Lankford, Kern; tagteam hate in townhall meeting
Part I by Robin Dorner
Editor in Chief
While many Americans are viewing the excellent work of our friends at 'Think Progress':
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2013/01/23/1484101/james-lankford-humiliat...
….Many of them may not realize the “constituent” is none other than the infamous State Representative Sally Kern. But those of us in Oklahoma cannot mistake the voice, the hair.….the hate.
Kern made her national debut in 2008 when she was secretly recorded saying homosexuality is “the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam.” Kern doubled-down on that statement in 2011 again claiming, “Yes I think that it’s also more dangerous [than terrorism] because it will tear down the moral fiber of this nation.”
In a town hall meeting held January 8th in Oklahoma City, Kern attended and asked a few questions:
“Constituent” Sally Kern: I want to know if you’re aware of the Substances and Mental Health Services Administration that has a book called the Provider’s Introduction to Substance Abuse Treatment for Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender Individuals.
Congressman Lankford: Wow.
Kern: They are going around the nation, they just did this here in Oklahoma, December 7th, and having conferences that are educational. [...] About 2 percent of the conference is dealing with substance abuse and mental health issues. 98 percent is doing indoctrination or pushing the homosexual agenda. This is what our president is doing. He has a federal agency doing it. Our state, the Oklahoma Mental Health and Substance Abuse Department, put this conference on and is indoctrinating our citizens who are totally against this. Is there any way you can look into this?
Lankford: Oh yes, sure. You know I can absolutely get a chance to take a look at it. We’ll start the process, try to see what we can do to identify it. Some of those things you have the power of humiliation where you can raise it and put in sunlight. They love functioning in the dark. You put some sunlight on it, that does help. But, we’ll see. I’m glad to take that on.
In a response to a phone call from the Gayly, Congressman Lankford now claims he was referring to “humiliating” the government agencies rather than the gay community or LGBT providers in to doing the right thing:
“When I was asked about a resource and workshop I was not previously aware of, I expressed my frustration with government agencies who provide resources with obvious bias until they are asked or ‘humiliated’ to do the right thing. Both conservatives and liberals experience frustration when they have seen government resources that fail to provide balance," Lankford said.
After multiple attempts to contact Representative Sally Kern at her capitol office, she did not reply back to the Gayly by phone or respond to an email request for comment.
In the 2012 election against Lankford, opponent Tom Guild who garnered nearly 40 percent of the vote in that fifth District, four-way race responded to the Gayly about this recent news by saying:
“We are very concerned that Lankford is using his religion and his public office to bully his constituents. It is time for him to stop demonizing hard working, taxpaying Oklahomans, including those who live in the fifth congressional district. If he can’t work for and represent everyone in the fifth district, he needs to immediately resign from Congress."
Guild received more votes than any of the five Democrats running for Congress in Oklahoma in 2012, operated on 10 percent the budget Lankford did and ran the closest race of any Democrat running for Congress in the fifth district since Laurie Williams in 1992.
We’ll have more of Lankford’s comments and more interviews coming soon with more coverage later today online. Look also for our coverage in the February print issue of the Gayly – on stands in Oklahoma, Kansas & Arkansas next week.