- gay students report hearing anti-gay slurs up to 26 times a day; faculty intervention occurs in only 3% of those cases (Massachusetts Dept. of Education, 1997).
But where our gay youth suffer most is at hands of the same under-educated parents you want legally informed of their teenagers’ efforts for acceptance. Even you can’t be ignorant to the fact that over half of today’s openly gay teens report their parents reject them because of their sexual orientation, many thrown from their homes and demonized. (Gary Remafedi, Pediatrics, Issue 79, 1987.)
I know ... because I’ve met hundreds of these youth personally and in forums, sat and listened to their misgivings, and been witness their bruises, injuries both visible and hidden. Have you?
"Cause, what’s happening now, they’re going after, err, in schools, two year olds! You know why they’re trying to get early childhood education? They want to get our young children into the government schools so they can indoctrinate them."
Or, try the truth instead: The reason organizations like EQCA (on whose board I serve here in California) and other tolerance groups nationwide want anti-gay bias taken out of our nation’s classrooms and textbooks (what you call "indoctrination") is so that we can once and for all begin to dismantle the ugly machinery of bigotry.
It’s a machine fueled by sludgy voices like yours, revved by occasional bursts of high-octane hysteria, maintained and oiled by ignorance and fear, and the result is denigrated quality of life for gays, their families, and those around them.
The bigotry machine chews up Islamics, Jews, Atheists, those richer than us, those poorer than us, those with funny-sounding last names or big noses or eyes that close when they laugh. A century ago, it ran on Irish bones, and Italians proved fodder soon thereafter. Blacks have been a perennial favorite. Ultimately, the machine doesn’t care what you put in its chute, just that people like you, Rep. Kern, keep it well-stoked.
Then, I wonder what you are really afraid of with your talk of "indoctrination"? Teaching school kids that it’s okay if a classmate is gay won’t alter their own preference any more than walking out into a field and looking up at the sky can turn my eyes blue. (I borrow this poignant imagery from a Human Rights Campaign posting.)
I’ll end with a suggestion:
"I taught school for close to 20 years..."
Then perhaps it should be no wonder, given that your your logic is inscrutable and your positions mostly unsupportable, that only 1-in-4 minority students are currently leaving your Oklahoma Public School classrooms -- where you are proud to have taught for 20 years -- with the skills necessary to get them into college.
While Oklahoma does have a strong number of high school graduates overall, the racial preparedness gap is so wide you could drive a big, shiny U.S. Army Recruitment trailer through it.
My advice, then? Your position is not bolstered by trumpeting the ’accomplishments’ of your previous career. Better to stick with the hate speech. It’s quicker, requires less messy reliance on facts, plus it plays on people’s fears without causing them to think. And trust me, with the rationale you’ve floated in this recent speech, the last thing you want people to do is pause to give those arguments real thought.
Representative Kern, I’m a staunch supporter of free speech, including speech as damning and potentially volatile as your own. I support your right to make political mincemeat of yourself (not that, apparently, you’ve needed any help.)
All the same, while I’m glad to have been able to offer you these pointers, I can only hope your constituents will render my advice moot by providing you a swift, merciful, and permanent exit from both public office and the profession of teaching. We, as Americans, deserve better, both from our legislators and our educators.
Sincerely,
BEN PATRICK JOHNSON
LOS ANGELES, CA
Recently, State Representative Sally Kern (R-OK.) gave a speech dealing with gays in America. Her talk was intended for a small audience of supporters. Unbeknownst to her, the legislator’s comments were recorded and have since been widely distributed.
Many have been quick to condemn Rep. Kern from a place of moral indignation. I’d like to add my voice to theirs and, in the process, perhaps expand the conversation by addressing some of Mrs. Kern’s assertions. Here, then, is my open "constructive" letter to Mrs. Kern on gays, Islam, indoctrination, and the machine of bigotry:
March 21, 2008
Mrs. Sally Kern
Oklahoma State House of Representatives, District 84
2713 Sterling Avenue
Oklahoma City, OK 73127
Dear Representative Kern,
Do you write your own speeches? If so, it might be time to call in a little assistance. In once recent address, dealing with homosexuality in America, you got most of your facts wrong, and the few accuracies you did put forth were knit into the sort of convoluted logic my grandmother used to describe as "cattywumpus." While I’m no professional speechwriter, perhaps I can help you sort some of this out.
You started off with a useful observation:
"[Homosexuality] has deadly consequences for those people involved in it. It has more suicides. They’re more discouraged. There’s more illness. Their life spans are shorter."
Then you went cattywumpus on us:
"You know, it’s not a lifestyle that is good for this nation."
