Rick Perry Confronted About Fracking, Gays in the Military
In a town hall meeting in Iowa, Rick Perry was confronted by audience members over his support for the environmental disaster of “fracking” and his opposition to gays serving openly in the military.
It’s a picture of determined right wing ignorance again; Perry completely denied the scientific evidence that fracking can contaminate groundwater:
Then a 14-year old girl asked him a simple question: “why do you want to deny [gays serving in the military] their freedom when they’re fighting for your rights?”
Perry’s answer: his religion gives him the right to be a bigot.
What Perry didn’t know during the exchange was that the girl, 14-year-old Rebecka Green, is herself openly bisexual. “This is about my faith, and I happen to think that there are a whole host of sins, homosexuality being one of them,” Perry said, adding that he himself was “a sinner” so he wouldn’t “be the first one to throw a stone.” Reflecting on another question he had received this week about how he would feel if his own child were gay, Perry said, “I’d feel the same way. I hate the sin but I love the sinner.”
“I’m openly bisexual and I didn’t want to be told that if I wanted to serve in the military that I couldn’t, and I just think [the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell] policy is completely ridiculous,” Green told reporters after the exchange. “Nobody should be able to tell somebody who they can or cannot love. I just don’t agree with it.”