Flashback: Cornett hates gays too... at least he says he does.

The biggest loser this election cycle: OKC Mayor Mick Cornett
November 2006

It was certainly a lively election season this time around, with Mark Foley, Michael J. Fox, John Kerry, and the rest. All this excitement has understandably diverted our attention to events at the national level, but has left us with only a dull impression of the campaign season that came and went here at home.

Despite this, I think one of the funniest, and most disturbing, moments of the 2006 campaign was thanks to Oklahoma City mayor Mick Cornett, who was one of the five candidates in the Republican primary for Oklahoma's fifth Congressional seat. This is the seat that Ernest Istook gave up to run against Brad Henry for governor. Cornett lost to Mary Fallin in the primary, who went on to win the seat in the general election.

So here's the funny/disturbing part: Our mayor purchased a radio ad before the primary, saying that he was responsible for the initiative last year to restrict access in public libraries to children's books that deal with any sort of sexuality, violence, reproduction, etc. Let's just say if the book concerns something we want kids to be confused about, it's banned from the children’s section.

But the main thing this initiative was concerned with was books with homosexual protagonists, for example, the books Heather Has Two Mommies and King and King. These books aren’t sexual in nature; they simply have homosexual characters. These are the books Cornett was so excited about in his radio ad. A spokesman in the ad says about Cornett, "Last year, he took on the liberals and made sure that our libraries would not allow children to have access to books that promote the gay agenda."

Now, there are problems with this sentence alone. First, "gay agenda" is just a ridiculous thing to say, as if there is a dark, smoke-filled conference room somewhere, where homosexuals work out their next plan to take over the world by writing children's books.

Second, Cornett says he took on the "liberals," but is his position so "conservative" in contrast? Restricting free speech and the free market of ideas, discrimination, coercing the library system into complying by threatening to cut its funding, etc., are not conservative or liberal ideals, but those of a fascist.

It didn't stop there, though. The other primary candidates weren't going to let all this gay-bashing go by without getting in on the action, so Mary Fallin led them all in devising a joint press release in protest of Cornett’s ad. Fallin and the other candidates (Corporation Commissioner Denise Bode; State Rep. Kevin Calvey; and State Rep. Fred Morgan) weren’t criticizing Cornett based on the silliness that I just pointed out, as you may have guessed, but instead pointed out that Cornett’s ad was untruthful in other ways: the biggest thing Cornett left out was the fact that he didn’t lead the effort at all.

Cornett didn't lead the initiative, State Rep. Sally Kern (R-Bethany) did. Remember Kern? She’s the lady who described homosexuality as a “cancer” and threatened to cut part of the Metropolitan Library System’s budget if it didn’t ban the books from the children’s section. Cornett wishes he could hate gays as much as Kern does. The press release even includes a quote from Kern about Cornett’s ad. "I had a conversation with Mick Cornett last year about the inappropriate material available to children in our libraries. He did not want to get involved in the issue. Mick could have come to the library board meetings. He could have voted. He could have taken a stand. But he didn't."

There you have it. Cornett supports a ridiculous and hateful initiative, at least in retrospect, and supports it so much he’s willing to lie to the public, if that’s what it takes to convince them that he led it. Fallin also supports the initiative, but is at least in touch with reality enough to know the history of it and the extent to which all of the important players have been involved. The important part to remember is that they both support the initiative, fighting back the “liberals” and their “gay agenda,” restricting free speech, confusing kids, and bringing hateful interpretations of their religion into politics. Fellow Oklahoma Cityans: aren’t you proud of our mayor and our new representative in congress?

To see our leaders wrangling about this issue is very funny at some level, but the humor is quickly overshadowed by the hurtful and embarrassing elements. For a homosexual, or any minority, to hear elected officials bickering over who loves discrimination the most has to be extremely hurtful and discouraging.

And the rest of us have to just sit back and wonder how our leaders, especially Mayor Cornett and Congresswoman-elect Fallin, can be so stupid. Oklahoma now has a representative in the U.S. House who thinks discrimination is acceptable (one more, that is), and we have a mayor who at least says he does. Hopefully, the rest of the country wasn’t paying attention.

Contact Mick Cornett's office: mayor@okc.gov, (405)297-2424

Read more about Sally Kern here.