Brava, Madam Representative for noting that being gay in American indeed has deadly consequences! But wait ... so does being Black in America. And for that matter, so do being poor, coming from rural Mississippi, and being Latino. Perhaps, then, none of these ’lifestyles’ are good for the nation. (Here’s the scary part: you seem intellectually unable to differentiate between cause and effect, victim and perpetrator.)
If you systematically tell people they’re no good, hang them from trees, tie them to fences, tire-iron them on the street, look the other way while police harass them, deny them loans, fire them from their jobs, make them ride in the back of the bus, and prevent them from formally expressing love for their partners, it doesn’t make them particularly cheerful. Instead, it causes stress, illness, reduced life spans and a bevy of behavioral concerns like alcoholism and homelessness. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1989)
You, Madam Representative, stand by the side of the road and point with disdain to a man who’s been beaten, his body and spirit broken. You report only that he’s dirty and won’t get up on your command. But all the while, it was you calling for his subjugation. This is not just absurd, it’s the backbone of fascism. Look it up. (Robert O. Paxton. The Anatomy of Fascism. Alfred A. Knopf, 2004)
"I honestly think it’s the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorists, or Islam, which I think is a big threat."
Now your ignorance is plainer to see. Still, I want to give you the benefit of the doubt here. I want to believe that you, in your better moments, can distinguish between terrorist Islamic extremists and the peaceful billion-plus practitioners of one of the world’s great faiths. It requires skill akin to that necessary to sort out the face of bomber Timothy McVeigh, who robbed Oklahomans of lives and innocence, from that of your cousin Earl in Lake Aluma, Oklahoma, with whom your biggest beef is that he should get off the couch and do a better job of minding the yard. They’re both pale, blond and speak with a twang. But only one of them blows up people.
(Then again, maybe you can’t grasp the difference between Muslims and Islamic extremists. Maybe everyone who doesn’t look or worship like you is a potential terrorist. I pray this is not the case.)
One of the reasons our great nation was founded was to ensure freedom of religious expression for all. For you, an American lawmaker, to condemn Islam -- practiced peaceably in the U.S. by over 8 million citizens -- as ’a big threat’ is chilling. For that matter, can you explain to me, in concrete terms, how your or your constituents way of life is threatened by the overwhelmingly law-abiding Muslims in America?
I’m discouraged that I now feel the need to parade out statistics regarding Islam and American Muslims like a spokesperson for an Islamic-American organization. I do it to make a point, and more so to draw a line in the sand. Rep. Kern, when you speak ignorantly and hatefully against one group of people, you demean us all. And I will stand beside other oppressed Americans, as groups like the NAACP have stood beside me, in the face of your rhetoric. So here we go:
- One in ten American Muslims is a physician.They treat your baby’s fever and are working on the cures for things like breast cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. (Cornell University, 2002)
- American Muslims’ top choices for cars? GM, Ford, and Chrysler. Apparently, one way Islamics are destroying America is by supporting our ailing domestic auto industry. How dastardly clever of them! (Cornell University, 2002)
- The top five Muslim-American occupations include student, dentist, and homemaker. Radical stuff, eh? (Cornell University, 2002)
- American Muslims are more likely to gain graduate degrees than the national population by an astonishing 4-1 margin. (Cornell University, 2002 with US Census data, 2001).
- At the same time, in your home state of Oklahoma, it’s by an inverse ratio (an embarrassing 1-in-4) that minority students leave your high schools college-ready.(Manhattan Institute For Policy Research, 2006.)
Nearly all would agree that terrorism in any form is an evil upon society. It is also true that your brand of blanket condemnation of those marginally different from yourself (i.e. Muslims as a group) causes the same pessimism and ’discouragement’ you note among gays. Discouragement turns to outrage. Outrage turns to desperation and fervor.
When this fervor spills over into violence, it’s inexcusable and simply must be denounced. On this, I imagine we’re in full agreement. But, Rep. Kern, do you honestly wonder why people suffer when you continue to condemn them? Are you so coocooned in fear and isolationism that you’ve lost a basic understanding of human dignity and spirit?
You could have stopped, Rep. Kern. But you went on with your speech:
"It’s a matter of fact, studies show that no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than, you know, a few decades."
(Let me pause to remind readers there are also those who flatly deny the Holocaust happened. To my knowledge, however, none are State Representatives.)
