Sen. Kintner: ‘Men in dresses’ should not be protected class

by Sara Ritsch
Staff Writer

Republican Nebraska state Sen. Bill Kintner said on a recent radio interview that he would not support discrimination protections for LGBT individuals. The recent bill passed into law in North Carolina spurred the discussion. Kintner said on NewsTalk 1290 that “men in dresses” should not be a protected class.

Host Matt Tompkins challenged his perspective, saying transgender people – “like being black or being a woman or being old” – do not choose to be transgender, nor do LGBQ people choose their orientations.

In response, Kintner misnamed a well-known trans woman, Caitlyn Jenner, degrading her and other trans women. He said, “Let’s think about Bruce Jenner. Because he wears a dress, does that make him a woman? Of course it doesn’t.”

Tompkins argued that “the First Amendment doesn’t grant you the right to discriminate against other people and violate their civil rights that the Constitution also protects.”

Kintner shot back, “Oh yes it does.”

To further his perspective, Kintner introduced a hypothetical situation, wherein a deadbeat employee could not be fired for his work ethic because he decided to be a woman.  “You sit him down and say…you’ve gotta straighten up or we’re going to replace you. And he says, ‘You know, I feel like a woman today.’ Now we’ve got a whole problem if you’re trying to get rid of him.”

Kintner’s perspective is that he would not have been elected if his constituents had not agreed with him.

“If I would have come out and said I supported this [gay rights movement], I would not be sitting here as a senator….There is no doubt in my mind,” he concluded.

The Gayly – 3/29/2016 @ 12:43 p.m. CST