Ah, yes. "If you don't like it, leave." Charming state, Texas.
Also, check out the clown whose comments I bolded. This is the sort of creep th Republicans are surrounding themselves with these days.
Governor angers gays
At bill-signing ceremony at evangelical school, he suggests gays displeased with constitutional amendment should move to ‘more lenient’ state
By Tammye Nash
Staff Writer
FORT WORTH — Texas Governor Rick Perry, at a bill-signing ceremony Sunday at an evangelical school, suggested that gays and lesbians who don’t approve of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marrages and civil unions should move to “a state that has more lenient views than Texas.”
The governor’s remark came at Calvary Christian Academy in Fort Worth as he signed legislation requiring minors to obtain written parental consent before undergoing an abortion and signed a resolution putting the anti-gay-marriage amendment on the statewide ballot in November — a purely symbolic gesture since his signature was not required.
The proposed amendment defines marriage as between one man and one woman. It also prohibits the state from recognizing civil unions and contractual arrangements intended to simulate same-sex marriage.
Two-thirds majorities in both the House and Senate approved the resolution during the legislative session that ended May 31. Perry said he
signed it as a show of support. Voters will have the final say in a ratification vote set for the Nov. 8 ballot. A substantial majority of voters is expected to affirm the amendment.
When a television reporter asked him how the proposed amendment might affect gay veterans in Texas — one of the groups protesting outside the Calvary school — Perry replied, “Texans made a decision about marriage, and if there’s a state that has more lenient views than Texas, then maybe that’s a better place for them to live.”
Gay Dallas lawyer Ed Ishmael called on Perry to apologize, calling the governor’s remark “outrageous.”
“I am a Texan, and I’ll not let the likes of Rick Perry tell me to leave this state,” Ishmael said in an e-mail statement.
Randall Ellis, executive director of the Texas Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby, also called on Perry to apologize.
“It is shameful that the Governor would ask a group of veterans to leave Texas,” Ellis said in a statement released Tuesday. “Real Texans honor the sacrifice and service of all our veterans. If Rick Perry will attack those who are fighting and bleeding for our country in Iraq for his own political reasons, then who is next?”
Bill James, a Marine Corp veteran who received a Purple Heart while serving in Vietnam, said in the gay lobby’s press release that Perry has chosen “a very dark path of hate and division to cover up his failed leadership.
Those gathered outside the school, which is affiliated with Calvary Cathedral International, said they were upset over the bill-signing ceremony for a number of reasons.
Most were there because they disagreed with the two measures Perry signed. But many were also angry at what they saw as a violation of the principle of separation of church and state. Other said the governor was wrong to focus attention on the proposed amendment when the Legislature failed to adequately address other, more important issues.
“They think it’s more important to waste time taking away people’s rights than it is to spend time protecting education,” said Karin Cagle of Fort Worth.
The Rev. Bernard Kern, a Lutheran pastor, was one of several ministers who joined the protestors outside the school. Kern said he was there to “give voice to my own sense of outrage at the political posturing I see over the issues of abortion and gay rights.”
“Jesus had nothing to say on the subject of homosexuality,” Rev. Kern said. “He was always inclusive of everyone.”
Those inside the school “are motivated, instead, by fear and hatred, and very little by the love of Jesus,” he said.
And Joe Duvall of Fort Worth, who described himself as a “Christian taxpayer,” said he was motivated to attend the protest rally by “this blatant violation of the separation of church and state.”
The Rev. Michael Piazza, president of the Hope for Peace and Justice Foundation, organized a group of about 120 people from Cathedral of Hope to participate in the protest. Rev. Piazza said it was inappropriate for Perry to sign the two bills at a church school.
“I think it is rather brazen of him to do this at a church,” said Piazza. “The people of Texas don’t want a Muslim ayatollah as governor of this state, and they don’t want a Christian ayatollah being governor either.”
Piazza said Perry’s comments on the bill and those protesting “said aloud exactly what is implied” by the proposed amendment. “This is nothing more than a campaign for special rights for heterosexuals. Lesbian and gay taxpayers should either be given the same rights or a tax refund.”
Piazza added, “If religious conservatives wish to do something to save their marriages, they should read the Bible. They will find Jesus supporting a constitutional amendment to ban divorce, but they will find him completely silent about homosexuality. Clearly, this is a case of being selectively religious.”
Inside the school’s auditorium, Perry and a group of conservative religious leaders from around the country spoke to a crowd of about 1,000. Among the speakers was the Rev. Dwight McKissick, senior pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington.
McKissick drew wild applause when he said he was insulted by comparisons to the gay marriage movement and the civil rights movements, saying gays and lesbians shouldn’t “compare your sin with our skin,” according to the Fort Worth Star Telegram. He also said the “gay lifestyle” is a “breeding ground of disease.”
Perry, the last to speak, called marriage a “sacred institution,” and said he is “one of many Texans who believe the institution of marriage must be protected.”
At that point, two men seated in the bleachers stood up and held hands as a sign of protest. They wore t-shirts emblazoned with the slogan “Love makes a family.”
During a question-and-answer session following his speech before the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce last November, Perry left the podium and started out of the room when a reporter asked him about the proposed constitutional amendment, which had just been introduced in the House by Rep. Warren Chisum, a Republican of Pampa.
As he walked out the door, Perry said, “The Defense of Marriage Act was passed, and I signed it into law in the state of Texas in the last legislative session.” The governor added that he would not be required to veto or approve the resolution if it passed both houses of the Legislature.
Critics said the bill-signing was a blatant attempt by the governor to court right-wing evangelicals as he begins preparing for a possibly bruising re-election campaign next year.
“Perry’s theatrics were an opportunity to throw some red meat at religious right pastors, hoping to shore up his suppport for a re-election campaign,” said Jesse Garcia, a spokesman of Stonewall Democrats of Dallas.
Piazza said he believes that people are “getting fed up” with the right-wing agenda, and that Perry’s effort to win conservative support “will eventually backfire.”
“I think it has already begun,” Piazza said. “The world is changing. Texas is changing — slowly, yes, but it is happening. I think after 9-11, the pendulum swung far to the right. But it is swinging back now, and we want to help push it along.