Remember Indiana’s Witch Hunt?

Written by admin on January 31, 2008 – 7:55 am -

It looks as if the homophobic bigots at the Indiana State House have been defeated for another year. There seems to be some ego clashing between marriage equality advocates in the state, and frankly I’m sick of it.

While it looks to be true that the amendment is defeated for another year, there is so much more to do TODAY! Has everyone forgotten about Senator Patricia Miller? Have We forgotten Indiana’s Witch Hunt?

 

For the uninformed, I’ll let Marla Stevens of Bilerico Project explain:

Indiana State Senator Patricia L. Miller is a longtime homohater-in-denial, one of the “some of my best friends are…” kind and a leader of Indiana’s overpopulated AIDS Hall of Shame who, among other offenses, ignored the constitutionally required things like criminal intent or criminal negligence that make a crime a crime and championed criminalizing HIV transmission even when due diligence to practice safer sex was undertaken and the sex was between consenting adults (ask me later about the related rubber tree story), supported reinstatement of sodomy laws for consenting adults as well as all the usual antigay family laws and more, and tried again and again, by hamstringing and irrationally penalizing mental health professionals, to protect abusive parents not just from the consequences of the recovered memories of their victims but from their children even getting the chance to recover them, and on and on in her long career in a protected district — all while being the legislative version of a cash cow for doctors and dentists and hospitals and nursing homes and carrying enough water for the wingnut fringe that, if she’d been in a race with the Army Corps of Engineers to empty NOLA, she’d have won.

In her personal life, she’s become more and more active in her anti-queer zealotry, most notably as the executive director of the Indiana-based national Confessing Movement of the United Methodist Church and getting wackier in the process even as she’s continued to win more than she loses. She’s regularly threatened splitting her church (cynically even trying bribe and buyout options to encourage pro-gay clergy and congregations to leave), pushed the worst lies of the so-called “reparative therapists” as justification for her bigotry, and gotten more and more shrilly rabid as the culture has slowly moved in the opposite direction from hers. Not content with despoiling her own church, she’s applied her legislative skills to spread her message to other denominations as an architect of the The Association for Church Renewal. And, typically, this wife of a Gideon bible pushing dentist has increased her personal public profile and power at every step along the way.

She also authored Orwellian legislation that would have required governmental “authorization” for any kind assisted reproduction ( such as in vitro fertilization, sperm donation or egg donation). Women would have had to file for a “petition for parentage”, with approval being based on marital status. Anyone that violated the law, would have been guilty of a Class B misdemeanor.

In a time of great need for diversity of health care options, Miller shills for the health care industry, protecting hospitals before the needs of mothers. Laura McPhee of Nuvo explains:

There are approximately 100 licensed nurse-midwives in the state of Indiana, and more than 95 percent work in hospitals or birthing centers where the average cost of delivering a child is $6,400. There are approximately 50 certified professional midwives working illegally in the state; most are hired by couples who want to have their child at home.

House Bill 1237 seeks to establish a state midwifery license board and set qualifications for a certified professional midwife (CPM) to practice in non-hospital settings. The current bill has been introduced in a similar form annually since 1993. It has passed the House of Representatives twice; and it has consistently had the support of Republicans and Democrats alike. This year’s version is authored by Rep. Peggy Welch (D), who is herself a nurse, and has the support of Rep. Tim Brown (R), a physician by profession and chair of the House Public Health Committee.

But one state senator doesn’t want midwives without nursing degrees practicing in Indiana, and she has used her power in the state senate to prevent that from happening for more than a decade.

Sen. Patricia Miller (R) of Indianapolis is a nurse and the chair of the Senate Public Health Committee. Year after year, she has prevented the bill from receiving a hearing in her committee, essentially killing the legislation herself before it ever receives a vote on the Senate floor.

Why she does this is obvious once you look at her campaign finance statements (from 2004): Read more »


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