Legislating Hate: The Real Anti-Christ

By Shannyn Moore

It still shocks me we are still talking about legislating love. I wonder why divorce hasn't been banned to protect the sanctity of marriage... oh, that's right... most lawmakers would have to vote to put themselves in legal jeopardy.

Recently, the whole country watched the California Supreme Court render their disappointing Proposition 8 decision banning gay marriage. Alaska takes longer to thaw out. Today, June 9th, the Anchorage Assembly will vote on a municipal ordinance to ban discrimination against gays and lesbians in hiring, housing and education.

Jobs, homes and education? Yes. It's vulgar. I'm sick of the debate. I'm sick of Bible-waving fear mongers. I'm sick of people using Jesus as an excuse to hate.

Local super-sized Church leader, Dr. Jerry Prevo, of The Anchorage Baptist Temple, is the "not-so-Christ-like" voice of hate. His eight-page press release included bullet points explaining why he is against the ordinance. The last few pages read like a porn pamphlet. His website reads like a parody. His letter to the Anchorage Daily News warned:

It would allow any man to dress like a woman and use any public women's restroom. Ladies, do you want that to happen? If not then you should contact the Anchorage Assembly and show up at the June 9 public hearing. A man in a highly visible sales job could come to work dressed like a woman. A person of either sex who indulges a taste for extreme sexual promiscuity and pornography during working hours could not be stopped or fired even though it damages the company's image. Maybe, worst of all, this ordinance would allow a man who teaches a second grade class or any grade to show up as a woman in the classroom and the School District could do nothing because of this ordinance.

Thou doth protest too much. How many times must we hear about closeted anti-gay preachers and politicians before we completely disregard their spiteful venom and recognize their pathology? They can't come to terms with their secret desires so they lash out at innocent citizens with anti-gay sermons and legislation.

The list of infamy is long; there's Ted Haggard, the mega church pastor and advisor to President Bush. He was head of the National Association of Evangelicals and was a well-known anti-gay moral crusader. Ted got caught doing meth and hiring a male prostitute. Jesus salesman, Paul Crouch, president of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, paid Enoch Lonnie Ford $425,000 in 1998 in exchange for his silence about an alleged homosexual affair they'd had in 1996.

Then there are the closeted anti-gay legislators. During his two-decade-plus legislative tenure, former Republican Mayor of Spokane and Washington Legislator, Jim West, was quite focused. He initiated legislation to prohibit sexual contact between consenting teenagers; advocated a bill that would have banned gays and lesbians from working for schools, day cares and state agencies; voted to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman; and, when he was Senate Majority Leader, let a bill banning discrimination against gays and lesbians die in committee. When he was mayor, West promised to veto a proposition that would extend benefits to same sex domestic partners of city employees. West admitted to using a gay website and soliciting men online after being outed; he was stripped of his duties of mayor ten days later....

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