Not One, Not Two, But Three Pro-Bigotry Bills in Oklahoma

Members of the Republican Party seem hellbent on ensure their party's continued practical irrelevance. With the Supreme Court poised to make a ruling on whether or not same-sex marriages are constitutional the Republican Party has been throwing the mother of all hissy fits. In Oklahoma one senator has introduced not one, not two, but three pieces of legislation to discriminate against homosexuals, bisexuals, and transgender individuals. The first bill is your typical prohibition against same-sex marriage bill:

House Bill 1599 is being called the "Preservation and Sovereignty of Marriage Act." It says taxpayer dollars or governmental salaries cannot be used for "the licensing or support of same-sex marriage."

I love the title because it shows Sally Kern, the wretch that introduced these bills, has no idea what the word sovereign means. Sovereign means supreme authority or ultimate power. To say marriage is sovereign is to say it has ultimate power in regards to unions. If marriage was sovereign then the state couldn't have any say in the matter of unions. The second bill would ensure parents could continue to subject their kids to "pray away the gay camps":

House Bill 1598 “Freedom to Obtain Conversion Therapy Act” says parents would be allowed to seek counseling and therapy to help change a child's sexual orientation, without interference from the state.

Setting aside the fact that so-called conversion therapy has been proven to not work we also have the issue that this bill would further erode minor's already non-existent agency. As I discussed previously minors have no agency and are therefore almost entirely at the whim of their parents. This leads to major problems when the parents don't have the well-being of the child in mind. Because of how laws in this country works the only real option for a minor to resist bad parenting is to beg the state to intervene. If this bill passed into law then even that option would be stripped from them. The final bill would allows businesses to discriminate against homosexuals, bisexuals, and transgender individuals:

The other, House Bill 1597, would allow any business in Oklahoma to refuse service to any gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender person or group.

Voluntary association states that everybody is free to associate or not associate with whoever they want for whatever reason. This bill wouldn't allow that though because under it homosexual, bisexual, and transgender business owners would not be free to discriminate against bigoted assholes. If one group of individuals can refuse service then other groups must be free to refuse that group service as well. Any bill that only grants special privileges to one group establishes more hierarchy and the last thing we need in this forsaken country is more hierarchy.

It's fascinating to see the Republican Party continue to hold its position on social issues. As their generation dies out and later generations become the majority social conservatism will become even more poisonous to the Republicans.