Yesterday, we told you about how Minnesota State Senator Richard Koering (pictured), who is openly gay, said he won’t vote for an upcoming marriage bill because, umm– the economy sucks. Well, many of our brave Queerty revolutionaries wrote into Koering to ask him in so many words: “WTF?” Now, you don’t think Koering actually reads these emails, right?
No, that thankless task goes to his legislative assistant, Ken Swecker, who, thanks to your hard work, has gone completely bananas.
Queerty reader Rick Heintz sent us Swecker’s reply to his email asking why the Senator won’t support civil rights. It’s
“My name is Ken Swecker, Senator Koering’s Legislative Assistant. Senator Koering and I both would like to respond to the e-mails we’ve been receiving regarding his intention to not vote in favor of Senate File 120. I am currently responding to the e-mails to give you the Senator’s home phone number so that you might call him over the weekend and speak with him personally on the matter. This much he asked me to do.
To add to that, as a personal statement, is to say that SF 120 is something that the majority of the People of Senate District 12, the People that he was elected to represent, do not favor this piece of legislation. In case you have forgotten, we are a government of the People, by the People, and for the People. He was not elected serve his personal interests. I personally believe that instead of sending e-mails full of threats and hateful words you should take his example to heart and congratulate him on being a legislator who cares more about what the People of his district want than what he may want personally. You and I both know that this is a rare quality to find, and just because this is contrary to how you wish for him to vote, you must remember and respect he is here to represent the interests of his rural Minnesota constituents who voted him into office. As a constituent of his myself, I am happy to see him take non-personal votes on several issues. After all, I would not want another politician taking another vote that would serve his or her personal interests more so than the People’s, would you?
I can testify all day long about how much Senator Koering cares for the People of Senate District 12. He ran three consecutive times, being defeated the first two, and why did he put himself through so much hard work? Do you think it was because he needed another job? Absolutely not! He did it because he believed he was the best person to serve the People that he calls neighbors, friends, and family. And especially now, in a time like this, we are being bogged down with this completely pointless issue. There are People in Morrison and Crow Wing Counties, and across the State who are losing their jobs, their homes, their insurance, and were you to ask them if this is an issue that should take one second of precedent over these conditions they’re facing every day, do you believe, do you honestly believe that they would say to you, ‘Yes, please, waste the time of the State Legislature with a piece of legislation that will not help, but in fact, overshadow the current situation we’re living in? Please, waste their time with this piece of legislation while I tell my son and daughter that mom and dad aren’t hungry tonight?’
I know very well that you will respond to this e-mail of mine with some probably quirky, snide, and very thoughtless comment that will make me out to be a bad person and threaten the Senator even more just as most of the absolutely tactless and disrespectful e-mails we’ve received have been written, but really, don’t waste your time. We’ll just put your e-mail where it belongs, in the trash.
The Senator’s home number is 218-829-0544
He’s free on the weekends.Very Sincerely, every word of it,
Ken Swecker
P.S. I hope you do not believe that this e-mail was written specific to the one that you sent, this is a blanket e-mail, being sent to everyone who has e-mailed us on this issue and I’ve already wasted too much time in responding to you. Good day.
Senator Paul Koering
District 12
131 State Office Building
St. Paul, MN 55155-1206
Phone:651-296-4875”
Look what you the People, have done.
walt zipprian
jeebus
Wolf
I’ve already sent this to Rachel Maddow and HuffPo.
I hope Swecker’s practicing “Would you like fries with that?”
condenasty
utterly bizarre
Rick Heintz
I was shocked at getting his home phone… I guess he’s doing anything possible to get a date after coming out against us! LOL
Henry Holland
Jesus’ General calls bullshit on the “not important enough” nonsense:
“The state does face bigger problems than providing equal protection to all of its citizens, and you are sponsoring bills to address those problems.
Take SR15 for instance. Nothing is more important to the well-being of the citizens of Minnesota than passing your resolution honoring Mary J. Brenny. She owned both her town’s ambulance service and mortuary, thus providing one stop service to the good citizens of Morrison County. You have to honor that kind of service.
