Recently, former GOP Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert got into trouble for sexually abusing underage boys. As a politician, Hastert has friends in high places, and many of those influential friends sent the judge at Hastert’s trial letters begging for leniency. The Chicago Tribune has published forty-one of the letters.
What kind of person would ask a judge to go easy on “a serial child molester”, you might wonder? Team Hastert includes Hastert’s relatives and many of his friends in law enforcement, school athletics departments, and, of course, government. Hastert is a Republican, so his defenders are largely conservatives, and very anti-LGBT. Many members of Team Hastert fought tooth and nail to ban same-sex marriage.
Without further ado, let’s meet just a few of these people who condemn gays and support pedos!
Tom DeLay
Tom DeLay (Republican – Texas) was a member of the House of Representatives from 1985 to 2006 and served as the GOP Majority Leader from 2003 to 2005. As a congressman, DeLay strongly opposed same-sex marriage. In 2015, DeLay urged Americans to revolt against the government to fight the tyranny of legally-recognized lesbian weddings. “All hell is going to break loose,” DeLay threatened, adding:
“We’re going to stand for marriage even if it takes civil disobedience.
A ruling by the Supreme Court is nothing but an opinion if the legislative branch and the executive branch do not enforce it.
Not only that, if the states would just invoke the 10th Amendment and assert their sovereignty, they can defy a ruling by the Supreme Court. It’s in the Constitution. We can tell the court what cases they can hear.”
DeLay called upon state governments to defy the Supreme Court, undermining America’s entire system of government simply to keep same-sex couples from getting married.
In contrast, here’s what DeLay said about Dennis Hastert, a former high school wrestling coach who sexually violated boys in the school locker room:
“[Hastert] has never disappointed me in any way. He is a man of strong faith that guides him. He is a man of great integrity… We all have our flaws, but Dennis Hastert has very few. He is a good man that loves the Lord. He gets his integrity and values from Him. He doesn’t deserve what he is going thorough. I ask that you consider the man that is before you and give him leniency where you can.”
Tom DeLay: overthrow the government when gay adults get married, but go easy on a man who molests boys.
John T. Doolittle
John T. Doolittle (Republican – California) was a member of the House of Representatives from 1991 to 2009. As a congressman, Doolittle voted against prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation. He voted in favor of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and define marriage as one-man-one-woman. John T. Doolittle really doesn’t like it when two men have sex — but when a man has sex with several young boys, it’s no big deal, apparently.
Here’s what John T. Doolittle had to say about Dennis Hastert:
“During my interactions with Denny Hastert I found him to be a man of integrity and widely respected by all members of the House… In all my interactions with him, Denny Hastert was humble and treated people fairly and with respect. He was a graduate of Wheaton College and reflected the Christian values of that institution in all my observations. I always admired him for his down-to-earth manner and style of leadership. I always believed him to be a man of high moral character and one in whom I had a high level of trust…
Given the conviction, which has occurred I would hope that the many good things that he did and the strong character traits that he repeatedly exhibited over a long period of years and his faithful service to the people of Illinois both as a state representative and as a United States Representative might be taken into account as you decide what sentence to impose.”
Doris Karpiel
Doris Karpiel served on the Illinois House of Representatives from 1979 to 1984, then served on the Illinois State Senate until 2003. In 1996, Karpiel voted in favor of a state-wide ban on same-sex marriage. But these days, she’s busy asking a judge to go easy on a child molester. Here’s what she wrote in defense of Dennis Hastert before the sentencing:
“Dennis Hastert was the best kind of public official…
Although he achieved much in his life, he now has lost a great deal especially the one thing that matters most to a man like him, his good name. Further punishment will serve no real purpose, and I ask that you take his years of public service and many accomplishments into account when he is sentenced.”
Porter J. Goss
Porter J. Goss (Republican – Florida) served in the House of Representatives from 1993 to 2004, when George W. Bush appointed him Director of the CIA.
Goss voted in favor of the anti-gay Marriage Protection Act of 2004 and the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman. He also voted in favor of the 1999 Adoption Restriction Amendment, which banned federal funding for adoption for unmarried couples (which, at the time, meant all same-sex couples) in D.C.
Here’s what Porter J. Goss had to say about Dennis Hastert:
“Perhaps, the Speakers [sic] greatest gift to the House was trust… I know many viewed him as “Mr. Main Street, America” — a rock solid guy with center of the country values… Sadly, without his good influence today’s House of Representatives appears diminished.”
David Dreier
David Dreier (Republican – California) is a special case. As a Republican congressman, he voted against LGBT rights. He supported the Defense of Marriage Act, voted against allowing same-sex couples to adopt children, and voted against the Matthew Shepard Act, which extended hate crime protections to gays.
Then, in 2005, Hustler outed the congressman, revealing to the world that he was gay.
David Dreier is perhaps the saddest member of Team Hastert. He asks the law to go easier on a child molester than on gay people like himself. Here’s what he wrote in support of Dennis Hastert:
“Dennis Hastert is one of the most dedicated and hard working [sic] public servants I’ve known…
While Denny always worked hard, he has had serious health problems with which you are certainly familiar… Dennis Hastert is my friend and he has done many great things for countless individuals and our nation.”
Dennis Hastert
Dennis Hastert (Republican – Illinois) was the longest-serving Republican Speaker of the House in US history. As a congressman, Hastert made the House of Representatives even more obnoxiously partisan and was a major player in trying to impeach Bill Clinton for having sex with a consenting woman of legal age.
Hastert was a staunch opponent of LGBT rights. He voted against prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation and voted in favor of banning same-sex marriage.
Dennis Hastert and other Republican politicians seem to have a strange attitude about gay sex: it’s only wrong if it’s consensual.
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