With cartoons used to fight Kern’s destructive bills

Because Oklahoma has term limits for its House and Senate members, Republican Representative Sally Kern’s time as a legislator comes to an end when this legislative session ends.

Although I am no longer a resident of that state, my time there involved a connection with the representative.

Having taught a few doors down from her, and having had to deal with her bigoted and damaging statements during the time I was advocating for GLBT students, I thought I would share the story of my time with Sally Kern.

When I first transferred from the middle school across the street to the high school and was already involved in advocating for GLBT students, I was hoping to find an ally at my new school, and thought I had found one in Sally Kern because my first impression of her was, not unlike that of many, that she had to be a Lesbian, albeit a stereotypical one, as she was sporting khaki pants, a blue polo shirt, comfortable shoes, had her hair done in a style favored at the time by dip-stick Lesbians and old Portuguese women, and was leaning very non-femininely on a golf club.

Ashamed of my profiling her, I chose to hold off on any introduction until I got to know her better, and this turned out to have been a safe move.

She insists that she has made few, if any decisions in her life, so she bears no responsibility for things she has done because every major move in her life was undertaken because she was directed by God.

She had decided to remain a virgin and preach the Gospel as a missionary, and this very well could have been the last decision she was ever to make because God took over immediately afterward.

According to her own telling of her life story, God subsequently told her she was to get married, and made things easier for her by telling her who the husband was to be. This was before He handed that duty over to that Christian Mingle web site.

She was then told to have children and raise them while her husband preached, and this gave way to God then telling her that since her children were of an age that they could fend for themselves she was to become a teacher and bring Jesus into the classroom and restore God to public schools.

This would explain why her classes in Government took on the attributes of spreading the Gospel and showing how nothing happened in the United States that was not directed by God.

This allowed her to speak against certain people because, well, God told her He did not like them, even the ones that were sitting in her classroom.

She might have liked them, she has said she does not hate Gay people, but it seems God told her not to.

When she hadn’t been as successful in God’s school directive as one would think she would have been since an all-powerful deity had given her the assignment, and certainly would have helped her out, He told her to run for the State House of Representatives and bring God back state-wide.

But she has a dangerous obsession.

She hates Gay people with a passion that also envelopes Gay youth.

She pushed the perverted idea that being Gay is all about sex, as if she needs to make that assertion so she can think and talk about sex because God no longer wanted her to have any.

She tells children that they are going to grow up to be perverts and are no better than animals, and that God hates them.

She did it while she was a teacher.

During adolescence when students are looking for answers to what are to them major questions, her default  answer was to tell them that they will burn forever in hell and will be rejected by God and their families if they allow themselves to be who they are.

While Gay people want to love other Gay people, Sally Kern likes to dwell on the fantasy that, no, they want to love animals.

Gay people haven’t told her that. It is what she wants to believe.

And every year in her time as a state Rep, she has attempted to use her position to promote her perverse way of thinking, and has relished the chance to speak out loud  her own fantasies about who Gay people are.

She may not want to speak like an audio-porno magazine, but she has to in order to do God’s work. He makes her speak pornographically.

I taught down the hall from her. I never told her a thing about my personal life. Yet, she publicly told people that, while I might be a good teacher, my life-style was repulsive.

My life style, at the time, consisted of getting up in the morning, throwing on some clothes, walking the dog, arriving home to grab a cup of coffee, getting dressed, and going to work.

At the end of the school day I went to teacher staff development meetings, band practice, Union meetings, and school district educational committee, or community betterment meetings on different days.

By the time I got home, I would walk my dog, prepare supper for the both of us, correct papers and write lesson plans, and, perhaps, do some artwork. Sometimes I cleaned the house and did laundry.

I ended my day going to bed at a decent hour so I could get up the next day and do it all again.

My apologies for exposing readers to the repulsive details of my lifestyle, but I thought it necessary.

Once in a while I would date someone the old fashioned way, and on weekends I might go out for a night on the town with friends.

But according to Sally, in her mind anyway, it was perverted sex whenever I wasn’t doing all that other stuff.

Who could have found the time?

My relationship on campus was a professional one, and, in spite of our political differences, and her distaste for my assumed lifestyle, we were as friendly any the average co-worker, until she began her public library crusade.

