GenQ - For the not so straight individual

Being a Southern lesbian from a very conservative family, I am somewhat numb to the constant onslaught of homophobic politicians that pop up now and then. After all, the South brought us all David Duke, Trent Lott and as sad as it is to admit it, the CEO of the United States currently claims my home state as his own. The stereotypical, bigoted, homophobic, redneck world views these men represent permeate Southern culture, even extending to some of our women. It's not often that I'm embarrassed to be Southern. I come from a red state, my parents are Republicans, and I work my ass off to educate anyone who will listen. I've infiltrated from the inside, y'all. However, as few female politicians as we have in the South, we have to go and find one that makes me question not only her cognitive abilities, but her ability to represent any district in this country. Debra Young Maggart, Tennessee State Representative in the 45th district, has become internationally recognized as an ignorant homophobe. In a rare move for a Republican, she did not hide behind large group votes that go underreported by mainstream media, she put her hate-filled lunacy into the form of an email and sent it off, without a second thought, to a student at Vanderbilt University.

?I am not convinced that just because our foster children desperately need loving homes that we should just place them in homes that are available when research also shows that most homosexual couples have numerous emotional dysfunctions and psychological issues that may not be healthy for children.? stated Representative Maggart, a divorced single mother, who serves on a Same Sex Parenting committee for the state of Tennessee. Unfounded and inflammatory statements about homosexuals seem to pass for logic on this committee. Despite voluminous studies from the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association showing that mental instability is not related to sexual orientation, and that homosexual and heterosexual parents have equal success in raising healthy, well-adjusted children, Representative Maggart still maintains that ?there is an abundance of evidence that homosexual couples do not make the optimum family unit.? Irrationality turns to outright insanity as Maggart continues, ?We also have seen evidence that homosexual couples prey on young males and have in some instances adopted them in order to have unfretted [unfettered] access to subject them to a life of molestation and sexual abuse.?

Maggart claims to be a Christian, while spewing hate. She wishes for a world where ?all mommies and daddies did the right thing and treated their children as the precious gifts they are from God.? I would prefer a world where people are judged based on their personal strengths and weaknesses, not their sexual orientation. I would prefer a government to be made up of people who value all of their constituents, not just the wealthy, white males. I would prefer a system that is more concerned with placing children in secure, happy homes then they are with furthering the cause of right-wing, ultra-conservative, watchdogs of morality.