Editorial cartoon by Andy Marlette. Click to see the source.
Andy Marlette drew the editorial cartoon above in response to a proposed bill that would let privately-owned adoption agencies dodge being considered as discriminating against clients if doing so would “violate [the agencies’] written religious or moral convictions or policies,” the bill reads. Alas, the bill passed yesterday.
The worst part about the bill passing wasn’t that it passed, but this moment when Republican Committee Chair and unmitigated asshole Charles McBurney laughingly cut off 10-year-old Nathaniel Gill’s testimony at a House Judiciary Committee meeting on the issue. Nathaniel is the son of the gay man who successfully toppled Florida’s adoption ban in the courts, and the bill is seen as “revenge” for that. As committee chair, McBurney could’ve given the nervous boy a little more time to complete his testimony, but in true neo-Pharisee fashion, cut him off and snickered as he did so:
It’s as if they’re trying to prove this maxim true:
Conservatism is the dread fear that somewhere, somehow, someone you think is your inferior is being treated as your equal.