It seems that after she was in the legislature she needed to come out of the clichéd gate running, and found her motivation.

Oddly, as it happened this way in every place in America where the book was condemned, locally two parents picked up their very young children, whom they had left at the library unattended, and on the way home asked what books they had gotten. One of the children began to read from a book, King and King, the story of a prince whose mother, while attempting to marry him off to a princess, found he was actually in love with another prince and had no problem with it. After almost hitting a tree and potentially killing their own children in their horror, the parents called the new representative who then demanded that as the public library was tax funded this book be removed from all libraries, or those offending libraries which refused to do this would be denied funding from the state.

The bad parenting skills of the parents who simply dropped their children off unsupervised in a day and age when children were being abducted, or could be, was obvious. They had not supervised their children, nor helped them pick books out of the library that they intended to read at home, and, upon seeing their own failing, attempted to blind others to it by distraction.

Their obvious failure was somehow lost to the expediency of the moment.

Attracting some very disturbingly conservative people as allies, Sally went to a Metro Library Commission meeting in Oklahoma City demanding any book with a “Homosexual Theme”, or which might have spoken of Homosexuality as anything other than an abomination, be removed from the system. Her assumption, apparently, was that as a legislator she would speak, they would listen, and there would be no question.

I do not think she was aware that people would object to her attempted misuse of power, or that her wishes would not be so automatically obeyed.

A group of people, including legal people from the ACLU, local Gay organizations, library workers, and concerned citizens, myself included, went to the same meeting to argue that parents, after instilling in their children their own family values, should view what their children intend to read before they checked out a book at any library, rather than demand that, if they found something objectionable, no one should be allowed to read it.

I felt a little naked at that first of many meetings when, in attempting to prove her action was not based on bigotry, but a concern for children, Representative Kern tried that old chestnut that she only objected to certain things of a “Homosexual nature”, but she herself loved Gay people and knew many, and even worked with some very fine teachers who happened to be Gay. While making that last statement she swept her left arm in an all inclusive arcing motion declaring as she did so that I was a wonderful teacher with whom she had no problem, and mentioning me by name when he finger found me in the crowd. Although she knew I was open at school, she took the liberty, or acted on the assumption that there would be no harm in using me in so public a manner, and “outing” me to the public in the process.

The commission decided to take things under advisement, or avoidance if you will, and hold a few more meetings in libraries all around the city before any decision was made.

At one of these subsequent meetings, while again attempting to show her actions were based on genuine concern for children dropped off unattended by their parents at libraries and not GLBT animus, she told those in attendance that she knew Gay people, and even taught with them in her days as a teacher. She again pointed me out by name to those in attendance as a wonderful teacher, but expressed her objections to my constantly and obnoxiously pushing my “lifestyle” into people’s faces to show how militant Gay people were about their agenda and desire to recruit.

Depending on her need from that meeting on, I was either just a good teacher, or a good teacher who as obnoxiously Gay.

The media was mixed in their reaction to her move, but most often questioned it, and although the media tried mightily to report in a balanced, neutral way, some of her statements, which bordered on fanaticism, came across as quite bizarre.

As the meetings progressed and the foolishness of her demand became more and more apparent, she modified her demand from removing the books totally from libraries to placing them in a restricted area for books that were controversial in nature without actually describing who would do this, or on what the decision on what was controversial would be based.

The commission, for its part, knowing that as libraries are funded by all tax payers, was reluctant to choose and place books apart solely on the opinions and desires of any one group. Even the Bible had its unsavory parts, and fairy tales were rife with negative references to step-mothers that would certainly offend those families that had one. It was conceivable that quite a few originally unintended books with anything anyone might find objectionable would be put in a totally separate place apart from the other books. There just wasn‘t enough space in any library to accommodate all the books that might need to be moved.

Wherever Sally Kern went with her message, people from the other side of the argument were there too with the unified message that if any parent did not want his or her child to read something it was up to them to establish limits within their family and be with the child at the library. It was wrong for someone to force their own personal family values on others by deciding what other people‘s children should be able to read.

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As we had not been unfriendly when we taught a few doors from each other, the legislator and I would have friendly conversations before the meetings where I filled her in on what was going on at school and any news about anyone with whom she had worked, only to retire to our sides to argue our points when the match began.

