Senator Gary George (R-Stupid) opens his big mouth

Kari Chisholm FacebookTwitterWebsite

I'm a little late to this one, but I've noticed blogs around the country picking up on the unbelievable comments made by State Senator Gary George (R-McMinnville) in an interview with Just Out magazine.

First, locally, Lelo in Nopo:

This is not a proud Oregon moment. This won't make the lists of "Best places to live" or "Best states to travel to." Oh no. This will help land us in the most bigoted state category.

At the Democratic Underground, they note that it's "Another Day, Another Republican Twit Telling Gays To Shut Up". Another blog calls him "the definitive candidate for Today in Stupid". Yet another says he's "the hypocrite of the week".

What were his comments, exactly? Here we go...

Garygeorge_2State senator Gary George: I’ve had people approach me for special rights for homosexuals and I don’t believe anyone should have special rights. I’ve had members of the gay community come in and ask and I’ll say I’m sorry I don’t give anyone special rights. ...

Just Out: What if an employee is fired because of his/her sexual orientation or gender identity? Isn’t the Oregon Equality Act in place to guard against such discrimination?

George: As an employer, I don’t wanna hear about it. This workplace is for work purposes. My advice to the gay community is SHUT UP, just don’t talk about it. If you walk around talking about what you do in the bedroom, you should be on the pervert channel.

As the blog Gaytheist Agenda puts it:

Senator George, when your straight employees come in and talk about the dates they had over the weekend do you tell them to SHUT UP? When they talk about their upcoming weddings do you tell them to SHUT UP? When they start passing around pictures of their children, which are nothing more than evidence of their unprotected sex, do you scream “SHUT UP–I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT WHAT YOU DO IN THE BEDROOM!!!” ? If not, then you are nothing but a homophobe, Senator George.

But wait, there's more....

George: If I discriminate in favor of you it automatically requires I discriminate against someone else. I was hoping with your generation we can stop calling each other ‘asian-american,’ or ‘latino-american…’ There’s one talk show host, and he has really severe hard feelings against affirmative action. Because of the race that he is, I believe he’s Italian, he was discriminated against because he’s not black. I have dear dear friends in the legislature who are black but sometimes I really get tired of hearing about their color.

And the analysis from Gaytheist Agenda:

So Senator George outs himself as a racist in addition to a homophobe. He seems to have so many issues withe the labels other people have and apply to themselves, and considers the rights they get/want to be “special”. I wonder why he doesn’t think the same of his labels and rights. I’ll assume he’s Christian, for example, and he’s certainly not going to be giving up his right to protection from discrimination based on his religion. Nor would he give up his right to protection from race based hate crimes (yes, white people are protected too). Nor would he dream of forfeiting his right to prosecute if he were the victim of gender related bias. Yet he wishes to keep others from having the same (read: equal) rights he has.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

There's more at Daily Dose of Queer, Santa Ignora, Southern Voice,

If you can stomach it, read the rest at Just Out.

And then, give him a call at 503-986-1712 or an email at [email protected].

  • Marshall Collins (unverified)
    (Show?)

    I think people should call and encourage him to be more vocal. I mean seriously he really helps bring home the idea that the people that tried (and failed) to get these laws referred and are now leading this initiative campaign really are a very small group that is WAAAAAAY our there in 'right-field'. Oregonians aren't stupid enough or ignorant enough or hateful enough to believe what they have to say and the earlier people like George and the rest of them show their cards the better.

  • James X. (unverified)
    (Show?)

    He certainly seems more useful as a target for our side — in the Lon Mabon, Karen Minnis tradition — than as an advocate for their side.

  • Chuck Butcher (unverified)
    (Show?)

    I have to wonder which part of equal rights and responsibilities it is George has a problem with as "special?" A look into his voting record might show who he really thinks is "special."

  • Tom Civiletti (unverified)
    (Show?)

    We are all assholes about something. Senator George is a huge asshole about many important things. I have to wonder whether he is just full of fear and loathing for people not like him, or if he cannot see just how fallacious his reasoning is? If the latter, he is not only a homophobe, he is not capable of the minimal level of reasoning necessary to be a leader. This makes me wonder if his constituents share his prejudices and/or his mental weakness. Or perhaps he was a high school star athlete and that is enough to get one elected in McMinnville.

  • Tom Civiletti (unverified)
    (Show?)

