Rick Perry: How can you tell an election's been stolen? The gay guy wins.

America's 14th Secretary of Energy- the one who forgot that was an agency he wanted to abolish during one of his two flame-out runs for President,



the one who then flamed out on Dancing With the Stars-



-turns out to have so much energy that running Energy (and more past, unknown, and unique qualifications for public policy pronouncements) cannot contain him:

As Texas' first Aggie governor and as someone who was twice elected Yell Leader of Texas A&M University, I am deeply troubled by the recent conduct of A&M's administration and Student Government Association (SGA) during the Aggie student-body president elections for 2017-2018.

What got the Man in the Genius Glasses so het up?

When I first read that our student body had elected an openly gay man, Bobby Brooks, for president of the student body, I viewed it as a testament to the Aggie character. I was proud of our students because the election appeared to demonstrate a commitment to treating every student equally, judging on character rather than on personal characteristics.

But according to Perry, the gay guy stole the election.

Brooks did not win the election. He finished second by more than 750 votes to one Mr. Robert McIntosh. However, McIntosh was disqualified by the SGA Election Commission and Judicial Court through a process that - at best - made a mockery of due process and transparency. 

At worst, the SGA allowed an election to be stolen outright.

...Every Aggie ought to ask themselves: How would they act and feel if the victim was different? What if McIntosh had been a minority student instead of a white male? What if Brooks had been the candidate disqualified? Would the administration and the student body have allowed the first gay student body president to be voided for using charity glow sticks? Would the student body have allowed a black student body president to be disqualified on anonymous charges of voter intimidation? 

We all know that the administration, the SGA and student body would not have permitted such a thing to happen. The outcome would have been different if the victim was different.

Reaction has mainly been of the gobsmacked variety.

"It's astounding," said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University who has studied Texas politics for decades. "He's written it as a call for fairness, not that he's come out against the first gay student body president at A&M, but the extraordinary part is that he took the time to do this when he should have so many bigger fish to fry in his current job." 

Mark Jones, a Rice University political science professor who has watched Perry political career rise and fall for years, said he, too, was surprised by Perry's intervention into the A&M election. 

"This must be his inner Aggie speaking, because this is certainly not something you expect a cabinet secretary to weigh in on – actually, probably not even a governor," Jones said. "It's strange. Of all the things he could have an opinion on, this is probably not the smartest move for a cabinet secretary. He must really be upset about it."

Jones is right. Perry despises LGBT Americans. In 2007-08 he took time from his schedule as Texas governor to write On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For, a long screed against the present and the future and wannbe gay Scouts in particular.



A 2016 HRC survey of his views found,

Marriage: Perry supported a ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage in Texas, supports a federal constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage nationwide, and has attacked judges who have ruled against same-sex marriage bans. He even defied a Department of Defense rule that would have granted LGBT service members access to domestic partner benefits.

Discrimination: Perry attacked the Obama Administration’s work to protect LGBT people around the world from discrimination, and he opposed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would have protected LGBT workers in the United States from employment discrimination. He also defended Gov. Mike Pence’s right to discriminate legislation.

Conversion Therapy: Perry has campaigned with and given speeches to organizations that promote dangerous “conversion therapy” that has led to LGBT minors committing suicide.

Adoption: Perry defended Texas’ ban on LGBT couples adopting children, and said he would support a federal measure to ban LGBT couples from adopting.

Anti-Bullying: Perry signed a bill that required schools to have anti-bullying policies, but the bill did not include LGBT-specific provisions. He also signed a hate crimes bill that was opposed by his predecessor, George W. Bush.

Harmful Rhetoric : Perry has attacked LGBT members serving openly in the military, and in opposing LGBT participation in the Boy Scouts, compared himself to an abolitionist fighting against slavery. He said that those Texans who support same-sex marriage should move to California.

According to the Texas Tribune, during a campaign stop in Temple, TX, Governor Perry said, “We're creating more jobs than any other state in the nation. ... Would you rather live in a state like this, or in a state where a man can marry a man?”

In 2014, “Whether or not you feel compelled to follow a particular lifestyle or not, you have the ability to decide not to do that,” Perry said at an event in San Francisco. “I may have the genetic coding that I’m inclined to be an alcoholic, but I have the desire not to do that, and I look at the homosexual issue the same way.”

But rather than be accused of #AltFacting a good Christian man, let Rick Perry speak for himself: