Missouri Representative Vicky Hartzler
doesn't want a gay medical student to feel bad about Missouri's gay
marriage ban.
At a town hall meeting in Butler,
Missouri, Alex, a gay University of Missouri medical student asked
the congresswoman about her recent remarks on marriage equality.
Last month while addressing the Eagle
Forum Collegians 2011 Summit in Washington, Hartzler, a freshman
representative who has already introduced or co-sponsored numerous
measures in Congress aimed at limiting the rights of LGBT Americans,
likened gay marriage to polygamy and incest.
“If you just care about somebody,
have a committed relationship, why not allow one man and two women or
three women to marry. There are a lot of people in this country that
support polygamy. Why not? They're committed to each other, why
should you care? Why not allow a group marriage? There are people
out there who want that. … Why not allow an uncle to marry his
niece? Why not allow a 50-year-old man to marry a 12-year-old girl,
that they love each other and are committed.”
“If you don't set parameters, you
don't have any parameters at all, a license means nothing. A
marriage means nothing.”
“It's not a right in a constitution
part that goes either. It's not a right of a three-year-old to drive
a car,” she added.
When Alex asked about the remarks,
Hartzler said she had been misquoted.
“[Y]ou said … allowing same-sex
marriage would start us down a slippery slope toward things like
sanctioned incest and bestiality. How you think …” the student
began.
“No, no, no … that was a
misunderstanding of the quote,” Hartzler interrupted. “That was
really taken out of context.”
“How do you think that makes young
people, like me, who are gay feel about ourselves, to come up in a
society that to us seems like it doesn't value us in the same way
straight people are valued?”
“We're not the ones changing the
policy, OK, so you shouldn't feel bad at all,” Hartzler responded.
“Why shouldn't I feel bad if there's
an amendment, if you championed an amendment prohibiting me from …”
Alex said.
“Right now it has been the law of the
land for a long time. Marriage is between a man and a woman. All we
did in 2004 is just put that in the constitution,” she said,
referring to Missouri's constitutional amendment. “So we're not
changing policy at all. And anyway, so you shouldn't feel bad.”
(The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)