“Openly gay Missouri Republican” may sound like a mythical creature akin to a yeti, a hodag, or a bicurious chupacabra (not the name of an anarcho punk band or sativa-forward weed strain, though it could be), but he’s real. And he’s making mainstream (i.e., rabidly puritanical) Republicans lose their marbles.
Even though Obergefell v. Hodges guaranteed the right to marriage in our country, many Republicans still choose to die on hills in a war that essentially ended eight years ago. Because while abstruse constitutional arguments may go over the heads of most MAGA voters, “gays have cooties” is the kind of nonsense they can comfortably fit in their brain pans, along with the ideal Pepsi varietal to pair with that fried thing in their KFC bucket that looks conspicuously unlike chicken.
The Kansas City Star:
For the second time in a month, an openly gay Missouri Republican lawmaker will face a censure vote from the Jackson County Republican Party for trying to redefine marriage in the state constitution as between “two individuals” instead of “a man and a woman.”
The planned censure, scheduled for Monday evening, targets state Rep. Chris Sander, a Lone Jack Republican. The resolution accuses Sander of deviating from the party’s platform for trying to recognize same-sex marriage through a constitutional amendment.
Yeah, I reckon there are a lot of lone-jack Republicans out there since they finally succeeded in overturning Roe v. Wade, but apparently Lone Jack is a town in Missouri, too. I Googled it. Its population is: every Missouri Republican with a wife, girlfriend, or partner who wants to exercise control over her own uterus.
That said, Republicans appear to be pushing ahead with their extremist, deeply unpopular puritan agenda.
While federal law enshrines same-sex marriage, the Missouri Constitution still defines marriage as between a man and a woman under an amendment approved by voters in 2004. Sander’s proposed constitutional amendment, filed this year, would bring Missouri in line with the federal “Respect for Marriage Act” signed by President Joe Biden late last year.
You’d think the Missouri GOP would move to censure those Republicans who still support an open coup plotter, or who continue to fetishize guns amid a gun violence epidemic, but no. Such harsh sanctions are reserved for those who seek to create a better world in which everyone, regardless of who they love, can live with dignity.
For his part, Sander was keen to state the obvious. “The Jackson County GOP censure and the Missouri Republican Party platform represent a small minority of leadership who conflict with our US Constitution,” Sander told The Star via text. “The committee members do not like gay Republicans.”
Gee, ya think? Did you come to that conclusion just because the committee members say stuff like this?
“The mere fact that you want to change the wording from ‘one man and one woman’ to ‘two individuals’ is an abomination to mankind and to God himself,” wrote Teresa McBride, the county GOP vice chair, in an email to Sander. “The term ‘two individuals’ could be defined and interpreted in many different ways and open the door for pedophiles to legally rape and physically harm children. That is disgusting and promoting an agenda as such, is an abomination to our country.”
Really? That’s her takeaway? It seems that Republicans see pedophiles everywhere these days, except when they look within their own party. “Two individuals” could also refer to Matt Gaetz and the current occupant of his windowless white van, so it’s a goddamn stretch to bring pedophilia into this. But why bother to come up with a coherent argument when all you have to do is say “woke” or “pedophile” to unnerve the ninnies for yet another news cycle?
Last month, party committee member Dave Thomas filed a similar censure motion against Sander, but Jackson County GOP Chair Mark Anthony Jones ruled it out of order.
When contacted by Daily Kos via email, Jones, who is openly gay, stated that the censure resolution was a “nonstory” and that, despite some party members’ determination to press the issue, no formal vote occurred on Monday.
“There wasn't a vote scheduled and it wasn't even on the agenda, as I had ruled it out of order in the previous meeting,” wrote Jones. “I did a compromise with the faction of folks who were adamant in pursuing and gave them an opportunity to sign the petition individually. So there was no vote and I can't even tell you how many people signed or what they will do with their signed petitions.” When contacted on Monday for comment on The Star’s story, which noted some members’ dogged determination to pursue censure, Jones reportedly said, “Quit calling.”
Meanwhile, the current resolution reads, in part, “The Missouri Republican Platform states that ‘the Missouri Republican Party SUPPORTS Marriage as being between one man and one woman.’”
Yeah, well, the Constitution doesn’t, and you live in this country, so feel free to flail some more. And squeal. Come to think of it, that’s pretty much all Republicans are good for anymore.
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