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Creep of the Week: Kentucky State Sen. Richard Roeding

Kentucky State Sen. Richard Roeding

Okay, so on July 13 the University of Louisville's board of trustees voted 14-1 to offer health insurance to domestic partners of school employees. This prompted Kentucky Sen. Richard Roeding (R-Lakeside Park) to say the following: "I find this very repulsive. I don't want to entice any of those people into our state. Those are the wrong kind of people."
The wrong kind of people, indeed. We're talking about educated homos here. Once you start letting riff-raff like that into a state like Kentucky, where does it stop?
Not surprisingly, the Kentucky Log Cabin Republicans were plenty pissed about Roeding's comments and called for his resignation.
Roeding, however, didn't feel particularly threatened by LCR. In fact, he dismissed them as "a bunch of queers" in an interview with the Kentucky Post.
And to think that some of those gay Republicans probably voted for the guy (hey, they don't call it "straight ticket" for nothing).
According to the Post, Senate President David Williams (R-Burkesville) gave Roeding a call after the "queers" comment started making the rounds. According to the Post, Williams said he told Roeding, "Most people feel that is an unacceptable term to use and I regretted the fact that he used the term and that he should refrain from using that term because it's inappropriate."
Roeding apologized and Williams accepted. Aww, how sweet. Maybe they'll go to the prom together — well, once U-L attracts enough queers to hold a gay prom, that is.
The Post also reported that Kenton County Republican Party Chairman Greg Shumate saw RoedingÕs comment as a no-no. "Dick Roeding has been a very effective legislator for Northern Kentucky, however, legislators, as we all, should refrain from using derogatory terms," Shumate said.
Notice that both Williams and Shumate both focused on the term, not the sentiment behind it. They don't regret that Roeding is a raging homophobe; they just regret that he opened his mouth so wide about it.
Thankfully there are some sensible folks in Kentucky who have joined the call for Roeding to hit the road. "The Republican Party needs to remove him from office," Kenton County Democratic Party vice chairman Nathan Smith told the Post. "If not, they are protecting a bigot."
State Rep. Dennis Keene (D-Wilder) said Roeding's comments are a minority view.
"That just represents a very small minority of hatred and they try to impose that on the rest of us and I think that's wrong," he told the Post.
"This isn't just a matter of political correctness, of which Roeding clearly has none. It is, rather, Roeding's obvious intolerance for anyone 'different' than himself," read a July 18 editorial in the Cincinnati Enquirer. "Roeding can disapprove of homosexuality if he wants to, but any politician who disdains a whole category of citizens does not deserve to be thought of as a 'representative' of the people."
Word.
To correspond with Roeding as a single queer or a bunch of queers, email him via http://www.lrc.ky.gov/Mailform/s011.htm or call (859) 331-1684.

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