The final compromise of the Library Commission to the legislator‘s demand was far from a total seclusion of these books in a separate room. They would be placed on an easily findable shelf, but separated from other books. Instead of the desired effect of making them hard to find, these so called controversial books were made more easy to find because they were on a separate shelf in a section of the main library, and not mixed with other books where they would have blended in, like the enticing bawdy magazines are separated from sports and news magazines in a newspaper store, and are, therefore, made easier to find.

Her greatest threat of withholding public funds from non-cooperating libraries was shot down in the state legislature, and the matter died.

After a period of not hearing much from Sally Kern, just prior to the Gay Prom and a few weeks before graduation Kern wrote a letter to her constituents which stated she had been divinely placed in the legislature to return much needed reality to the state, and that Gay people were the biggest problem.

 “I ask for your prayers that God’s will be done. We, the Christian community, have set idly by for too long and let this perversion get out of hand. The homosexuals are wanting us to accept their behavior has normal and natural. It is not. It is sin and unless Believers stand up and be heard it will continue to spread like a cancer and destroy our society. I believe that with all my heart. I am not a particularly valiant person but God has put me in the position of State Representative for such a time as this.”

It was at her return to her public crusade that she warned her constituents at a meeting that Homosexuals were more of a treat to America than terrorists or Islam.

If this claim of divine anointing, and her attitude toward Homosexuals as stated above were brought into her Government classes, especially during the time she was a candidate for office what, other than the wording of school policy, could have protected Gay Students from her negative attitude toward them and Homosexuals in general?

So, recognizing it as nothing more than a form of name dropping, while either through total ignorance or willful self-service, especially as the principal at the time was a compliant Lesbian more concerned about her standing with the higher ups and the prospects of a higher paying, more prestigious position in the school district, I was disturbed when Sally Kern was invited to attend the graduation of the school in her legislative district at which she had taught in spite of her very public statements about GLBT people. Although I could see that as she was a former teacher it was nice to have invited her to attend the graduation of some of her former students, even the ones she held in extremely low esteem as they were Gay, or perhaps not Christian, I questioned why she sat up on the stage with administrators and honored students. I saw this as a little insensitive toward the Gay students who fell into her perversion category, and who may have been harmed by her words in class and in the legislature.

Again, without regard for our Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender students and family members, some sitting among the graduation class, and others either as siblings or parents in the audience, and ignoring the demeaning and dismissive attitude expressed in her email and comments made while she attempted to ban Gay books, and the damage done to our past and present students by the actions she had taken and the expressed reasons for them, she was given political advantage. Someone thought it would be a feather in the cap of the school if a Representative was an honored guest.

Her hurtful comments did not apply to majority of them while they were meekly accepted by at least one for expedience.

I was responsible for some segment of the education of those graduating, and I attempted to give them the best education I could, sometimes in spite of odd realities. To have me publicly described by the Representative as a pedophile, a lower form of creature, a sexual predator, a recruiter of youth into a condemned “life-style, pornographic by my very nature, a danger to the welfare of youth, and a cancer on society where such statements could be heard by my students, only to have her presented as a good and totally acceptable and honored role-model was extremely insensitive toward those to whom her ignorance was directed, again, some of whom were members of the honored graduates.

Having lost the Library crusade, it became Sally Ken’s modus operandi to introduce any number of anti-GLBT bills at the beginning of each legislative session while continuing her appearances at conferences and churches to spread lies about the GLBT Community, often presenting her cause as a defense of Christianity against the onslaught of Gay attacks.

While attempting to victimize others, she attempted to play the role of the victim when her attacks were rebuffed and her lies exposed.

She wrote a book, The Stoning of Sally Kern, that explained her victimhood.

Among her attacks she came up with a bill to allow unregulated conversion therapy, which is a bit of debunked quackery that attempts to make Gay kids straight by promoting a relationship with Jesus, her version of him anyway, and relies heavily on induced guilt and self-loathing. Regardless what is best for the kids, they could have been sent to conversion therapy for any reason a parent might choose even if it was only because of the embarrassment having a Gay child could cause a family, or because the preacher man saying being Gay is the devil’s work.

Perhaps the kid liked art more than God’s chosen sport, football.

She wanted kids to be the victims of the political or religious beliefs of the uninformed.