The same holds true for SF3557. If you don’t make English the official language, the brown people win. The whole state would be speaking Mexican and eating spicy foods by 2015. These are both important bills. Thank God you had the courage to vote against marriage equality so you could devote more energy to their passage”
ConservativeRepublican
Yikes. Obviously the stress has gotten to that aide. Here’s his myspace: http://www.myspace.com/movinforward
Rick Heintz
And just for the record… Here is the email I sent him…
Dear Paul,
I am confused and bewildered by the stance you have taken on marriage equality. I don’t understand how you can turn your back on such an important issue at the height of it’s struggle. I know that you stated there are more important issues and I do agree with you on that especially when it comes to the economy … Read Morebut for you to come out against marriage equality is completely unacceptable. There are so many of us out there fighting for this civil right and for you to publicly oppose it is a huge slap in the face and belittles what we are trying to do. I really hope that you are not re-elected as you are not fit, in my eyes, to be a senator that anyone can trust. Shame on you!
Rick Heintz
Geoff
I’ve played the msg he left on my voice mail to several people, and the Senator comes across as much more coherant than his assistant. After playing phone tag, we finally spoke this morning and Senator Koering basicly repeated the line from the email that his constituents did not approve of the bill. I asked him about the response he’d received so far and he actually mentioned the mean spirited response from the gay community.
There was a little back and forth and ultimately he just repeated the party line thing.
I don’t know. I actually am just as embarassed by some of the people who’ve left comments like “someone should bash his teeth in” etc as on the previous post. I understand and share the frustration w/elected officials who screw us…but does that mean we forfeit the ability and responsibility of acting like mature adults? We lose the forcefulness and power of our arguments when we act like snarky idiots.
Mark
Donating to his opponent’s campaign the next time he’s up for re-election will be quite satisfying.
Strepsi
@RICK: I can’t believe your emails to him, so clearly using hateful words! Such hateful words as “it’s” instead of “its”….
Thanks Rick for exposing this douchebag, and his spectacularly passive-aggressive aide. I can’t believe that aide is so pissed at his boss that he blanket e-mailed the HOME phone number! Wow.
@CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN
Thanks for the Myspace link — notice how Ken’s slogan is:
“I THINK OF MYSELF AS SOMEONE WHO TRIES BEST TO ALWAYS STAY POSITIVE AND HELPFUL. ”
Bwaahahahahaaha!
My second LOL of the day!
Thanks everyone — keep em coming!
Kit
Well that was classy. I realize that it can’t be pleasant to be on the receiving end of something like this, but if you’re going to work with the public you sort of have to learn how to ensconce yourself in an impregnable carapace of courtesy and professionalism.
In fairness to Richard Koering, I thought a reader of Andrew Sullivan’s blog made a good point this morning:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/02/dissent-of-t-10.html
Darth Paul
“He did it because he believed he was the best person to serve the People that he calls neighbors, friends, and family. ”
Yeah, y’know who else believed that? HITLER.
Tim in SF
@Darth Paul: By virtue of Godwin’s law, I declare this comment thread dead.
Wolf
Politicians are not only elected to do what the constitants say but to do whats RIGHT. Thats hy they are there. To do whats right. Not mimic the voice of the people in their area. They are suppose to balance.
Another thing about Koering is that he is not openly out and proud. He was FORCED out after pictures were taken of him at a gay bar.
Jersey
I got the same email response back too. My initial email to Koerig was very respectful just pointing out that he may be doing a disservice to any gay members of his own constituency. I was pretty shocked at his response and have to say I held nothing back in my reply to it. I threw in every cuss word and putdown I could come up with, twice.
Jersey
Oh and I will be calling his home tomorrow.
Japhy Grant
@Tim in SF: Only took to 13!
sal
the majority in the 1950s south in america wanted segregation,is he sayin the elected officials of that time should have followed the majority voice of that time too???do tell
Attmay
Godwin’s Law is invalid. There are plenty of valid comparisons to Hitler to be made. They need to.
Aaron
“He did it because he believed he was the best person to serve the People that he calls neighbors, friends, and family. ”
Koering=Uncle Tom.
Way to go Koering! Appease the bigots so you can get reelected! Good for you!
RichardR
Love the complexities to this story — forced-out gay repub does the right thing once or twice, then reverses course on a pro-gay bill that’s very unlikely to pass. Do we give him any points because despite his recent behavior he has stepped up to the plate in the past? Or is there any validity at all to his point that his constituents are opposed? Or is he nixing the bill only because he has concerns about re-election. No question, he flubbed when he said there are more important things to take care of.
And on another level, I have some compassion for this clearly distressed aide — kid may not be up to public service, which needs, among other things, a thick skin. And from his youtube page, it’s clear he’s in recovery. Hope he doesn’t pick up over this.
And still further, would you look at Senator Koering’s face? Is there such a thing as gay-Republican-elected-official-face?
