A Pennsylvania GOP Senate candidate who is surging in the polls has a long history of anti-gay and anti-Muslim statements.
Kathy Barnette is an Army Reserves veteran and conservative political commentator, who, according to recent polls, has moved into a three-way statistical tie with frontrunners Mehmet Oz, a former TV star endorsed by former President Donald Trump, and hedge fund manager David McCormick.
Barnette has used her public position to attack — among other groups — members of the LGBTQ community, often casting them as a threat to traditional family structures, society at large, and children. According to CNN, in comments on her radio show, Barnette has frequently condemned being gay or transgender, claiming that accepting homosexuality or gender-nonconformity could lead to a host of various ills.
“Two men sleeping together, two men holding hands, two men caressing, that is not normal,” Barnette said during a 2015 episode of her radio show, “Truth Exchange,” a radio show with a Biblical worldview on social and political issues.
In that broadcast, Barnette argued that the legalization of same-sex marriage would infringe on individuals’ freedom of conscience and religious liberty, and even suggested that the pro-equality ruling from the Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges would ultimately lead to societal acceptance of incest and pedophilia.
“If love is the litmus test, who are we to say, well, your love is legitimate love, same-sex couples, but your love, father and daughter, is not legitimate. Or your love, one man and three women, is not legitimate, or one older man and a 12-year-old child,” she said. “If love is the litmus test, it becomes a very slippery slope. And that is where we, we find ourselves today.”
The episode has since been deleted from Barnette’s SoundCloud page after CNN’s KFile asked the Barnette campaign to comment on her past statements.
During another show from the same time — which has also since been removed from her SoundCloud page — Barnette hosted Flo Hubbs and Greg Quinlan, two “ex-gays” who, according to a promotional plug, were asked on to “share the WHOLE TRUTH about the homosexual lifestyle, their tumultuous childhood beginnings & God’s Redemptive story for the both of them.” Quinlan was the former president of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX), and Hubbs was also involved with the organization, serving as a ministry chaplain. Both have claimed they were abused as children, which led or contributed to their identifying as “gay” for a period of time.
To accompany her radio show, Barnette also had a blog where she’d post about current issues. In a 2010 post, Barnette declared that the “homosexual AGENDA” seeks “domination,” stating that promoting homosexuality as a legitimate lifestyle or denying its sinful nature makes it impossible for people who view the Bible as the infallible word of God to co-exist with those who promote LGBTQ rights, even if they can coexist with individuals who identify as LGBTQ.
“Make no mistake about it, homosexuality is a targeted group in the Bible, right along with cheats, drunkards, liars, foul-mouths, extortionists, robbers, and any other habitual sin (1 Corinthians 6:10),” Barnette wrote. “A major problem arises when one of these groups collectively starts engaging in political paybacks, intimidating the public into silence, and using the Law to legitimatize their way of life.”
In a 2013 post, she again reiterated her belief that America can’t coexist with the “homosexual agenda,” claiming that many Americans who hold socially conservative views do not understand that their religious and personal freedoms are threatened by the promotion of same-sex marriage and acceptance of LGBTQ identity, and that “the aggressive homosexual agenda is coming soon to a kitchen table near you.”
In a 2015 post, Barnette lamented the promotion of transgender identity, citing reality TV shows featuring Jazz Jennings and former Olympian and reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner as examples of American culture “being hijacked from within,” warning of a “take-over” by the “homosexual agenda.”
Barnette’s recent surge in the polls has sent some more establishment Republicans — and even some Trump-backers — into a panic, with GOP-affiliated groups who believe she is “unelectable” in a general election lodging attacks, using leaks opposition research to paint her as out-of-step with the majority of Pennsylvanians’ views.
With U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey retiring, Pennsylvania is one of the few states where Democrats may actually have a shot of picking up GOP-held seats, despite the expected anti-Democratic tide of this year’s midterm elections. That’s why Oz has recently claimed that Barnette — who heretofore had only gained traction among the far-right activist base of the party — has not been properly vetted, and has pointed to her anti-Muslim and anti-gay statements as evidence of her out-of-the-mainstream views.
“We know so little,” Oz said of Barnette, according to The Associated Press. “Every time she answers a question, she raises more questions. But I think it’s disqualifying to make Islamophobic and homophobic comments, not just for the general election, but the Republican primary as well.”
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman seeking to block New York Attorney General Letitia James from taking legal action against the county and Blakeman for an executive order he issued barring transgender women from playing sports at county-owned facilities.
U.S. District Court Judge Nusrat Choudhury, of the Eastern District of New York, tossed out Blakeman's lawsuit, which preemptively sought to prevent James from suing him or Nassau County over the transgender exclusion policy.
Under the ban, issued by Blakeman in February, county officials will deny permits for all athletic facilities -- including pools, fields, courts, or auditoriums -- to any female-designated sports teams that cannot provide evidence, including original birth certificates, proving that every single one of their members was assigned female at birth.
Thailand is one step closer to legalizing marriage equality after lawmakers in the country's lower house of parliament voted to approve a bill permitting same-sex couples to wed.
The bill overwhelmingly passed by a vote of 400-10 in its final reading on March 27.
It now heads to the country's Senate, where it must be approved, before finally having Thailand's king sign off on the policy change. The law could be enacted as soon as 120 days after the king's assent, reports Al Jazeera.
If the bill surmounts those obstacles, Thailand would become the third Asian country to legalize same-sex nuptials, following Taiwan and Nepal.
Actor and author Maulik Pancholy posted a video to Instagram thanking followers for their expressions of support after a Pennsylvania school board canceled a speech he was scheduled to give as part of an anti-bullying school assembly.
On April 15, the Cumberland Valley School District school board voted unanimously to cancel the assembly, scheduled for May 22 at Mountain View Middle School in Mechanicsburg, a town of 9,000 people just 10 miles west of Harrisburg.
Members of the conservative board claimed that it was Pancholy's "lifestyle" that led them to cancel the assembly.
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