We continue our review of the outrageous and offensive things we heard from the right in 2016. Today let’s look at the continuing right-wing freak-out over extending equal rights to LGBT people, including the freedom to marry, to be not face discrimination, and even to use public restrooms. You can check out previous posts from the Year in Quotes here.
“Thirty years ago, they would have locked Jenner up. These people are crazy as a bedbug. This is a wicked, evil, satanic movement. They want to recruit, brainwash our children, right when the hormones start kicking in. I know. I’m a doctor. We’ve got sick, sexually perverted presidents. Then we’ve got the Muslim problem, which is one thing I like about Dan, uh, Dan, uh, Dan, uh, Donald Trump. If you know about that religion, then you know they want you to do what they want you to do or they’ll cut your head off! We need people to stand up against this absurd, ungodly tomfoolery.”
– Prominent anti-LGBT activist and all-around hate-monger Steve Hotze of Houston, ranting about transgender celebrity Caitlyn Jenner and the LGBT community in general
“Think of them like termites. They get into the wood of the house and they eat away at the very moral fabric of the foundation of our country.”
– Houston anti-LGBT leader Steven Hotze, ranting that “the homosexual movement” has “infiltrated” American society
“It is nonsense. It is evil. It’s wicked. It’s sinful. They want us to swallow it, you say. We have to run this bunch out of Washington, D.C. We have to rid the earth of them. Get them out of there.”
– Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson, ranting about same-sex marriage while campaigning with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on the campaign trail in Iowa.
“Will Disney now ban you from wearing a cross outside your shirt at their parks? Will a Catholic priest be forced to remove his white collar when he takes a picture with Mickey Mouse?
– Jonathan Saenz, president of the religious-right group Texas Values, ranting that Disney and other companies were waging a war on Christians by threatening to boycott Georgia if that state enacted a law promoting discrimination against LGBT people. Georgia’s Republican governor vetoed the bill. So far we know of no ban on Christian crosses and priests’ collars in Disney parks.
“If Target wants to close all their stores in the state of Texas, I will go over and help them pack and help them leave. I am going to bat for my wife and my daughters.”
– Texas state Rep. Matt Shaheen, R-Plano, explaining that he would support barring even private companies like Target from allowing transgender people from using public restrooms that are appropriate to their gender identity.
“You also can’t vote on whether abortion is right or wrong or whether homosexuality is right or wrong; that’s a fixed moral law.”
– Phony historian and religious-right leader David Barton on his “Foundations of Freedom” radio show, marrying up two of the top far-right freakout issues in one quote
“In a free market, I choose who I do service with. If I have government stepping in that role and determining who I have to do service with, then we are one step closer to fascism.”
– Texas state Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, criticizing efforts to prevent discrimination against LGBT people. Sen. Perry didn’t say whether he thinks the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was also a step toward fascism.
“Homosexuality is a chosen behavior that is contrary to the fundamental unchanging truths that has been ordained by God in the Bible, recognized by our nations founders, and shared by the majority of Texans.”
– From the Texas Republican Party’s 2016 platform
“You’re wanting to save humankind for posterity, basically a modern-day Noah, you have that ability to be a modern day Noah, you can preserve life. How many same-sex couples would you take from the animal kingdom and from humans to put on a spacecraft to perpetuate humanity and the wildlife kingdom?”
– Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, offering space colonies (or something) as an argument against LGBT equality