But to the point, this assertion was the easiest to disprove. Just which facts and studies are you citing, Congresswoman? From which institutions? Are you, perhaps, referencing studies that exist in your imagination? Because here’s what a 30-minute ’study’ on wikipedia.org turned up:
- In Rome, starting with Nero, eleven out of twelve Emperors -- a position more powerful than our U.S. President -- partnered with same-sex lovers. Emperor Marcus Aurellus even married one in a public ceremony. This encompasses over 168 years -- not a few decades. (Thomas K. Hubbard: Homosexuality in Greece and Rome, London 2003. Also, Potter, David Stone, The Roman Empire at Bay, Routledge)
- In ancient Greece, even conservative historians and scholars now concede same-sex partnering was for centuries "part of the social structure of the polis."(Bruce S. Thornton, Eros: the Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality, Westview Press, 1997)
- In traditional Melanesian society, same-sex relationships have been treated as quite normal for hundreds of years (that’s centuries, not decades.) However, in the past 60 years, Melanesians have begun to reject homosexuality, predominantly because of condemnation from European Christian missionaries. (emphasis mine) (Herdt, Gilbert H. (1984), Ritualized Homosexuality in Melanesia, University of California Press)
"I tried to introduce a bill last year that would notify parents, err, schools had to let parents know what clubs their students were involved in and the reason I did that bill, primarily, was this: we had the gay-straight alliance coming into our schools. Kids are getting involved in these groups, their lives are being ruined, the parents don’t know about it."
Once again, Rep. Kern, you’ve turned logic on its head by confusing victim and perpetrator.
I challenge you -- present me with one real case of a student’s life being ruined as a direct result of their joining a gay-straight student alliance. Do so, and I (or The Trevor Project, or the Gay-Straight Alliance Network) will reply with a hundred cases where high school students were harassed or otherwise had their lives ’ruined’ (your choice of words) because of intolerance from misunderstanding classmates, closed minded teachers -- gay students report hearing anti-gay slurs up to 26 times a day; faculty intervention occurs in only 3% of those cases (Massachusetts Dept. of Education, 1997).
But where our gay youth suffer most is at hands of the same under-educated parents you want legally informed of their teenagers’ efforts for acceptance. Even you can’t be ignorant to the fact that over half of today’s openly gay teens report their parents reject them because of their sexual orientation, many thrown from their homes and demonized. (Gary Remafedi, Pediatrics, Issue 79, 1987.)
I know ... because I’ve met hundreds of these youth personally and in forums, sat and listened to their misgivings, and been witness their bruises, injuries both visible and hidden. Have you?
"Cause, what’s happening now, they’re going after, err, in schools, two year olds! You know why they’re trying to get early childhood education? They want to get our young children into the government schools so they can indoctrinate them."
Or, try the truth instead: The reason organizations like EQCA (on whose board I serve here in California) and other tolerance groups nationwide want anti-gay bias taken out of our nation’s classrooms and textbooks (what you call "indoctrination") is so that we can once and for all begin to dismantle the ugly machinery of bigotry.
It’s a machine fueled by sludgy voices like yours, revved by occasional bursts of high-octane hysteria, maintained and oiled by ignorance and fear, and the result is denigrated quality of life for gays, their families, and those around them.
The bigotry machine chews up Islamics, Jews, Atheists, those richer than us, those poorer than us, those with funny-sounding last names or big noses or eyes that close when they laugh. A century ago, it ran on Irish bones, and Italians proved fodder soon thereafter. Blacks have been a perennial favorite. Ultimately, the machine doesn’t care what you put in its chute, just that people like you, Rep. Kern, keep it well-stoked.
Then, I wonder what you are really afraid of with your talk of "indoctrination"? Teaching school kids that it’s okay if a classmate is gay won’t alter their own preference any more than walking out into a field and looking up at the sky can turn my eyes blue. (I borrow this poignant imagery from a Human Rights Campaign posting.)
I’ll end with a suggestion:
"I taught school for close to 20 years..."
Then perhaps it should be no wonder, given that your your logic is inscrutable and your positions mostly unsupportable, that only 1-in-4 minority students are currently leaving your Oklahoma Public School classrooms -- where you are proud to have taught for 20 years -- with the skills necessary to get them into college.
While Oklahoma does have a strong number of high school graduates overall, the racial preparedness gap is so wide you could drive a big, shiny U.S. Army Recruitment trailer through it.
My advice, then? Your position is not bolstered by trumpeting the ’accomplishments’ of your previous career. Better to stick with the hate speech. It’s quicker, requires less messy reliance on facts, plus it plays on people’s fears without causing them to think. And trust me, with the rationale you’ve floated in this recent speech, the last thing you want people to do is pause to give those arguments real thought.
Representative Kern, I’m a staunch supporter of free speech, including speech as damning and potentially volatile as your own. I support your right to make political mincemeat of yourself (not that, apparently, you’ve needed any help.)
All the same, while I’m glad to have been able to offer you these pointers, I can only hope your constituents will render my advice moot by providing you a swift, merciful, and permanent exit from both public office and the profession of teaching. We, as Americans, deserve better, both from our legislators and our educators.
Sincerely,
BEN PATRICK JOHNSON
LOS ANGELES, CA
Love, love & love your obvious time spent researching. Thank you. You should forward your references to Novotny for use in a suggested debate(s) in the November elections. Truth always wins out in a debate.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful.
ReplyDelete