The YouTube video posted this weekend by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund featured Kern speaking out against gays to a group of Republicans who had invited her to express her views about homosexuality. Leaked audio of the speech is accompanied by images of people holding signs such as "Words matter," "I am listening" and "You don't represent me."
In the speech, given privately to a group of about 50 Republicans, Kern says homosexuality, "according to God's word, that is not the right kind of lifestyle. It has deadly consequences for those people involved in it." Although she claims she is "not gay-bashing," Kern continues by saying gays "have more suicides… there's more illness, their life spans are shorter… studies show that no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than, you know, a few decades."
Kern also accuses homosexuals of pushing a "gay agenda" and trying to "indoctrinate" children as young as 2-years-old through tolerance education and gay-straight alliances. "This stuff—it's deadly," Kern says, "and it's spreading, and it will destroy our young people. It will destroy this nation."
The infiltration of gays into city councils also seems to be of major concern to Kern, who speaks out on this perceived problem at length. Kern said that city councils from Pittsburgh to West Palm Beach, FL are under the "control" of gays.
The Oklahoma representative's hate speech extends several times into another sensitive arena as well, religion. A staunch Christian, Kern says in the speech that "Not everybody's lifestyle is equal, just like not all religions are equal" and believes gays are an even bigger threat than "terrorism or Islam, which I think is a big threat."
Kern refuses to apologize for her words or her views on homosexuality. "What I'm saying, I believe in," she says. "There are indisputable facts that show its a deadly lifestyle... What is wrong with me, as an American, exercising my free speech rights?"
In an email to PamsHouseBlend.com, Kern seemed somewhat more concilitary. "I am totally against hate speech," she writes. "The account given on YouTube took my words out of context and omitted other parts stringing certain words together to make it appear I was engaging in hate speech. I was not and would never do such a thing."
In the next paragraph, however, Kern returns to the message she served up in the leaked audio recording that has stirred so much controversy. "The homosexual agenda is real, the movement is agressive, and it is a very real threat to the sacred institution of marriage and the traditional family unit." While claiming gays "have every right to choose that lifestyle," Kern says "I do not have to agree with it and speaking against it is not hate speech."
Kern said no one should be suprised by her views on homosexuality, saying in the interview with News9.com that she's made similar statements in the past. However, Kern did feel whomever was responsible for the speech being recorded and posted should have spoken up. "Shame on the person who didn't have the courage to come and say, 'I'm going to tape you and put it out on YouTube.'"
