#1202: Randy Thomasson

Randy Thomasson is the president of Save California, a wingnut group if there ever was one. Ostensibly protecting “family values”, Save California is at least borderline dominionist, and Thomasson is primarily known for his anti-gay efforts. His family values are perhaps most clearly expressed in his claim that recognizing legal rights for children of gay parents is “absolute insanity” – California’s efforts to keep families intact are not in line with Thomasson’s brand of family values, obviously.

And when he heard that California students were exposed to the existence of gay people (“sexual brainwashing”) – and that gay people in the past had occasionally contributed to society – he responded by calling for civil war (yes, civil war – “we’re declaring independence. We’re not there yet but I tell you what if we don’t start voting different and telling people how to vote and if pastors don’t repent and teach people how to vote christianly then we’re heading to toward a real civil war I’m afraid” – but he is not “telling people how to vote,” mind). It’s not the only time Thomasson has called for civil war over gay rights, justified by the idea that “gay rights are antithetical to a free society” and the “Devil’s work”, and, as every knows, a really free society would of course ban the devil’s work, like religious rulers have done all over those paragons of free societies around the world throughout history. To bolster his argument, Thomasson is quick to point out that marriage equality is a form of “totalitarianism” and “slavery”.

And when he heard about the existence of a gay studies program at a California University, he reacted this way (the WND promptly cited him as an expert on the issue). California’s enactment of a day to honor Harvey Milk was not appreciated either: it releases a “tsunami of perversity” and is openly gay Senator Mark Leno’s conscious effort to make kids gay. Thomasson was supported by Jerry Cox, head of the Family Council Action Committee in Little Rock, who said Harvey Milk day would “force students to cross-dress”).

CNN once put Thomasson in a debate program, but are presumably unlikely to do so again, after Thomasson displayed a rather embarrassing lack of basic common decency and adult behavior. They should have known, though, after Thomasson tried to blame Larry King for his own murder a bit earlier.

When the California State Senate and an Assembly committee approved a bill placing limits on sexual orientation conversion therapy, Save California tried to frame the legislation as an attack on victims of child abuse. Relying on the utterly debunked claim that homosexuality (which is like “drunk driving”, “drug abuse”) is a result of molestation, the group tried to contact legislators to stop “this horrible bill locking children into homosexual bondage”, which would be “hateful toward children” (but of course). Here is Thomasson’s reaction to the prop 8 decision.

But it isn’t only the gays. Thomasson was for instance quick to cite the Newton shootings in December 2012 as “another example of societal degradation, a deadly consequence of promoting murderous abortions, godless evolution, and gratuitous violence,” urging schools to begin “teaching the fear of God” and arming “every school official”.

Diagnosis: Fairly stereotypical specimen. One does wonder whether – especially in a place like California – his efforts actually have the opposite effect of what he is trying to achieve. Maybe Thomasson is inadvertently a force of good … or maybe he is an LGBT plant! Now, that’s something his fans should give some serious thought.