A Little Background On The Nex Benedict Case
(Huff Post)–“An Oklahoma state senator called LGBTQ people “filth” on Friday in response to a question about state bills that would restrict the rights of trans people and the recent death of a local nonbinary student.
“We are a religious state and we are going to fight it to keep that filth out of the state of Oklahoma because we are a Christian state,” state Sen. Tom Woods (R) said during a public forum on Friday, as heard in audio obtained by the left-leaning group Media Matters for America.
Woods spoke Friday on a panel with fellow Republican state Sens. Blake “Cowboy” Stephens and Dewayne Pemberton and GOP state Rep. David Hardin. His remarks were in response to audience member Cathy Cott asking the four panelists why the legislature has “such an obsession with the LGBTQ citizens of Oklahoma and what people do in their personal lives and how they raise their children,” Tahlequah Daily Press reported.
Oklahoma’s GOP-supermajority legislature introduced 35 anti-LGBTQ bills last year and 54 bills this year, according to the ACLU, including bans on gender-affirming care and restrictions on bathroom use. In the Media Matters audio, Woods is pressed on how these laws have placed a target on transgender people in the state, and on the case of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary Oklahoma high school student who was assaulted in a school bathroom and later died. Woods said that while his “heart goes out” to Benedict, the people he represents don’t want LGBTQ “filth” in the state, according to the Tahlequah Daily Press”.
Just when you think Republicans can’t possibly lower the bar with their repulsive behavior. Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Woods took that microscopic opening and completely slammed it shut. With any hope of restoring the Party to a semblance of prior decency dashed. Dehumanizing a child’s death by labeling their community as “filth”. Solely because of their gender identity is as disgusting and disrespectful as it gets.
Woods like many other self-described “Christian Conservatives” shows no signs of Christian morality and are often the antithesis of traditional Conservative ideology. Which calls for Federal, State, and Local Governments to stay out of personal decisions. But the reality of their political agenda is they only want the government to stay out of personal lives, who share the same religious beliefs as their own. Anyone who doesn’t agree with their version of a happy and healthy lifestyle. Will be punished for having a differing opinion from their interpretation of the Bible, no matter how extreme it may be.
Imagine if the shoe was on the other foot and Democrats decided to treat Christians as second-class citizens. Calling them “filth” for having certain religious views. Republicans would be outraged and rightfully so. But this total lack of empathy towards other’s facing struggles is beyond hypocritical. It deserves much more public scrutiny than it currently receives.
Although the term “separation of church and state” is not found anywhere in the Constitution. The “Establishment Clause” in the First Amendment clearly states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” So this narrative from Republican government officials claiming the U.S. is a Christian nation is in direct contradiction of the Constitution. A fabrication designed by Christian Nationalists as a tool used for religious persecution and sexual oppression.
We just witnessed this past weekend at the annual Republican CPAC Conference. Christianity was on full display as the Party’s plans suggest. Even calls for the “end of democracy” by “overthrowing it completely”. During the discussions about a future without democracy, a Christian cross was raised and the “rule of God” was anointed. As the law of the land going forward in Republicans’ ideal world.
This is rather ironic, because not only does God have nothing to do with their hate-based rules. Republicans have shown their utter contempt of differing viewpoints of “God’s will”. What gives Christians the monopoly on God in the United States, when every other religion was also a creation of man? If God was watching, as Right-Wing Christian Nationalists suggest, she can’t be too pleased with her supporters calling her cherished creations “filth”. So Rest Peacefully Nex Benedict, you will be missed by those of us with still fully functional brains.
My Previous Article On CPAC Conference
Click the link below for the Huff Post article quoted in this column
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