Finally, thank you, SF Tim and Japhy, I googled “Godwin’s Law” and have thus done my learning for the day! And to #12, I don’t think Hitler for an instant cared about “serving the people.”
Bill Perdue
No big deal. This little bigot has the same position as the Bigot in Chief, Obama. They both oppose same sex marriage and for the same reason, it’s unpopular with the torch and pitchfork christers. If anything Obama is worse because he once supported same sex marriage but did an abrupt about face when he learned that Dobson, Warren and der Pope didn’t like that.
Obama and the Democrats are in their bus and on the road. Their targets are supporters of same sex marriage, an inclusive ENDA and repeal of DOMA and DADT. Watch out or you’ll get run over, again and again and…
Even Time Magazine has figured out that Obama’s a bigot. Their opinion writer John Cloud says Rick Warren may occasionally sound more open-minded than Jerry Falwell, another plump Evangelical who once played a prominent role in U.S. politics. But he’s not. Gays and lesbians are angry that Barack Obama has honored Warren, but they shouldn’t be surprised. Obama has proved himself repeatedly to be a very tolerant, very rational-sounding sort of bigot. He is far too careful and measured a man to say anything about body parts fitting together or marriage being reserved for the nonpedophilic, but all the same, he opposes equality for gay people when it comes to the basic recognition of their relationships. He did throughout his campaign, one that featured appearances by Donnie McClurkin, a Christian entertainer who preaches that homosexuals can become heterosexuals.
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1867664,00.html
hardmannyc
Someone should tell this tool that it’s a REPRESENTATIVE democracy. That means we elect representatives who sometimes vote against the majority wishes of consitutuents because IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO.
Oh, and Bill Perdue: You’re still crazy. And no one’s still listening.
Bill Perdue
@hardmannyc: If no one’s listening you’d have no need to comment. But you do because they are listening. And they’re learning not to get fooled by bigots like Obama. That must be very upsetting for sellouts like hardmannyc.
hardmannyc
Except that this thread isn’t about Obama. It’s about someone else. So you’re pissing in the wind. As usual. I’m hardly a “sellout”; if I were, I’d be a lot richer for it! I don’t have any illusions about Obama but I hardly think he’s the raging homophobe you do. Then again, no politician in the real world could live up to your impossible standards. You’re like the mirror image of a take-no-prisoners ideologue. But of course, you won’t understand this, because if you did, you wouldn’t be a blind ideologue.
Bill Perdue
This thread is about bigots. Big bigots or little bigots, it’s all bigotry.
You’re a sellout because you refuse to recognize that a bigot is a bigot is a bigot and go on mindlessly supporting bigoted Democrats. They are one of the major two parties of bigotry, racism and misogyny, oh, and lets not forget war and economic disaster.
There are not longer any excuses for sellouts like you.
Thi
Oh, dear me. What power we wield — we’re breaking minds with our protests now.
The aide seems to be more than a bit of bigot, and it’s kind of funny to watch him snap under the pressure…
Chitown Kev
@Bill Perdue:
While it wasn’t a gay marriage bill, Barack Obama was a vocal opponent against DOMA when it was passed in Illinois and he sponsored employment discrimination legislation. Neither measure was popular in his district and he took a political hit for it (losing to Bobby Rush).
Granted, I don’t like where his position is at now, Obama did step up to the [plate when he was in a position similar to Koering.
Bill Perdue
@Chitown Kev: … Obama was a vocal opponent against DOMA when it was passed in Illinois and he sponsored employment discrimination legislation. Neither measure was popular in his district and he took a political hit for it (losing to Bobby Rush).”
I’ll take your word for it. Was that when Obama learned his lesson the hard way and decided to become an anti-GLBT christian activist who claims gawd, who’s “in the mix” is also a bigot and who makes him do it. What that when he began pandering to bigots? Does that explain why he got into bed with Warren, Donnie McKlurkin and the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, George Bush’s ‘spirit’ advisor? It that why he had all mention of the GLBT communities excised from the 2008 Democrat platform? Is that why he appointed a bigot named Keane to watch over the DNC and it’s bigoted COS Daughtry. Is that why… Well, you get the picture.
-0-0-0-0-0-
I have a question. If the Illinois DOMA wasn’t an anti-GLBT marriage bill, what was it? Was it limited to opposing civil unions?
petted
I bet he gets the state legislative Republican power tie award – looked like everything else had already been covered that and now the post is at 30 or 5 * 3 * 2 which is three prime numbers (please feel free to ignore the math) a fortuitous stopping point, though 31 is also prime.
