DNC: Do Not Cogitate?

From Queer Chanel Media, a portion of an update on the anti-discrimination suit against the Democratic National Committee:

Daughtry follows church in views on marriage

Leah Daughtry, the Democratic National Committee’s chief of staff, opposes same-sex marriage, according to transcripts of her deposition in the Hitchcock lawsuit.

“I believe, as the church believes, that marriage is intended for one man and one woman,” Daughtry said in transcripts obtained by the Blade this week.

Despite her stance, Daughtry noted in the transcripts that she has not advised Dean to oppose same-sex marriage.

Daughtry is a Pentecostal minister to a small congregation in Washington. She has said that she speaks in tongues and considers the practice “a gift given by God.”

According to the transcript, she denied that her religious beliefs impact her work at the DNC.

“People know that I am a reverend but it is completely separate from the work at the DNC,” she said.

In the transcript, Daughtry also addresses the topic of changing party rules to establish mandatory numbers of gay delegates for the national convention.

 Garry Shay, a gay DNC member, proposed the rule change in 2006.

Daughtry said she opposes mandatory numbers of gay delegates because gays have not historically encountered discrimination at the voting booth.

“My opinion was that … the premise upon which he was basing his rule was faulty because the rule … is based on historic discrimination at the voting booth and that in order for his rule to be passed he would have to demonstrate that the GLBT community had been historically discriminated against at the voting booth and he had not presented that kind of evidence.”

A few questions for Ms. Daughtry: 

• As a Pentecostal minister, have ya ever heard of Leviticus? 
• Have ya ever heard of a certain class of secular law based on one particular verse in Leviticus? 
• Have ya ever heard of the word ‘felony’? 
• Have ya ever heard of the concept of states denying the vote to people convicted of felonies?

Now, for sure, the indirect ‘discrimination at the voting booth’ that resulted from decades of sodomy convictions was not on par with what southern states did to African-Americans (and, if left to their own devices, would still be doing to them.)

But, the fact that Daughtry doesn’t see any connection at all speaks volumes.