After non-binary teen's death, lawmaker says Christians don't "want that filth" in Oklahoma [View all]

After non-binary teen's death, lawmaker says Christians don't "want that filth" in Oklahoma
State Sen. Tom Woods said he'd fight "to keep that filth out of the state of Oklahoma because we are a Christian state"
FEB 24, 2024

Earlier this month, Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old non-binary student from Oklahoma, died one day after being assaulted in an Owasso High School bathroom. (The details are still unclear.)

The issue came up on Friday night during a “Legislative Update” featuring several lawmakers and sponsored by the Tahlequah Area Chamber of Commerce. An audience member, Cathy Cott, asked the four Republican members of the legislature why they had “such an obsession with the LGBTQ citizens of Oklahoma and what people do in their personal lives and how they raise their children.”

As reported by the Tahlequah Daily Press, State Sen. Tom Woods offered the worst possible response:

Woods said that while his “heart goes out” regarding the teen’s death, he represents a constituency.

“We are a Republican state—supermajority—in the House and Senate. I represent a constituency that doesn’t want that filth in Oklahoma,” Woods said.

…

“We are a religious state and we are going to fight it to keep that filth out of the state of Oklahoma because we are a Christian state—we are a moral state,” Woods said. “We want to lower taxes and let people be able to live and work and go to the faith they choose. We are a Republican state and I’m going to vote my district, and I’m going to vote my values, and we don’t want that in the state of Oklahoma.”

To put that more bluntly, a Christian lawmaker who fantasizes about living in a theocracy claimed that his religious constituents don’t like it when LGBTQ people are alive.

What exactly was the “filth” he was so concerned about? He didn’t elaborate. It was clear, however, that he was referring to an openly non-binary teen. For people like him, all lives mater, including the unborn… unless they grow up to be LGBTQ. In which case their murders are tolerable in the name of Jesus.
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