On second thought his tie is a little too flashy for a true power tie…
Charles J. Mueller
@ConservativeRepublican:
Thanks for the link you provided. I clicked on it, but this was the message I received.
“This profile is set to private. This user must add you as a friend to see his/her profile.”
Charles J. Mueller
@Kit:
Well, we all know what a douche bag Andrew Sullivan is, don’t we?
Kit
@Charles J. Mueller:
I’m not exactly a fan of the guy, but he’s on the same page as most Queerty readers on this. The page I linked to was an e-mail from a reader who disagreed with him and Queerty on Richard Koering. I posted it because I thought it made a reasonable point, even if I still find it hard when all is said and done to feel a lot of warmth or sympathy for gay legislators who vote against our interests.
Chitown Kev
@Bill Perdue:
Frankly and sadly, that’s exactly what happened to Obama after he lost the 2000 Congressional race to Bobby Rush. Bobby Rush played the “I am blacker” than you card against Obama.
As far as Illinois DOMA was concerned, that was passed before he was elected to the state Senate, so he didn’t vote on it but he was always opposed to it and said so quite forcefully.
Since that Congressional race, Obama, at first, slooooooowly pulled away from being the “fierce advocate” for gays and lesbians that he actually was at the time. Then in late 2007, even though he had began to pick up steam, he was still behind Hillary Clinton vis-a-vis the black vote. That’s when he started overtly courting black homophobic bigots like McClurkin.
So you are right in that sense. This is a thread about this particular state Senator, not Obama. When Obama was in this man’s position, he did the right thing as far as gay issues were concerned.
hardmannyc
Chitown ^^^: You’d have better luck arguing with Fred Phelps. He’s more reasonable and has better cognitive skills.
Bill Perdue
@hardmannyc: ^^^^^^
hardmannyc – you’re just pissed because I made you change your name.
Tim Bonham
@Mark: “Donating to his opponent’s campaign the next time he’s up for re-election will be quite satisfying.”
The address for that is:
SD12 DFL
c/o Robert Keeton
PO Box 254
Brainerd, MN 56401-0254
The maximum contribution (Minnesota has strict limits) is $100 during 2009, and $500 during 2010.
lyssa
Can anyone here make a compelling case as to why trans folks should support gay marriage?
It seems like doing so would hurt trans folks, like it did in Canada when all the LGB activists packed up and went home after they got theirs.
Charles J. Mueller
@lyssa:
Girlfriend, you have been blowing that rusty trumpet for far too long now.
You never miss an opportunity to climb on the back of your brothers and sisters who are trying to support you but whom you feel the need of pistol-whipping every time our community suffers a defeat.
Bad enough that there are those “out there” who hate out guts and are doing everything in their power to marginalize, nay, eradicate us. We need the likes of you to rub salt in the wound each that happens?
What do you think the “T” at the end of LGBT stands for?
Trolls?
Cee
I’m a Cali boy and I thought Minnesota was very hick’ish. How did a gay senator get elected to begin with? LOL
I have to say that Ken Swecker’s “blanket e-mail” response was extremely unprofessional. That is definitely not the way you address the public on behalf of a political figure. CRAZY.
michael
What crap that he is not serving his best interests. He is serving them. He is a political whore who is selling out everyone including his own soul in order to keep his career flowing. He could care less about the people he represents or otherwise he would work to enlighten them, not enable their obvious bigotry and ignorance. He is probably a truly great example of a self centered, self serving individual masking his self as the opposites. A twisted, mind fuck of a response that unfortunately the simpletons of the world will buy into, including his “ASSistant”.
ConservativeRepublican
@Charles J. Mueller:
He made his myspace private a few hours after I posted the link.
EnK
I read the letter Senator Koering’s legislative aide sent to those emailing the Senator out loud to my life-partner. We live in Minneapolis, and although Senator Koering is not our state senator, I told my life partner that I was going to call the Senator.
I dialed his number, he answered on the third ring: We talked intelligently and he’s a conservative. Here’s where things are at…
When Koering original spoke about MN SF 120 Bill, a bill that would write the Minnesota marriage statutes gender-neutral, he stated that he would simply vote against it. He went on to say that “gay marriage was moving too fast for most people and he was going to push back on it”.
The Senator said that his office was overwelmed by GLBT from everywhere throughout the country calling the Senator a “Nazi Cock-Sucker” and other nonsense. He, and his staff, were disgusted, they were angry and they felt the GLBT community had gone way too far.
