Oklahoma Race For Governor Reveals Anti-Gay Conspiracy

As Gossip Boy, Good As You, and other blogs are starting to report, Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett wants to be Oklahoma's next governor and it has been revealed that he thinks the way to the governor's office is via a concerted anti-gay jihad, including packing the Metropolitan Library Commission of Oklahoma County with anti-gay extremists. Not surprising, another figure in the conspiracy is nutcase Sally Kern's husband, Steve Kern, pastor of the Olivet Baptist Church. We have always known that anti-gay rhetoric is cynically used by far right candidates to court religious extremist voters, but it is rare that we find such revealing evidence of a plan to dupe and manipulate the fundie voters. Here are highlights from Gossip Boy:

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A special investigation has revealed Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett has his eyes on the state executive office and is working closely with religious extremists to fill the Metropolitan Library Commission of Oklahoma County with anti-gay members in order to court the fundamentalist vote.

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Cornett and Steve Kern, pastor of the Olivet Baptist Church and husband to State Rep. Sally Kern, are being accused of teaming up to rid the library system of all gay and lesbian materials, as well as those their church-based philosophies find objectionable. A source close to Cornett alleges, “The Mayor is looking to become Oklahoma’s next governor in 2010. With the conservatism rampant in the state, he feels now is the time to fully side with fundamentalist Christians in order to get their backing. He believes one way of doing that is going on an all-out assault on gay citizens. Even if things are done that would later be overturned in court at a great cost to the City, he will walk away a hero to certain people.”

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The insider also stated, “The Mayor is aware that Ernest Istook is returning to Oklahoma to join the governor’s race again. Istook has the conservative base locked in, so the Mayor must shake loose Istook supporters if he is to get past the Republican primary. Gays are easy targets for him. He tried to use them in 2006, but it backfired. This round he wants to make it clear he is without a doubt against gay rights.”

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Gossip Boy received other tips regarding Cornett’s ambitions and the scheme to appease Christian extremists, who sided against him in the 2006 race for 5th District Congress, and began a covert ploy to expose it. A reporter posed as a citizen working with the Mayor to push gay and lesbian literature out of city libraries and contacted Steve Kern.

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Here's what Steve Kern had to say about gays: We have to get rid of that [information on gays in libraries] and start curing those sinners. It’s past time that this nation stopped placating sin and start putting them in education programs. Courts can force drug offenders into treatment centers and violent people into anger management. There’s no reason our courts can’t do that with homos.

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The Gossip Boy post deserves a full read because it also looks in detail at the hold the Christianists already have over the Metropolitan Library Commission. The picture that emerges is one that makes it clear that the Oklahoma City area is NOT one in which any remotely progressive business should consider as a relocation option. I shudder to think what it must be like to be gay and live in such a homophobic area of the country.