Rep. Dwight Scharnhorst, speaking to the Huffington Post:

Scharnhorst told HuffPost that teaching about LGBT issues would lead to other discussions."There is no need to talk about Billy wanting to marry a goat," he said...

Scharnhorst stressed that his support of the bill should not be confused with his personal beliefs about the LGBT community.

"I'm not bigoted," he told HuffPost. "I have friends who are homosexual."

We've known for awhile that republicans are dead set on disenfranchising tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Missourians by requiring voter ID to vote even though the main sponsor of the bill, Rep. Shane Schoeller (R-Willard) can't even produce ONE instance of voter fraud in the Show-Me State.

It gets worse though.  Schoeller's constitutional amendment wouldn't just affect those without a government issued photo ID, it would adversely affect active duty military personnel serving overseas, 11,000 of whom voted in the 2008 elections.  Schoeller's amendment would require that each and every absentee ballot sent in have a copy of the photo ID and would remove the ability for Missourians to send the ballot directly to the county clerk.  It would require that the ballot be sent to a surrogate who would then be required to return it to the polling station.

Take for instance my family member serving in Afghanistan who will be forced to request an absentee ballot while he is serving his country in a war zone, dodging Taliban bullets and bombs.  Somehow, he will have to find a xerox machine in the mountains of whatever region he's serving in (I just know they'll be able to find a cave with a fax/xerox machine), copy his photo ID, send his ballot back with his newly copied ID to his designated surrogate and then hope that individual remembers to take it to the polling location on election day.  Totally not too many hoops to jump through for the soldier serving his country in an effort to protect our freedoms - like being able to vote - thousands of miles away from his family in a war zone.

All this because Schoeller thinks there might be voter fraud in the future.

In the Springfield News-Leader:

Rep. Shane Schoeller, R-Willard, introduced a bill that requires Missouri residents to show proof of citizenship when requesting an absentee ballot.

The bill also removes a measure letting Missouri residents mail in a completed ballot.

Instead, that ballot must be returned to a polling station by a surrogate, who is designated in writing by the person requesting a ballot.

Rep. Jason Kander (D-Kansas City), candidate for Secretary of State and defender of every Missourian's constituationally guaranteed right to vote, had this to say:

Rep. Jason Kander, D-Kansas City, said not letting voters mail in a completed ballot would create hardships for active duty military personnel or people who cannot make it to the voting booth on Election Day.

“That takes away their best option, or it makes it impossible (to vote),” Kander said.

Kander, a military veteran who served in Afghanistan, is the only Democrat running for Secretary of State. Schoeller is one of three Republicans vying to for the position.

Kander discounted his bid for Secretary of State as a factor in his opposition to Schoeller's bill.

“To me, this is not a complicated issue,” he said. “No one should prevent an active member of the military from voting.”

"John Boehner and Roy Blunt are what’s wrong with Washington."

~Rep. Billy Long as quoted by author Robert Draper, "who spent 2011 practically embedded with a half dozen of the members of the tea-party-infused House GOP freshman class"

h/t Randy Turner 

Homophobia has reared its ugly head in the Missouri House again in the form of HB 2051 which would "prohibit the discussion of sexual orientation in public school instruction, material, or extracurricular activity except in scientific instruction on human reproduction."

This sort of legislation is a direct attack on the LGBT community and the children and teens who identify as such.  Groups such as the Gay-Straight Alliance which are formed to offer support and understanding to teens in high school would likely be prohibited from being formed as they would be prohibited from "discussing sexual orientation in extracurricular activity."

PROMO Executive Director AJ Bockleman had this to say:

Let’s be clear. This bill, while clearly a flagrant violation of the First Amendment guarantee of Freedom of Speech, not only attempts to prohibit schools from even discussing gay and lesbian issues; it also aims to keep Gay-Straight Alliances from meeting on school grounds as approved extracurricular entities.

For the last several years, PROMO and our allies have worked to advance pro-lgbt legislation, and we are seeing steady, continuing success. Filing this bill is a desperate tactic by frightened, bigoted, cynical individuals who are terrified at the advancement the LGBT community has made in breaking down the barriers to full and equal treatment under the law. Why else would they file a bill so clearly out of step with the growing trend for fairness in this state when similar legislation filed in Tennessee last year led that state’s legislature to become the object of national ridicule?

As the Executive Director for PROMO, Missouri’s Statewide organization advocating for the LGBT community, it’s clear that this proposed bill does absolutely nothing to protect students. In some ways, however, these enemies of Freedom of Speech have done us a favor. By attempting to coerce teachers and students into making this core reality of our lives literally unspeakable, they have only proved why LGBT students need greater, better, and stronger protection in our schools.

Given the national conversation about bullying and the fact that gay teens and young adults have been committing suicide in large numbers after facing bullying in their schools and social circles, you would think that our leaders would try to create welcoming environments for kids, but this sort of legislation is the exact opposite.  HB 2051 would be bullying enshrined in Missouri law.

I highly doubt that the 20+ white men who have sponsored and cosponsored this attack have seen the documentary Bully which follows a number of children across the country who are bullied for different reasons, one of which is their sexuality, but it would behoove these bigots to take two hours out of their lives to watch it and understand what sort of impact this sort of moronic legislation could have on our children.

Here's the trailer:

The full text of the bill is after the jump.

HB 2051 - Prohibits the discussion of sexual orientation in public school instruction, material, or extracurricular activity except in scientific instruction on human reproduction

Sponsor: Steve Cookson
Co-sponsors: Steve Tilley, Birther Tim Jones, John Diehl, Dwight Scharnhorst, Andrew Koenig, Birther Lyle Rowland, Charlie Dennison, Lindell Shumake, Kurt Bahr, Don Wells, Eric Burlison, Dave Schatz, Doug Funderburk, Jeff Grisamore, Mark Parkison, Paul Fitzwater, Bill Lant, Mike McGhee, Jay Houghton

Full text of bill:

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:

Section A. Chapter 170, RSMo, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be known as section 170.370, to read as follows:

170.370. Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, no instruction, material, or extracurricular activity sponsored by a public school that discusses sexual orientation other than in scientific instruction concerning human reproduction shall be provided in any public school.

.

At least that's the reaction that I get, although this version is much more genteel. It is painted on the side of an empty building across the street from the church we saw yesterday. Sure, a Native American, a French army officer (but in a red coat?) and a local rustic with a fiddle, but it makes me feel like the singer's gonna sing a song and he wants you all to sing along. So let me introduce to you the one and only Billy Shears...

So who is that on the bottom, anyway? It's just to the right of the big mural, a bit above the sidewalk. I can't tell if his intentions are friendly or not.

Note the On Air sign on the wall. There must have been radio broadcasts of the organ or choir at one time.