Long-time opponent of LGBTQ community Vicky Hartzler wept in muted fury against passage of Respect for Marriage Act

 

Long-time opponent of LGBTQ community, Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler can only weep at the end of her speech while unsuccessfully attempting to keep The Respect for Marriage Act from passing the House.

The House passed Respect for Marriage Act today and President Biden will sign it soon. But the moment folks are talking about is below:

Here’s Vicky Hartzler crying as she urges Members of Congress to oppose rights for gay and interracial couples.

Tears of joy for discrimination.

This is the Republican Party in 2022. pic.twitter.com/PKbXy1ERh3

— Equality PAC (@lgbtequalitypac) December 8, 2022

According to The Advocate: 

 Anti-LGBTQ+ U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Missouri started crying on the House floor Thursday as she begged her fellow representatives to vote against the Reflect for Marriage Act, which will write marriage equality into federal law. “I’ll tell you my priorities,” said Hartzler, a Republican. “Protect religious liberty. Protect people of faith. And protect Americans who believe in a true meaning of marriage. I hope and pray that my colleagues find the courage to join me in opposing this misguided and this dangerous bill.” She teared up toward the end of her remarks.

What the hell is she crying about? How can she even have the gall to cry as if someone is doing wrong to her? As evil as that woman has been to LGBTQ people throughout the years, she has got one hell of a nerve.

Let me put it this way. There are people who don't like LGBTQ folks and then there are people simply can't stand us. And based on Hartzler' s legislative career, she simply could not stand us.  I would venture to say that if given the chance, Anita Bryant would have pulled her aside to tell her to lighten up on LGBTQ people. 

To put it in ghetto terms, it seemed at times that Hartzler simply lived to fuck with us.

According to a 2019 post I wrote:

In 2010, Mother Jones magazine put forth the question "Is Vicky Hartlzer the most anti-gay Republican candidate in America?" and pointed out her record of targeting the LGBTQ community:

Hartzler, who’s running in Missouri’s 4th Congressional District, opposes gay marriage, hate-crimes laws, and the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Those positions are common among congressional Republicans. But Hartzler has done more than merely take the standard GOP positions opposing gay rights—she has made a name for herself as an anti-gay crusader. Now she’s locked in a surprisingly close campaign with longtime Dem Rep. Ike Skelton, who was an architect of DADT. That’s right: Even in the district with perhaps the most anti-gay Democrat in the House, the Republicans still managed to nominate a candidate with a more anti-gay record.

While in Congress, Hartzler was a driving force for Trump's ban of transgender soldiers in the military. In pushing for the ban, Hartzler:

 reportedly pressured Trump for weeks to make his  decision to ban transgender troops.  

pushed  for a controversial amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act which would have banned the Pentagon from funding gender reassignment surgeries for service members. The amendment failed when 24 Republicans joined the Democrats to vote against it. 

and pushed inaccurate statistics to falsely claim that it was too costly for transgender men and women to serve in the military.

And that's not even the half of it. 

GLAAD has an entire page devoted to Hartzler's myriad attempts to undermine and disrupt the lives of LGBTQ Americans via legislative action including:

Voted against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act in 2019 because it required prisons house transgender people in facilities for people of their gender. 

Opposed the Equality Act, legislation to codify federal nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people in health care, housing, education, and other areas, falsely claiming, “This bill should be renamed the ‘Inequality Act,’ as its policies on the state level have already been used to eliminate safe spaces for women, irreparably harm children, trample parental rights, and undermine the free exercise of religion, and dismantle female athletics.” 

 Coauthored a document which encouraged members of the Republican Study Committee to pressure Amazon to sell books promoting the debunked and dangerous practice of “conversion therapy” after Amazon said would no longer carry titles by Joseph Nicolosi, an “ex-gay” activist from the discredited fringe organization, NARTH, the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. Amazon removed books by Nicolosi, who is credited with originating the ineffective and harmful practice.

It's obvious that Rep. Hartzler modeled her legislative career after the Disney classic cartoon Cinderella with herself portraying the wicked stepmother and the LGBTQ community as the long-suffering and much-abused-by-her-efforts Cinderella.

But any hopes she had of redoing the ending of that movie went up in smoke when Hartzler, like the wicked stepmother, could only stand aside in muted fury while her plans of wrecking LGBTQ happiness were foiled.

I love a happy ending. Unfortunately though, I'm sure we haven't seen the last of Hartzler.  To paraphrase actress Agnes Moorehead in the 1950 classic movie Caged:

"Keep (her file) active. She'll be back."