Her bill would have made it illegal for those who are trained and work impartially with children, like Child Welfare, the Oklahoma Commission on Youth, the Department of Mental Health, and the Health Department, to voice any objection.

The system of referrals and delivery of services would have been totally unregulated.

There would have been no oversight of services defined as Conversion Therapy, and without inspection and oversight, including the ability to investigate a complaint, children sent to conversion therapists could have been exposed to quackery, snake oil salesmen, religious charlatans, and even child abuse and molestation conveniently passed off as therapeutic techniques.

Thankfully there were enough intelligent people at the state house to kill that bill.

But she wasn’t done.

She wanted to make legitimate therapy more difficult to obtain

“No counselor, therapist, social worker, administrator, teacher
or other individual who provides counseling, guidance or
instructional services for a public school, public school district
or technology center school district may refer a student under the
age of eighteen (18) years to, nor provide the contact information,
business card, brochure or other informational materials of an
individual, organization or entity not employed by or under the
direct control of the school district in which that student is
enrolled if the referral or information provided pertains to human
sexuality without notifying the parents or legal guardians of the
student either by email, personal phone call or text message
at least twenty-four (24) hours prior to making the referral or
providing the information”.

This would have harmed more than GLBT kids, and considering that a very broad definition of “Human Sexuality” can be applied, and will be, if history and experience count for anything,  it could have applied to any positive GLBT information and the advertising of GLBT student friendly things like PFLAG, Community events, sources of information, or anything to do with safe spaces. It could be used to deny GLBT students necessary information not denied equally to religion, even though religion deals with human sexuality in many ways.

Students would have been forced into harmful silence as they may have feared having whomever they talked to call their parents and outing them, or, worse, avoid asking important questions as they might feel they would have been putting whoever the school related adult is in a terrible position and could have been responsible for any adverse action taken against that person by school administration.
.
Sally was asking to be able to legally abuse students mentally and emotionally. She wanted to scar them for life and be excused for doing it.

This would have violated both Oklahoma City School policies on Bullying, Harassment, and Nondiscrimination, and those of any town in OK with similar policies, and even the Equal Access Act as Gay/Straight Alliances would have been deemed as dealing with human sexuality.

The assumption that GSAs are all about sex exists.

This woman would not be happy until she had gained control over the lives of children, and had forced her beliefs on people who otherwise would not accept them.

What she could not accomplish by preaching her interpretation of the Gospel, that would be bringing people closer to the God of her making, she attempted to do by legislation.

She wanted to ruin children’s lives and adversely affect their future all in the name of her god, using the state legislature to do it.

She wanted to legalize child abuse.

But time was not on her side as she now has to leave the legislature because of term limits.

However, she now has time to pursue her crusade, and it is beyond a doubt that she will.

Although I am no longer a member of the GLBT Community in Oklahoma, I was contacted by people dealing with Sally Kern’s ongoing aggression, and ask to do a series of cartoons for them. I was more than happy to do so, and did.

I am glad for the part I played to slow, if not stop, her crusade when I was a resident of her state, but I feel for those who may be spending more time than a person should dealing with the damage this person may decide to keep on attempting.

On Tuesday, May 24th, Freedom Oklahoma, an Oklahoma GLBT advocacy group will be sending Sally Kern off in style as they celebrate the end of her term in Oklahoma State House.

Oklahoma could have gone down the path of North Carolina and Mississippi, but Freedom Oklahoma, after the onslaught of 27 anti-GLBT bills faced in January, managed to defeat everyone of them.

Now, we have the opportunity to take the next step in securing protections for our community. We are saying goodbye to over 20 members of the Oklahoma legislature this term – including Rep. Sally Kern, and we need to find allies to replace them.

“We picked her for very obvious reasons,” Freedom Oklahoma Executive Director Troy Stevenson said. “She said some pretty atrocious things about the LGBT community. I don’t know that any legislator in this country has said worse.”

“I can tell you all LGBTQ Oklahomans look forward to Rep. Sally Kern’s last day in public office,” said Toby Jenkins, executive director of Oklahomans for Equality in Tulsa. “She has given 12 years of constant attack against gay, lesbian and transgender Oklahomans. She believes what she believes, and she is not even open to the idea that she might possibly be wrong.”