A YouTube audio
clip of an Oklahoma state lawmaker's tirade against
homosexuality, which she called a bigger threat than
terrorism, has outraged gay activists and brought
death threats rolling in.
''The homosexual
agenda is destroying this nation, OK, it's just a
fact,'' Rep. Sally Kern said recently to a gathering of
fellow Republicans outside the capitol in Oklahoma
City.
''Studies show no
society that has totally embraced homosexuality has
lasted, you know, more than a few decades. So it's the death
knell in this country.
''I honestly
think it's the biggest threat that our nation has, even more
so than terrorism or Islam, which I think is a big threat,''
she said.
The former
schoolteacher has been a magnet for coast-to-coast
condemnation, including a jab from comedian Ellen DeGeneres,
ever since someone posted her comments on the Internet
March 7. State police said they are investigating
death threats against her.
Back home in the
Bible Belt, though, the response has been mixed. Kern
has gotten support from her fellow Republicans.
''I would submit
to you that the vast majority of the folks in our
caucus, particularly those who consider themselves
conservative, stand with and support Sally,'' said
state representative Randy Terrill.
Democratic
governor Brad Henry, however, said Kern's views are not
representative of most Oklahomans. He said politicians
should ''think before you speak.''
''To have equated
the gay community with terrorism ... and to have called
us the biggest threat to America is to dehumanize gay people
in the worst possible way,'' Denis Dison, spokesman
for the Washington-based Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund,
said Friday.
That group's
leaders fear remarks such as Kern's coming from an elected
official could lead to violence against gays.
Kern, who is
finishing her second term, has tried unsuccessfully to pass
bills to rid libraries' children's sections of books that
have homosexual themes. She told the group that
schoolchildren are being indoctrinated by gay
activists.
''We're not
teaching facts and knowledge anymore, folks,'' she said.
''We're teaching indoctrination, OK, and they are going
after our young children, as young as 2 years of age,
to try to teach them a homosexual lifestyle is an
acceptable lifestyle.''
In the same
speech, she said gays are ''infiltrating city councils''
across the country.
''It spreads, OK,
and this stuff is deadly and it's spreading and it will
destroy our young people,'' she said. ''It will destroy this
nation.''
Kern said she
made these comments on about four different occasions to
small groups of Republicans, and she thinks the recording
was made at one of these meetings in January. Various
recordings of it have generated more than a million
hits on YouTube.
Kern's office
received more than 23,000 e-mails in less than a week,
mostly condemning her views, and thousands more to her home
computer, many of them ''vulgar, vile, and profane,''
she said.
Kern said she has
no regrets for her statements and denies she was
gay-bashing. Her Christian faith teachers her to be loving
to individuals but not their lifestyle, she said.
Some people,
including DeGeneres, did not take her remarks that way.
''Hi, it's Ellen
DeGeneres, the gay one,'' the comedian said when she
left a message in a call to Kern's office during her TV show
March 14.
DeGeneres said
she wanted to talk to Kern about some ''misinformation.''
''I'm trying to
figure out which society has disappeared that I didn't
know of,'' she said.
Kern said she had
no interest in talking to the entertainer. ''That would
be like throwing myself into the lion's, den and I'm not
going to do that,'' she said Thursday.
Kern, the wife of
a Baptist minister, said ''everything is being played
out of proportion.''
Most of Kern's
colleagues have steered clear of commenting on her
statements, but some say the state's image is taking a
beating.
''I think it is a
shame those type of things tend to show that we are a
people who seem not willing to look at the big picture of
the world and recognize there are other people out
there with other religions, other viewpoints. I think
we are somewhat intolerant of that,'' said Rep. David
Braddock, a Democrat.
Last summer, more
than two dozen Oklahoma house members refused
complimentary copies of the Koran from an ethnic advisory
council, offending Muslims. Republican Rex Duncan led
the boycott, condemning Islam as a religion and saying
most Oklahomans do not endorse ''the idea of killing
innocent women and children in the name of ideology.''
Like Kern, Duncan
stood by his comments.
Rabbi Russell Fox
of Oklahoma City's Emanuel Synagogue said Oklahoma is
becoming more exposed to different religions and cultures
and that some citizens and leaders ''are having a hard
time making an adjustment.''
Fox said he did
not believe Oklahomans were necessarily less tolerant
than people in other areas of the country, ''but I think we
have a political culture that plays upon and uses
intolerance in some very unhealthy ways.''
''It's
demagoguery, that's the old word for it,'' he said. (Ron
Jenkins, AP)