This shit is pretty bizarre, even for a Republican.
Rep. Steve King (R-IA), the longtime foe of gay rights who once claimed that marriage equality in his own state would make Iowa a “gay marriage Mecca” (horrors!), is at it again. Yes, Steve King – the same guy who once claimed that same-sex marriage is a stepping stone to socialism. It takes an awful lot for King to one-up himself in the absurdity department. But by God, he did it. During a conversation with Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council (you know it’s gonna be good now, huh?) about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that is currently being debated in Congress, the Congressman unveiled his plan to prevent workplace discrimination against gays and lesbians: Don’t act gay, goddamnit!
King, being the expert on sexuality that he is (evident in his earlier statement that homosexuality is nothing more than “a self-identified behavior”), believes that one’s sexual orientation should never be obvious. To illustrate, he tells a rather weird story about how Iowa State Senator Jerry Behn (R) took on LGBT activists:
KING: And he said, “let me ask you a question.” “Am I heterosexual or am I homosexual?” And they looked him up and down, actually they should have known, but they said, “We don’t know.” And he said, “Exactly, my point. If you don’t project it, if you don’t advertise it, how would anyone know to discriminate against you?” And that’s at the basis of this. So if people wear their sexuality on their sleeve and then they want to bring litigation against someone that they would point their finger at and say, “You discriminate.”
Isn’t that clever? In case the text didn’t do this pearl of wisdom justice, here’s the audio:
So there you have it. Steve King’s workplace non-discrimination proposal in a nutshell. Funny, it sounds a lot like Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell – and that’s working out quite well, isn’t it?
If the first story didn’t illuminate King’s position on ENDA well enough, he goes on to lay out a bizarre scenario in which cross-dressing thugs from the Gaystapo set up sting operations to harass religious organizations:
I can imagine someone coming in and interviewing one day in man's clothes and come back the next day and apply for a job in woman's clothes and then setting up a lawsuit in a sting operation that could harass especially our religious organizations, but anybody, anybody that's operating in a responsible fashion.
Indeed, he goes on to refer to ENDA as “entrapment that is legalized.” “We don’t need more federal mandates,” says King. “And we surely don't need a political statement, and that's what this is, too. This is the homosexual activist lobby taking it out on the rest of society. They are demanding affirmation for their lifestyle. That's at the bottom of this.”
As I’m sure you’ve picked up by now, King is opposed to ENDA, which he calls a “violation of the individual rights of employers to, at their own discretion, decide and hire who they want to hire, who they want to fire.” Of course, all ENDA does is bar employers from using sexual orientation or gender identity as the basis for hiring, promotion, compensation, and firing. King, by the way, has both a sexual orientation and a gender identity – don’t tell him, he might freak out – so the law would even protect him! Literally everybody wins with ENDA (well, everybody except those who would discriminate), whether you’re gay or straight. In an ideal world, this bill would be as noncontroversial as it gets. But Steve King doesn’t want that kind of a world – the kind where everybody is treated equally and people can’t be fired on the basis of whom they love. His idea of a free country is a country in which people are free to make the lives of LGBT people as miserable as possible.
That is, if they act gay.