    I should have noted another possibility, given the continual revelations about Republican politicians: that Senator George is full of fear and loathing for people who are JUST LIKE HIM. Wide stance redux, perchance?

  • Steve Bucknum (unverified)
    (Show?)

    This sort of stuff is such old news. The question is why do the people over in Yamhill Co./ Mac as they tend to call it, vote for this guy. His "special" beliefs are as old and dead as they come. We have voted on this stuff, and the unspecial rights that are now law got the majority of Oregonians to vote for them. -- Or did he forget?

    I suppose he supports Hoover for President, as Hoover lived there in the McMinnville area.

    Poor guy, needs a history education injection. Should he be tested for Alzheimers?

  • (Show?)

    He's just another guy who thinks being gay is about what people do and not about who people are.

    If he weren't in a position of influence I would simply feel contempt and sorrow for him. But because of his role in society, it's much worse.

  • Mike Schryver (unverified)
    (Show?)

    I'm betting on "Wide stance redux". But then, that's always where the safe money is.

  • Lelo (unverified)
    (Show?)

    Thanks, Kari, for keeping this idiot and his words up on the radar. I continue to be astounded by the things that flew out of his mouth, yet flummoxed by why I haven't read or seen or heard anything in mainstream media about it. Nada. Nothing. The things he said are really atrocious, though I do personally love the reference to the sex pervert tv channel. I agree with Marshall's comments that he's doing more good for us than he knows: I have to at least give props to George for saying what he's thinking. The people who are more dangerous are those who pat us on the head, smile, hold up the safety of their children and the sanctity of their church, and ask for us to just be separate and not equal. George just comes out right with his hate and anger and stupidity.

  • Katy (unverified)
    (Show?)

    This is really embarrassing to admit but I saw this on perezhilton.com last week. Ugh.

  • SDG (unverified)
    (Show?)

    Sen. Gay George is quite the intellectual.

  • (Show?)

    Wow, perezhilton.com? Senator George has really made the bigtime... Here's the link.

    For those of you unfamiliar with celebrity gossip blogs, perezhilton is one of the highest-trafficked blogs on the internet. Something like 1.5 million readers a day. It's the #140 biggest site of all websites on the net.

  • Tom Soppe (unverified)
    (Show?)

    I agree with the blog that says he shouldn't show pictures of his children. Larry "whore for developers" George is nothing to be proud of.

    Gary George is all about double standards- marriage and openness for him, but we gays can't talk about or lives or have marriage rights. Who is asking for special rights again?

  • (Show?)

    Kevin Nortness, a City Councilor, and former Planning Commissioner and Budget Committee Chair, from Willamina, Oregon, has filed as a Democratic candidate for Gary George's seat in Senate District 12. His candidacy filing on ORESTAR lists this contact information for him:

    Kevin Nortness [email protected] (503)857-6231

    He lists a website address, but it does not appear to be up and running yet:

    http://www.nortnessforsenate.com

  • Anonymous (unverified)
    (Show?)

    So, when a black guy, Senator Obama, expresses these ideas - that white resentment of affirmative action, for example - he's a progressive and a racial healer. Yet when a white guy, Senator George, expresses these same ideas, he's a "racist".

    Sounds like Kari Chisolm judges people by the color of their skin rather than the content of their character.

    There's a name for that, Kari. It's called racism. You've got a bad case of it.

  • (Show?)

    Yeah, right.

    There's absolutely nothing "healing" in Senator George's comments.

    Go away, Larry, or whoever you are.

  • Rulial (unverified)
    (Show?)

    This "special rights" rhetoric pisses me off. Non-discrimination laws protect everyone--it will be just as illegal to be fired for being heterosexual than to be fired for having any other sexual orientation. Likewise, there is no right conferred to same-sex couples in the new domestic partnership laws not already enjoyed by opposite-sex couples.

    Also, people will stop calling themselves "Asian Americans" or "Latino Americans" when having those characteristics doesn't play a role in how those people are treated by society.

    I think certain types of affirmative action (quite different things fall under that phrase) are regrettable for many reasons, including the fact that they've created a whole group of middle-class white people who think it's the sole reason their kids didn't get into their first-choice college and that things must be all hunky-dory for black people now.

  • Zapata (unverified)
    (Show?)

    I prefer the OBAMA approach to a person like Senator Gary George. It is not necessary to engage in hate speak. I wonder where Senator George stacks up in the traitors list at: www.congressionaltraitors.com

connect with blueoregon