I opened the conversation by stating that this letter that Mr. Swecker’s mail noted that this bill (MN SF 120) was nothing but a waste of time. I told him that was uncalled for: My partner and I have been together for 10 years now – and that certainly isn’t a waste of time to discuss our relationship in the public arena.
The Senator apologized to me for Swecker’s comment. He also promised Swecker would be told on Monday that he would have to write an apology to everybody for his insensitivity. And he also noted that the email was written as a result of the blow-back they had all received from the lewd comments of the GLBT community.
We had a very long and intelligent conversation. I will not defend his politics, but I will happily discuss my conversation with anyone from the GLBT community if they would like.
I told the Senator that he has to re-think his views on the subject of GLBT equality in the arena of gay marriage. I told him that gay marriage isn’t moving too fast at all. I reminded the Senator that all of us – wear an upside-down Pink Triangle as a result directly from Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. That was over sixty years ago. I reminded the Senator that this coming June marks the 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in NYC.
My words: “Senator Koering, we’ve been plodding along for equal rights for well over sixty years… If you’re saying this is going too fast for you…then how slow should it go?!”
His words: “I know, EnK. I know. You know; I don’t know. I just might vote for this bill after all. I don’t know. I might vote for it!!’
Last Friday, the State’s House of Representatives has introduced MN HF 999 – it’s a re-write of a gender-neutral marriage bill. HF 999 essentially eliminates the word “marriage” from the law books and the House DFL is stating to the public that (paraphrased:) “If “marriage” is considered a religious word in our state, then state is getting out of the religious arena: From now on, “Marriage” will be replaced with “Civil Union”.
This new house bill also includes provisions in the Final Wishes Act, a provision specifically for same-sex couples in relating to the death of one partner.
I know everybody wants to scream a yell at the Gay Republican. But please – back off and let him get some oxygen. If you contact his office – be positive and thank him for considering his gay and lesbian family. Be encouraging. Beg him to vote for what’s right for all Minnesotans, not just for those from his Senate District!
His district is about an hour’s drive north of the Twin Cities and it’s extremely conservative. The Senator is serving his second term, where he came out of the closet publicly in the middle of his first term. His district re-elected him, knowing he was gay, so he’s an extremely nervous “fresh out of the closet” Republican. He’s not sure what to think about this and he’s no sure how to come back to his constituents.
Example: He told me that if he voted for this bill – he knows his constituents aren’t going to like him. “Does the gay community expect me to vote for this simply because I’m gay? Or do they expect me to vote what my district thinks? I think I should vote how my district feels about this – and I would be a patsy if I put my personal issues in front of their views.”
I told him: “Senator; I don’t believe that makes a good politician. Senator, a Brave politician is one who makes the tough decisions and votes for what’s right — and knows his constituents will disagree with him. But Senator, a Good politician is one who will not only vote for what’s right – but knows how to come back to his very angry constituents and explains to them why he did it and why they should be happy he voted the way he did. That – Senator Koering, is how I define a Good Politician.
He sigh (a very painful sigh) and said; “You’re right. You know.. I just might vote for it..I just don’t know.”
Please spread the word … Back off the Dude! We had dinner with friends tonight and were surprised one person at the dinner table was good friends of the Senator. He promised to call and talk to the Senator. If you make contact – BE ENCOURAGING! Be positive!
If you’re going to be all snot-faced – Don’t bother. That’s very old news.
Here are my blogger links on the topic:
http://www.mnprogressiveproject.com/diary/2679/sen-koering-i-just-might-vote-yes-for-this-bill
http://fruitfly.wordpress.com/2009/02/21/sen-koering-legislative-aide-expected-to-apologize-on-monday/
http://fruitfly.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/gay-republicans-in-minnesota-where-can-we-send-them/
On the MN House Bill 999 – my buddy Andy Birkey:
http://www.eleventh-avenue-south.com/archives/2009/02/new_bill_would.html
Thanks for your time.
Be well.
S.W.A.K.
sparkle obama
@EnK:
thanks for that.
We gays need to channel Our anger Positively, Please.
Mark
Who would have thought this issue was an EITHER/OR issue.
Either his constituents get jobs
OR
They have to marry someone of the same sex.
What to do. What to do.
Kevin (New Jersey, US)
This is what happens when we stop teaching philosophy and logic in the schools. Unclear, half-formed, and contradictory thoughts masquerade as substance. I’ll bet Mr. Swecker even has a college degree… *sigh*