JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster is backing House Bill 1500, which creates special rights for people based on sexual orientation and sexual identity.
Joan Gummels represented Koster in April 11 testimony for the bill before the House Judiciary Committee. David Krueger, chairman of the Christian Life Commission (CLC) of the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) and pastor of First Baptist Church in Linn, said the CLC opposes that action.
“When we start granting civil rights or even special rights to people based on behavior, I think we’re on very dangerous ground as a society,” Krueger said. “There are certain characteristics that we’re born with, such as race, ethnicity, physical disabilities that obviously need to be protected.
Unfortunately, at this point there’s nothing reliable as far as scientific data is concerned that homosexuality is genetic or inherited in any way. Even honest homosexual activists admit that. If that’s true, then this is a behavior.
“When we start granting rights based on a behavior, where do we end as a culture with that? How do we tell the pedophile, you must be granted special rights, or we’re going to protect your civil rights because, after all, you were born this way? We simply need to stand against that kind of decision.”
MBC Lobbyist Kerry Messer, who observed the proceedings April 11 in the context of testifying against the measure, said Gummels spoke for “maybe 30 seconds,” revealing next to nothing about why her boss likes the bill.
“It appears to me it wasn’t exactly one of her proudest moments,” Messer said. “She had very little to say.”
Koster’s press secretary, Nanci Gonder, was contacted by The Pathway and released the following statement: “We have testified in support of extending protections under the Human Rights Act for several years in a row.”
Messer called the bill social engineering.
“The bill is written to make it look like they are covering homosexuality and lesbianism, when in reality they admitted in the public hearing that the way the wording is in the bill that it actually covers all sexual orientations, all sexual deviancies, and every specific abhorrent sexual behavior is granted protected class status,” he said.
Messer said that Koster, a former Republican turned Democrat who may be facing a potentially tough Republican opponent in Ed Martin of St. Louis, is responsible for creating a news item on April 11.
“He commissioned his lobbyist expressly to go on record that the attorney general’s office supported the legislation,” Messer said. “What in the world is the attorney general doing going on record supporting a bill like this when this had nothing to do with the attorney general’s job description?”
HB 1500 is worded in such a way that it grants anti-discrimination protections to any classification of perverted forms of sexual behavior. The more specific a fetish, the easier it can be protected.
Passing this bill out of the Legislature and having it signed into law by Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, would be problematic.
“Who will protect businesses and property owners falsely accused of illegal discrimination when someone erroneously claims they were fired, passed up for a promotion, or lost a lease because of the way they have sex?” Messer asked.