As midterms approach the country and the scale of Lady Liberty continues to sway Left or Right, many concerning factors continue to weigh-in. Most recently, the U.S. Supreme Court added Brett Kavanaugh to the bench.
Like most things in politics, the immediate feelings are more-so shock factors mixed with emotions of defeat and impending fear. The true detriment of these sort of results is gradual and always closer than they seem. With the notion of looking ahead in mind, a new fear slowly creeps upon the LGTBQ community as governing forces and future influences collude.
Current Second Lady, and potential future First Lady, Karen Pence recently threw her support to Mark Harris. Harris is an Evangelical pastor and Republican running for the U.S. House of Representatives 9th congressional district seat who aims to criminalize gay sex.
With years of anti-LGTBQ rhetoric in his religious rants, Harris now plans to synchronize his religious stance with those of his political point of views in his bid for public office.
In 2015 Harris viewed the position of the current U.S. climate as descending into “moral decay.” To further divide the Christian demographic, Harris romanticizes on an era in which “homosexuality was once criminalized, so now we see the criminalization of Christianity.” This overly obvious divisive rhetoric aims to pit Conservative Christians against the LGTBQ community.
Seemingly unbeknownst to Harris is that the LGTBQ community has Christian members as well.
Further deluded thinking has Harris openly admitting that he believes that “homosexuality” is a life choice as opposed to a genetic predisposition, like heterosexuality.
With the backing of traditional Republican Party members, like that of Karen Pence and her husband and Vice President Mike Pence who have stated, “Mike and I support Mark Harris for Congress…,” influential and powerful political figurehead-backers vocalize their support for Harris while simultaneously enforcing another discriminatory and, ironically, sexist belief Harris has. He believes that wives should be submissive to their husbands.
As Nov. 6 nears, it is important to remember the detrimental effects that not voting could have on people, culture and the country. Harris’ run against Democratic candidate Dan McCready appears to be a very close race. Don’t let Harris win this contest.
Cited:
Ariel Sobel —advocate.com/election/2018/10/12/mike-pences-wife-campaigns-candidate-who-wants-gay-people-jail
Eric Hananoki— mediamatters.org/blog/2018/08/10/right-wing-media-pastor-and-gop-backed-congressional-nominee-favorably-remembered-when-homosexuality/220952