The Republican General Assembly of Missouri reached a new low this week when Rick Brattin of Harrisonville defamed a significant portion of the population. Brattin objected to an amendment to a proposed anti-discrimination bill by stating that:
“When you look at the tenets of religion, of the Bible, of the Quran, of other religions,there is a distinction between homosexuality and just being a human being.”
The amendment would have extended protection from discrimination to include gender orientation and identity. The bill’s sponsor scrapped the amendment though presumably not directly in response to the outrageous statement made by Brattin.
Put aside that Brattin’s interpretation of “religion, the Bible, the Quran and other religions” has no legitimate place on the floor of a state legislature. Ask yourself this question: Do you want your state representatives to have such narrow minds as Brattin? Is it acceptable to allow our governing body to cast its sweeping and senseless condemnation on our fellow citizens? I do not accept this. I reject his bigotry.
My eyes wept when news of Battin’s statement hit my inbox. I wanted to gather all of my LGBTQF friends to my bosom and shield them from his ugliness. I found myself trembling in rage.
Then I thought even more broadly to the implications of Brattin’s terrible condemnation. What about me? I had a child without benefit of being married to the child’s father. Am I lumped in the religious zeal of this little man’s crass rejection because of Biblical condemnation? Is there a Scarlet letter “A” upon my chest which makes me something other than “a human being”? And what of my son — who once would have been called a “bastard”. Would Brattin say that he too is less than human because of his status? Or that he should be denied the equal protection which our state and federal constitutions afford all persons?
Brattin takes his courage to speak such wretched vitriol from the current political climate. This tears the social compact asunder and threatens the very essence of our values. We cannot condone this. We cannot let this slip past. We must #RESIST.
