Their Opinion of Women Appears to Be as Backward as Their Views of Gay People

What a hateful crew they seem to have over at the right-wing Texas organization/blog AgendaWise Reports. We already knew what they think about gay people. Now we see that their views about women are just as backward and offensive.

Two years ago, Daniel Greer had to step down (temporarily) from his post at AgendaWise after various media outlets reported about his offensive tweets that included slurs like “fag” and suggestions that gay people get AIDS because (apparently) they violate natural law.

Now the Austin-based political news website Quorum Report (subscription required) reports that another AgendaWise blogger, Weston Hicks, this week posted a piece calling women who work around the Texas Capitol “whores” and “concubines.”

Hicks’ weird post suggests that the conservative agenda is being undermined by women who seduce “men with crucial intelligence or strategic access to power”:

Believe it or not, Austin has actual political whores. They don’t think of themselves that way, but others do, and that is what they are. They may be a disgrace to their families, but they are rife in Austin.

In their minds they are just being ‘liberated women,’ only they are professionally rewarded for being ‘liberated’ in the vicinity of men with crucial intelligence or strategic access to power. It is especially important to find weak links to access in the Austin clan who don’t pledge allegiance to the current special interest regime – conservatives – and this caliber of woman can do this job uniquely well.

These women, Hicks writes, are enemies who seek information and advantage from the men they seduce:

“Political concubines commonly work for the media or lobby, and they troll for weak-minded, lecherous staffers and legislators.”

Hicks includes a Bible passage in which King Solomon gives his son advice about prostitutes who can drag him to the slaughter. Writes Hicks:

“Legislators who respect their political marriage to the voters of their district will stay away from political call girls, whose currency is political information and access, and whose aim is conservative derailment. They will let it be known that they expect the same from their staff.”

Nowhere does Hicks suggest that men might seek to seduce women in power. Indeed, Hicks seems to think only men have “crucial intelligence or strategic access to power.” Putting the misogyny aside, it sure seems that Hicks has issues with some unnamed lawmakers and legislative staffers.

Quorum Report reports that Austin lobbyist Steve Bresnen is calling on Hicks to apologize and step down from his post at AgendaWise. Says Bresnen:

“Calling our female colleagues ‘whores’ and ‘concubines’ while wrapping your bizarre opinions in Proverbs displays the worst kind of cynicism and raises the question: Have you people become so unhinged from civil society that you no longer recognize common decency?”

Bresnen shouldn’t hold his breath. Greer’s exile from the blog was, as we said, temporary. He’s the executive director and continues to write for the blog. If Hicks apologizes, much less leaves AgendaWise, we’ll be surprised.

Quorum Report also notes that Michael Quinn Sullivan, a prominent leader of the Texas GOP’s far-right wing, is listed as an AgendaWise board member by the Texas Secretary of State’s Office. Sullivan told Quorum Report that he left the board two years ago.

By the way, Hicks calls Texas Freedom Network “bigoted bullies” because we oppose the religious right’s agenda in Texas. He hasn’t said what he thinks about the woman who serves as TFN’s president.