Queer Quote: Illinois Homophobe Thinks He's The Victim

Kyle McCarter is a member of the Illinois State Senate who voted against SB0010, a bill to legalize marriage equality, which passed by a 34-21 margin on Thursday. He is now getting a reputation as a virulent homophobe for tweets like:

To redefine marriage is discriminatory towards those who hold the sincerely held religious belief that it is a sacred institution between a man & a woman.

The statement is so ridiculous that it is today's Queer Quote. The use of the word "discriminatory" to describe an action which allows a group of people to do something which they were previously prohibited from doing is simply bizarre. I also take issue with the notion that "a sincerely held religious belief" is a reason to support any public policy action.

He also posted the remark on Facebook, where it is generating some very thoughtful responses such as:

The fact that a bride-to-be is no longer considered her father's property transferable to her husband by the barter system means that marriage has already been redefined, and rightly so. Why not just own up to your bigotry? Pretending that gay people being married affects your right or ability to worship God is insane.

and

Not being allowed to force your beliefs on those who don't follow them does not constitute discrimination. 

and

So if someone holds a "sincerely held" religious belief that marriage should be only between Christians and other Christians, does that give them the right to deny civil licenses to Christian and non-Christian couples? What if they have a "sincerelyheld" religious belief that marriage is only between white men and white women or black men and black women? Should they have the right to deny civil marriage to interracial couples? According to your logic, they do...

I don't think I can really say it much better than that!