The State Affairs Committee of the Texas of Representatives on Wednesday is set to hear testimony on one of the 20 bills in the current legislative session that promote discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Texans. House Bill 4105 by state Rep. Cecil Bell, R-Magnolia, would bar state and local officials from issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples even if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the Texas ban on same-sex marriage.
Supporters of HB 4105 claim that they’re just trying to ensure that Texas retains “sovereignty” over marriage and the right to “define” marriage as a union between one man and one woman. But they’re using it as yet an opportunity to bash LGBT people as evil and perverted. See, for example, this appalling excerpt in a “Legislative Alert” today from the right-wing group Texas Eagle Forum:
The idea that homosexuals could marry is a ‘mirage.’ It is a counterfeit and a lie. It is wrong, first and foremost, because it violates God’s Divine Law in the Bible, “For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Secondly, it violates natural law.
The email also asks for supporters of “conversion therapy” to testify about “former homosexuals who have renounced and denounced the homosexual lifestyle.” And it wants people “who can testify to the future of sex education in Texas if homosexual marriage is allowed by our failure to take action with this legislation.”
Never mind that medical authorities have denounced “conversion” or “reparative” therapy as abusive and harmful. And never mind that Texas should change its wretched and failed abstinence-0nly policies on sex education no matter what happens with the freedom to marry for gay and lesbian couples. Groups like Texas Eagle Forum will simply repeat the same propaganda at every opportunity.
Of course, they see no reason not to repeat the same lies over and over again. That’s because there are so many Texas lawmakers who buy into it. Check out this video clip from a pastor speaking against the freedom to marry for same-sex couples at what was essentially an anti-gay rally last month at the Texas Capitol. The speaker equates marriage for gay and lesbian couples to polygamy, pedophilia and incest. And he’s surrounded by Texas lawmakers — including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — applauding in agreement.
10 Comments
I am getting tired of this fiddle-dee-dee of pastors and politicians. If they want to go into politics, stay in politics. If they want to have a church leave politics out of it and just teach the Scripture. There is more to scripture than homosexualty, adultery, and such.
This is a money making deal. Religious organizations = no taxation….Elected Legislator’s = very little taxation , added income revenue. If you want to be a Preacher get a church , if you want to be a Legislator great , but you cannot be both.
I read somewhere ” The State will not establish any religion over an other “.
Here’s an honest question that I never could seriously figure out:
People like this want to restrict gay rights because of what the Bible says. They want to outlaw abortion because of what the Bible says.
The Bible also forbids adultery and divorce. Why don’t they want to make those things illegal too?
And it came to pass that a group of wise men from all over the colonies that eventually became the United States of America said that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…”
ALL LAWS that restrict abortion, permit discriminating against LGBT or any other group that bible thumpers is UNCONSTITUTIONAL!
When those superstitious little people say that such and such is against what the bible says is screwing with the first amendment!!!
When they talk about “THE bible,” which books are they talking about? Oh, yeah, they think that THEIR bible is THE only bible in the world.
Well good for them…but they are freaking liars from the git go.
Not being a Christian, I refuse to be controlled by their ideas of what is right or wrong. I DO NOT GIVE A DAMN ABOUT WHAT THEY THINK.
However, if they think that the book of Genesis in English or Bereshit in Hebrew has any legal or moral standing is out of their tiny brains. If they had just one more neuron in their heads, they’d have a synapse all to themselves.
Genesis is a collection of myths and random thoughts. In no way is it real and if you think it does you need a long, long stay in a mental hospital.
I’ve much more to say about this and am finally sitting down and writing a book that exposes the fact that this is a SECULAR NATION, not what people think.
I read a book a few years back called:
The Godless Constitution: The Case Against Religious Correctness Paperback – February, 1997 by Isaac Kramnick.
Though not until its later release in 2005. It was VERY eye-opening and would be a great book to read for reasearch.
If people would keep their mouths shut about all their private issues we wouldn’t have this kind of rhetoric from either side. And then we might all live happily ever after. Doubtful, given that man is a basically evil and can only do that which is wrong anyway
Keep their mouths shut about their private issues? Nobody says that about straight people. Most straight people don’t get married in secret or keep their spouses hidden. Why should gay people?
the bible supports rape, incest, polygamy….etc… did the good pastor think that means his god didnt not create, condone and demand those things?
I really do not understand why Texas hates so many. Not surprised, just confused.
I wish their god would strike them down for being lying bigots!