State Sen. Tom Woods said he'd fight "to keep that filth out of the state of Oklahoma because we are a Christian state"

Earlier this month, Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old non-binary student from Oklahoma, died one day after being assaulted in an Owasso High School bathroom. (The details are still unclear.)

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The issue came up on Friday night during a “Legislative Update” featuring several lawmakers and sponsored by the Tahlequah Area Chamber of Commerce. An audience member, Cathy Cott, asked the four Republican members of the legislature why they had “such an obsession with the LGBTQ citizens of Oklahoma and what people do in their personal lives and how they raise their children.”

As reported by the Tahlequah Daily Press, State Sen. Tom Woods offered the worst possible response:

… Woods said that while his “heart goes out” regarding the teen’s death, he represents a constituency.

“We are a Republican state—supermajority—in the House and Senate. I represent a constituency that doesn’t want that filth in Oklahoma,” Woods said.

…

“We are a religious state and we are going to fight it to keep that filth out of the state of Oklahoma because we are a Christian state—we are a moral state,” Woods said. “We want to lower taxes and let people be able to live and work and go to the faith they choose. We are a Republican state and I’m going to vote my district, and I’m going to vote my values, and we don’t want that in the state of Oklahoma.”

To put that more bluntly, a Christian lawmaker who fantasizes about living in a theocracy claimed that his religious constituents don’t like it when LGBTQ people are alive.

Those are his “values.”

What exactly was the “filth” he was so concerned about? He didn’t elaborate. It was clear, however, that he was referring to an openly non-binary teen. For people like him, all lives mater, including the unborn… unless they grow up to be LGBTQ. In which case their murders are tolerable in the name of Jesus.

And how shitty do Christians in Oklahoma have to be that a politician could lump them together in such a heinous way? If they had any decency, they would walk away from the religion and the political party that co-opted it, but you can’t expect them to take the moral high road when their churches ingrain upon them exactly what Woods said. You also can’t expect conservative Christian leaders in Oklahoma to speak out against him or his hateful rhetoric.

Woods was given a chance to clarify his comments later in the evening, but he predictably doubled down instead:

“I support my constituency, and like I said, we’re a Christian state, and we are tired of having that shoved down our throat at every turn. I’ll let my words [spoken here] speak for theirselves, but that is my statement, and I stand behind it, and I stand behind the Republican Party values, and that is my statement,” Woods said.

Imagine being a Christian in goddamn Oklahoma and thinking you’re the victim of persecution. And then thinking that in the wake of the alleged murder of a teenager who didn’t fit that mold! The values Woods says he’s upholding—as a Christian, as a Republican, as a conservative—are barbaric and cruel. People like him want the religious majority to demonize every minority in the state.

Not a single Republican at the meeting had the guts to criticize Woods’ comment, presumably because they all fundamentally agree with him. In a state where someone like Ryan Walters can run the public schools and use his power to promote Christian Nationalism, all while appointing a right-wing hatemonger (who doesn’t even live in the state) to an educational advisory board, it’s not surprising that the GOP would turn their backs on Nex Benedict.

Woods, who was elected in 2022 to a four-year term and was involved in an altercation in which he allegedly punched a woman in the eye shortly after winning his primary, hasn’t responded to reporters’ requests for further comment.

The Oklahoma Republican Party, as you’d expect, also hasn’t said a damn thing about Woods’ comments. But they did post this Bible verse on Facebook:

See? Problem solved.

Give it time, though. They’ll no doubt post a tally mark to celebrate the death of another kid they didn’t give a damn about. A sign of how their Christian faith teaches them to love everyone… except the people they and their religious voters openly hate.