via AlterNet:
Xenophobia and Anti-Gay Legislation Galore: What's the Matter with Oklahoma?
By Richard L. Fricker,
Consortium News. Posted May 29, 2008.
Oklahoma has become a laboratory in which the worst right-wing elements are ramming xenophobic and anti-gay legislation through the Legislature.The Republican-dominated Oklahoma legislature is defining the frontier of xenophobic immigration laws, anti-Muslim bigotry, gay bashing and encouragement of gun-toting students -- with Democratic legislators often too timid to resist.
Rep. Randy Terrill, Republican chairman of the Revenue and Taxation Committee, has emerged as a hero of the "protect our borders" crowd by authoring a law, known as HB1804, that makes it a felony even to give an illegal immigrant a ride.
You also can't provide education, health care and many other services to undocumented immigrants, including infants. And, police are required to check the immigration status of anyone "suspected" of being in this country illegally.
If you thought such a draconian measure might face stiff opposition -- or at least a drawn-out political battle -- you'd be wrong. The bill sailed through the Oklahoma House, 88-9, with 35 of the 44 Democrats joining the Republicans, and then passed the Senate on a 41-6 vote with two-thirds of the Democrats lining up with Republicans.
After the law's passage, its extreme -- one might say un-Christian -- features prompted virtual declarations of civil disobedience from the Southern Baptist Convention and the Episcopal, Methodist, Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches, which announced they would not curtail aid to anyone.
Terrill then attacked Roman Catholic Bishop Edward Slattery of Tulsa as "misguided," accusing Catholics of opposing the law out of fear that it would curtail a growth in population and thus revenues for the church. ......(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.alternet.org/election08/86683 /
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