Former Missouri House Speaker and Republican candidate for governor Catherine Hanaway says that a liberal culture of “sexual permissiveness” is responsible for child pornography.
Salon reports that Hanaway’s remarks were made at last weekend’s Educational Policy Conference in St. Louis, which drew right wing luminaries such as former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), anti-feminist icon Phyllis Schlafly, and Fox News host Jeanine Pirro.
Hanaway, who is also a former U.S. Attorney, rebuffed claims that conservatives are waging a “war on women,” but rather that sexual libertinism has “impoverished women” and created a culture in which child porn is acceptable.
“So, the liberals want to talk about conservatives waging a war on women,” said Hannaway, who is running in next year’s race to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon. “But, think about what they’re talking about. When their chief criticism of conservatives, the chief criticism is that we stand up for the sanctity of life. That because we are pro-life we are somehow against women. I am here to say that their culture of permissiveness towards sexual activity is the real war on women. Let’s start with the notion, well it’s not a notion, it’s a fact, that the fact that the culture of sexual permissiveness has led to record levels of out of wedlock births.”
“And what has that done for women? It has impoverished women,” Hanaway continued. “It has reduced their access to educational opportunities. It has impoverished and endangered their children. It has forced those children to grow up in households where their mothers have to work, to make it economically viable for them to exist and with no fathers. How is that culture good for women and children?”
“But it goes a step further, and it’s that step further that I want to talk about today. And this is the hard part. So, if you pursue this course that sexual permissiveness is to be valued, which is the liberal framework and that you should protect sexual permissiveness through abortions and other things, you lead to a conclusion where every sexual preference is acceptable,” she said.
Mindful of Hanaway’s anti-gay record, area equality advocates, while not surprised, view the candidate’s comments as desperately out of touch.
Never Miss a Beat
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
“Clearly gubernatorial candidate Hanaway has been away from politics too long,” said A.J. Bockelman, Executive Director of PROMO, Missouri’s statewide LGBT advocacy organization. “The LGBT community has made relationships on both sides of the aisle. To suggest sexual orientation to child pornography is an antiquated and archaic perception of the community. Of course though, that is still the perception at the Eagle Forum.”
