Lankford, Kern; living in the past
Part II by Robin Dorner
Editor in Chief
Moments after our part I story broke, we received an unprecedented email from Oklahoma Representative Sally Kern responding via email to our questions. We are eager to share her words with you, our valued readers. At the end of our interview, Kern refers to statistics on a vote on Oklahoma State Question (SQ) 711 from 2004.
Our questions were directed to Kern in reference to the January 8th town hall meeting and the questions she asked of Congressman James Lankford. The conference Kern is referring to is the LGBTQ2I Summit presented by the Oklahoma Department of Mental health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMHSAS) on 12-12-12 held in Norman, OK.
Gayly: You spoke about a conference regarding gay and lesbian substance abuse and indicated it was two percent about substance abuse and 98 percent about pushing the gay agenda. Is this your own estimate or do you have hard data on this?
Representative Sally Kern: I did not attend the conference held on Dec 7, I think it was. However, I did have two people attend for me. One of them made the statement that the conference was 2% dealing with substance abuse/mental health issues and 98% promoting the gay agenda. The only question I asked Cong Lankford was if he was aware of the federal agency that funds conferences such as the one held in Norman that promoted LGBTQ issues.
Gayly: Also, are you suggesting that members of the LGBT community should not be given access to substance abuse treatment? Do you believe that the State of Oklahoma should not be educating members of the LGBT population about substance abuse the same way they educate the general population?
Kern: Anyone who has substance abuse/mental health issues should get all the help they need. I have no problem with the state of Oklahoma or any other entity educating members of the LGBT community about substance abuse as long as it is done in a factual and unbiased matter.
“We all know that Obama has a different set of values than we have,” was a comment made by Kern at the begginning of the 'Think Progress' video, but missed the transcript. It was Kern’s very first remark, so we asked Kern this question:
Gayly: Were you aware the SAMHSA LGBT providers guide in question was drafted under the Clinton administration, not under President Obama? It was in print during both the Clinton and the Bush administration and has continued through the Obama administration.
Kern did not answer that question.
Gayly: When you say the people of Oklahoma "are totally against this," how did you determine this? Do you have any poll results that you might share with us?
Kern: It is purely my opinion that the people of Oklahoma are against the homosexual agenda but the marriage amendment that passed in 2004 with 74% approval should validate this.
The Gayly researched a few other things about 2004: gasoline was $1.72 per gallon – it’s about $3.20 per gallon today in our region. In 2004 the price of a movie ticket was about six bucks - $9.50 today at most theatres in the south-central region.
Might be time to re-poll that 74 percent to see if they still “approve.”
Editor's note: Our information about the production, drafting and printing of the SAMHSA provider booklet was obtained in an interview with Philip McCabe, President of NALGAP , a principal writer of the SAMHSA provider manual. We will have information from his interview in part of our ongoing coverage.
(NALGAP -The National Association of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Addiction Professionals and Their Allies).
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Transcribed here is the LGBT portion of the town hall meeting held Jan 8th, 2013 in Oklahoma City:
“Constituent” Sally Kern: I want to know if you’re aware of the Substances and Mental Health Services Administration that has a book called theProvider’s Introduction to Substance Abuse Treatment for Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender Individuals.
Congressman Lankford: Wow.
Kern: They are going around the nation, they just did this here in Oklahoma, December 7th, and having conferences that are educational. [...] About 2 percent of the conference is dealing with substance abuse and mental health issues. 98 percent is doing indoctrination or pushing the homosexual agenda. This is what our president is doing. He has a federal agency doing it. Our state, the Oklahoma Mental Health and Substance Abuse Department, put this conference on and is indoctrinating our citizens who are totally against this. Is there any way you can look into this?
Lankford: Oh yes, sure. You know I can absolutely get a chance to take a look at it. We’ll start the process, try to see what we can do to identify it. Some of those things you have the power of humiliation where you can raise it and put in sunlight. They love functioning in the dark. You put some sunlight on it, that does help. But, we’ll see. I’m glad to take that on.
Here is the link to the original “Think Progress” report:
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2013/01/23/1484101/james-lankford-humiliate-lgbt/