#2784: Sylvia Driskell

Sylvia Driskell is a Nebraska-based self-declared ambassador of “God, And His, Son Jesus Christ [sic]” who received some attention back in 2015 when she sued every gay person on Earth, asking a federal judge to rule on whether homosexuality is a sin. In Driskell v. Homosexuals (yes, that’s the name), Driskell served as her own lawyer, and although her seven-page petition (written entirely in cursive) – officially against “Homosexuals, Their Given Name Homosexuals Their Alis Gay [sic]” – failed to reference any relevant or irrelevant case laws, it liberally quoted the Bible and Webster’s Dictionary. The goal was to make the District Court in Omaha decide, once and for all, whether being gay is a sin: “Why are judges passing laws, so sinners can break religious, and moral laws,” stated the complaint, and “[w]ill all the judges of this Nation, judge God to be a lier [sic]”? Given her role as ambassador, Driskell saw it as her responsibility to take on the case,  and to “start standing up for the moral principles on which our great nation, our great states, and our great cities were founded on.” The District court promptly refused to take a stance on Driskell’s theological hypotheses and tossed the case.

 

“I never thought that I would see a day in which our great nation or our own great state of Nebraska would become so compliant to the complicity of some people[’s] lewd behavior,” explained Driskell in the complaint, before emphasizing “that homosexuality is a sin and that they the homosexuals know it is a sin to live a life of homosexuality. Why else would they have been hiding in the closet.” Why indeed. And although “homosexuals say that it’s not a sin to be homosexual, and they have the right to marry, to be parents,” children raised by these “liars, deceivers, and thieves” will necessarily “grow up to be one of the three, or all three.”

 

Diagnosis: A local clown, and the immediate response to her antics is of course hilarity. But it is also somewhat important not to forget how much hate, anger and fear are driving people like Driskell. And although Driskell is dumb and powerless, others with similar views might not be.