Our legislature is full of macho men doing macho things.
Consider HB 867, which would force people to use the bathroom based on their sex at birth.
Among its sponsors are:
- Bill Wesley, a former marine who self-identifies as a pastor.
- Ryan Dotson, a former Army soldier and also a pastor.
- Chris Fugate, KSP trooper and yes, a pastor.
Here are the three of them showing they’re real men by pumping iron together.
Sponsors also include TJ Roberts and Josh Calloway, manly men who want you to know that they love guns and your right to use them. They’ve even sponsored a bill that will stop enforcement of red flag laws. You know, the ones that are meant to keep a mentally unstable person from owning a firearm that could be used to harm someone else.
Here’s TJ arguing against a ban on gun conversion devices.
Sorry ladies, both these guys are taken.
What these and other manly men want you to know is that they are 100% against the LGBTQ community.
Here’s Bill Wesley ready to take down an obvious threat to everyone in the Capitol, a person wearing a dress who has committed the crime of needing to pee.
Looking at that image, I’m struck by a thought.
Who has more courage here: the neckless guy with the flat top harassing this individual, or the individual simply wanting to use the restroom in an environment where people are gung ho on letting them know they aren’t wanted?
Who has more courage: the legislators who continually seek to harm the transgender community, or the teens, parents, and community members who fight for their rights?
Who has more courage: the legislators who continuously seek to undermine LGBTQ+ rights, or the teens and adults of Kentucky who face a community full of hate but have the courage to be who they are?
I think of my beloved niece, who struggled with her identity for years in her rural community before coming out. She had the courage to not only survive, but thrive and work to help others with their own problems.
I think of my classmates who were deep in the closet for years in a school system and culture that was full of hateful slurs and demonization of the LGBTQ+ community. They had more courage than I ever had back then. I was a coward for piling on instead of speaking up.
I think of Fischer Wells, a Kentucky middle schooler who was banned from playing on a team she helped start because she was transgender. She was fighting for the right simply to play a sport for the love of the game. not to win first place. She had far more courage than those that sought to deny her that right, including fifth place finisher Riley Gaines.
I think of friends like writer and former Kentucky teacher of the year Willie Carver Jr, who had the courage to not only be an openly gay teacher in rural Montgomery County, but also to support other LGBTQ+ students. The courage he shows on a daily basis is far greater than the people in our communities who antagonize and shout “groomer” at him and others who want to make sure LGBTQ+ youth feel supported and affirmed.
It takes courage to be who you are. It takes courage to stand out as different from communities who don’t like to acknowledge or affirm differences. It takes courage to make your voice heard against a community, church, and even family who seeks to demonize you because of who you are.
It takes courage to reject the toxic elements of your culture, community, faith, civic organizations, and profession and embrace the humanity of others.
Sadly, this courage is sadly lacking among the majority in Frankfort.
It takes no courage to create HB 867.
It takes no courage to hassle someone who needs to use the restroom because you worry they may not be the same sex as the image on the door.
It takes no courage to make the world a harder place to live for people that you don’t like or who frighten you.
It doesn’t matter how many flags you wrap yourself in, Bibles you clutch, challenge coins you collect, guns you stockpile, or pounds you can bench press. If you live your life seeking to hurt others because they are different than you, you’re nothing but a coward.
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Written by Rob Matheu. Cross-posted from his website, Blunder Over Louisville. You can subscribe to him there.
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