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Meet The ‘Ex-Gay’ Candidate Running For Missouri Governor
Missouri state Sen. Bob Dixon, a Republican who announced his candidacy for governor this week, lived for five years as a gay man in the 1980s before he claims a religious awakening turned him straight.
And Dixon’s experience with homosexuality led his mother, Jean Dixon, then also a state lawmaker, to rabidly oppose a production of “The Normal Heart” at the Missouri State University in 1999.
Dixon now opposes same-sex marriage, and says he’s unsure whether he would support a statewide ban on anti-LGBT discrimination. He’s been married to his wife, Amanda (above), for 23 years, and they have three children.
Dixon talked about his experience with homosexuality at a Springfield City Council meeting where he spoke on a bias-crimes ordinance in 1991, according to report from The Springfield News-Leader that was reprinted on a blog called busplunge:
Jean Dixon says her son’s guilt almost caused him to commit suicide. Her son says one night in early October 1988 he considered crashing his car off a road.
She says she fought “The Normal Heart,” a play about AIDS and homosexuality produced at Southwest Missouri State University in 1989, because she saw it as affirming the homosexual way of life, which she says is harmful to those who live it.
“I wasn’t just some hard-nosed so-called Christian out here ranting and raving,” says the former lawmaker who was outspoken about her strong Christian beliefes during her two years in office. “It had been a heartache I had to deal with, and it was a tough one.”
Asked is she would oppose the play again, she says, “You bet. I believe it was the right thing to do.”
She says she fought “The Normal Heart,” a play about AIDS and homosexuality produced at Southwest Missouri State University in 1989, because she saw it as affirming the homosexual way of life, which she says is harmful to those who live it.
“I wasn’t just some hard-nosed so-called Christian out here ranting and raving,” says the former lawmaker who was outspoken about her strong Christian beliefes during her two years in office. “It had been a heartache I had to deal with, and it was a tough one.”
Asked is she would oppose the play again, she says, “You bet. I believe it was the right thing to do.”
Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2015/07/ex-gay-missouri-governor/