Florida State Rep. Dennis Baxley is
being asked to apologize after he compared gay parents to drug
abusers and abusive parents.
The 61-year-old Baxley, a Republican
and a Southern Baptist, chairs the House Judiciary Committee and is a
member of the Education Committee's K-12 subcommittee. Baxley made
his remarks during a subcommittee meeting on reforming middle grades.
“It's easy to say parents need to get
involved, but half these kids are raising themselves; they don't have
any parents that are functional. How can we address that? I know
its scope and I know it's hard, but you're probably their only hope,”
Baxley said.
“I mean I sat an hour and a half with
a teacher telling me, well this child has got serial men coming
through the house, this one has two mommy's, this one has abusive
father who's home, this has alcoholism, this one has drug abuse. It
was a casualty warfare event to hear – just her classroom – how
many dysfunctional, atypical, to me, structures are in the way of a
kid having a chance to learn.” (The video is embedded on this
page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)
Nadine Smith, CEO of Equality Florida,
the state's largest LGBT rights advocate, called on Baxley to
apologize.
“We hope Representative Baxley has
the decency to apologize for his comments disparaging gay parents and
our children,” said Smith in an emailed statement. “More than
that, we invite Representative Baxley to educate himself, talk with
us and actually meet our families. We are a diverse state, and no
elected official can fulfill their oath of office if they only
respect and care about the people and families that look just like
their own.
“The entire child welfare community,
every credible agency and all research, are unanimous in recognizing
that gay parents are equally capable of raising children and that our
kids do just as well as their classmates.”
Baxley is among the authors of
Florida's controversial Stand Your Ground law.