A gay Democratic lawmaker in Missouri challenged a Republican representative over their state’s transgender athlete bill.
Ian Mackey, 35, slammed Chuck Basye, 63, for supporting the Save Women’s Sports bill – a transgender athlete bill that would remove trans-female athletes from women’s sports.
During a debate on the bill in the state House Chamber Thursday night, the representative largely focused on Basye’s family, specifically his gay brother Scott, who was afraid to tell his brother over fear that it would be ‘held against him.’
Mackey used Basye’s family history to make a point that he, personally, used to fear ‘nice people’ like Basye, ‘who took me to ball games, who told me how smart I was, and then went to ballot voted for crap like this.’
‘Gentlemen, I’m not afraid of you anymore,’ he said on Thursday night. ‘I couldn’t wait to get out, I couldn’t wait to move to a part of our state that would reject this stuff in a minute. I couldn’t wait, and thank god, I made it.
‘And I think every day of the kids that are still there, who haven’t made it out, who haven’t escaped from this kind of bigotry.’
Ian Mackey, 35, slammed Chuck Basye, 63, for supporting the Save Women’s Sports bill – a transgender athlete bill, which would remove trans-female athletes from women’s sports. Mackey used Basye’s family history to make a point that he, personally, used to fear ‘nice people’ like Basye, ‘who took me to ball games, who told me how smart I was, and then went to ballot voted for crap like this’
Basye, whose brother Scott is gay, admitted his sibling was fear of retribution when he came out, but the representative said he ‘didn’t know’ why his brother would he was ‘hold it against him.’ He said: ‘It never would have happened, I’ll tell you that. My kids, at that point in their lives, adored my brother’
Mackey admitted Republicans ‘may win this today,’ but in the long run ‘you’re going to lose.’ The state’s Senate passed the bill earlier this month and it is now in the house.
The young representative told Basye that he ‘would have been afraid to tell you too.’
‘I would have been afraid to tell you too,’ he repeated. ‘Because of stuff like this, because this is what you’re focused on, this is the legislation you want to put forward, this is what consumes your time.
‘I would have been afraid of telling you too. I used to be afraid of people like you growing up.’ The Democrat admitted that Hickory County, where he grew up, would ‘vote tomorrow to put this in place.’
Later on, Basye took to Facebook to call his Democratic counterpart a ‘crybaby’ and said he didn’t let the attack faze him as he ‘went home afterwards, enjoyed a delicious glass of Maker’s 46 Bourbon, then laid down and slept like a baby!!’ The post eventually made its way to Mackey’s Twitter, where he responded he ‘looked forward’ to their next meeting
Mackey brought up the story Basye had previously told about his mother calling him to tell him his brother Scott was gay.
‘Your brother wanted to tell you that he was gay, didn’t he?’ he questioned.
The Republican didn’t dispute the story, saying: ‘[Scott] was expressing that to the family, and he thought that we would hold that against him and not let my children be around him.’
Mackey pressed further, asking him why he thought Scott would think that.
Basye said he ‘didn’t know’ why his brother would think that. He said: ‘It never would have happened, I’ll tell you that. My kids, at that point in their lives, adored my brother.’
Despite his calm response in the chamber, Basye had stronger words for his fellow representative on his Facebook page, where he called Mackey a ‘crybaby’ and said he was ‘worried about his re-election.’
More than a dozen states have passed legislation banning transgender athletes from women’s sports and Missouri could be the next
‘His rhetoric during the debate has absolutely nothing to do with the amendment I offered to House Bill 2140,’ Basye wrote on Facebook.
‘During the three-hour debate the radical democrats attacked my character and made many slanderous accusations! I was called a Nazi, misogynist, a supporter of sexual assault and abuse, and I was aligned with North Korea, Russia and Iran!’
Despite the onslaught of reported name-calling, Basye said he didn’t lose any sleep over it, writing: ‘It didn’t phase me at all, I went home afterwards, enjoyed a delicious glass of Maker’s 46 Bourbon, then laid down and slept like a baby!!’
The Facebook post later made its way to Mackey’s Twitter, where he reacted by posting a GIF of a man brushing off his shoulders with the caption: ‘I look forward to seeing Chair Basye at Tuesday’s 9am House Education Committee hearing.’
More than a dozen states have already passed legislation to transgender athletes from women’s sports, including Texas, Florida and Tennessee.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10723769/Gay-Democratic-lawmaker-Missouri-challenges-GOP-rep-transgender-athlete-bill.html
