TTPC

Last week, at a Candidate Forum in Paris, Tennessee, several candidates running for the 8th Congressional District seat being vacated by John Tanner were asked about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.   Dr. Ron Kirkland, a Vietnam veteran, said of his time in the military: “I can tell you if there were any homosexuals in that group, they were taken care of in ways I can’t describe to you.”

Randy Smith, who served in the first Iraqi war, added: “I definitely wouldn’t want to share a shower with a homosexual. We took care of that kind of stuff, just like (Kirkland) said.”
Smith later tried to apologize, saying he knew of violence against gay service members in concept only and never knew of any actual incidents or anything that he could report, but maintained he was “telling it how it is actually” and claimed that hazing would come if “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is repealed.  Smith also said he he has a 19-year-old gay daughter who lives in California, and that while he “disagrees with her lifestyle,” he understands that it is her right to live it.   “I don’t begrudge her because she’s gay,” Smith said. ”… I would have no problem standing beside a gay man in a time of war, standing back to back, him having my back and me having his back, but I would, as I said last night, have trouble sharing a shower with a gay man.”

Dr. Kirkland, on the other hand, just dismissed his original comments as a “joke.”  In more recent days, he has issued a statement to “clarify” his position, but he has still not recognized that the problem is one of bigotry and intolerance towards LGBT people, and that problem needs to be addressed immediately in both the military and society at large.
The Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition would like to remind both Dr. Kirkland and Mr. Smith that they do not have to look far for examples of violence in military, or in the district they seek to represent, against LGBT people.

• On July 5, 1999, Private First Class Barry Winchell, a Missouri native stationed at Fort Campbell, part of which is in the 8th Congressional District, was bludgeoned to death in his sleep by fellow soldiers because he was in a relationship with a transgender woman he had met in Nashville at a local nightclub.
• There are several other acts of violence within the district that have been based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.  In 1992, an entertainer named P-Nutts was found with her throat slashed in Clarksville.
• On July 15, 2007, a lesbian from Lauderdale County was left blind in one eye as a result of a beating at a nightclub in Jackson because she looked too masculine.
• On July 18, 2009,  the home of a transgender woman in Benton County was burned down.

In addition, there have been many violent acts perpetrated against African-American transgender women in Memphis, part of which is also located in the 8th Congressional District.

The 8th District Primary will not take place until August 5.  If a candidate is not willing to take a public pledge to support equal rights for all, and is not willing to denounce discrimination and violence against LGBT persons, they do not deserve your vote.

There is nothing funny about violence against LGBT people, and anyone who thinks such violence is a “joke” does not deserve to be a public, elected official.