OKLAHOMA CITY (RNS) A transgender civil rights attorney has launched a bid to unseat state Rep. Sally Kern, a Baptist pastor’s wife who gained nationwide notoriety by saying that homosexuality is the “biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam.”
When given the option to clarify her position in a public debate a year ago, Kern said, “While terrorism has killed more than 3,000 people in the continental United States in the last 15 years, homosexual behavior has killed more than 100,000. It’s a danger to life. It is a danger to health.”
Kern’s challenger, Brittany Novotny, said Kern’s statements reflect a representative who is “out of touch, ineffective, and bad for business.” Novotny said Republican leaders share her views, and “not just Democrats.”
Novotny said she does not intend to make her status as a transgender woman an issue. “I’ve been open and honest about who I am,” she said. “I think voters will appreciate that I’ve been honest, and I intend to stick to the issues; that’s what they care about.”
Kern said she, too, intends to stick to the issues.
“I’m looking at this as a race between a Republican and a Democrat,” Kern said. “There are enough differences that separate our parties on the issues without making her transgender status a focus.”
Kern’s House district is a low- to middle-income area that is bordered by a Nazarene university, a Pentecostal Holiness university, and two of the largest churches in the state: Bethany First Church of the Nazarene and Victory Church, a megachurch in the Pentecostal/charismatic tradition.
