Senator Orrin Hatch, conservative Republican from Utah, urges us to accept and to value those who had once been the objects of unmerciful derision, who are still targets:
No one should ever feel less because of their gender identity or sexual orientation. LGBT youth deserve our unwavering love and support. They deserve our validation and the assurance that not only is there a place for them in this society, but that it is far better off because of them.
These young people need us—and we desperately need them. We need their light to illuminate the richness and diversity of God’s creations. We need the grace, beauty and brilliance they bring to the world.
Sofie Werthan of Slate Magazine suggests that Senator Hatch made a lovely little speech but that it is far too little and comes decades too late.
Indeed, his long-standing hostility to equality may have contributed to the very marginalization of LGBTQ people that he now decries. It’s nice to see a Republican senator break from his party on this issue. But his Wednesday statement, however lovely it might’ve been, cannot make up for decades of anti-LGBTQ advocacy.
She details the Senator’s hostility back to the beginning of his 40 plus years in the Senate, with this quote in 1977:
I wouldn’t want to see homosexuals teaching school any more than I’d want to see members of the American Nazi Party teaching school.
Others are a little less harsh.
Continue reading “Confessions of a Bigot”