Podcast: The awful sound of Shelley Luthers moral bankruptcy – San Antonio Express-News

If you listen closely to Shelley Luthers six seconds of silence, you can hear many things.

Luther, the Dallas hair salon owner who was turned into a political star by Texas Republicans in 2020 when she defied a pandemic-induced state order to temporarily shut down nonessential businesses, is running for state representative.

At a Feb. 5 candidate forum, the former schoolteacher was eager to demonstrate her culture-war bona fides and figured that trampling on transgender kids was an easy way to get there.

I am not comfortable with the transgenders, the kids that they brought in my classroom, Luther said.

When they said that this kid is transgendering into a different sex, that I couldnt have kids laugh at them, like I couldnt have

On ExpressNews.com: Texas GOP candidate Shelley Luther complains that students cant make fun of transgender children

At that point, Luther stopped for six excruciatingly awkward seconds.

You could hear the panic in her pause.

You could feel the brain freeze that set in when she realized she had said the quiet part out loud; bemoaning the possibility that school bullies would be deprived of the chance to ridicule kids going through the inherently difficult process of transitioning (not transgendering) to a new gender.

You could actually hear the sound of Luthers moral bankruptcy churning like a tape loop of white noise.

Luthers potshot at transgender children came only a month after she tweeted that Chinese students should be banned from all Texas universities.

It was notable because it was so lacking in finesse that it couldnt camouflage the ugliness at the heart of the social-issue crusades being carried out by much of the Texas GOP. It was also notable because Luther is an embarrassingly awful candidate who wouldnt be running for office if Texas Republicans hadnt glorified her two years ago.

On ExpressNews.com: Shelley Luther, anti-lockdown activist and GOP candidate, said Chinese students should be banned from Texas universities

Luthers recent comments were among the subjects discussed on this weeks episode of the Express-News Puro Politics podcast.

What she is saying is, My students, my kids, should have the right to mock other kids who are different, said columnist Cary Clack.

Whether theyre transgender kids, why stop there? If theyre in a wheelchair, why cant they mock them? Because if youre giving permission to mock a set of kids for something that is different, or you perceive as different, then where does it stop?

Hear more about this and other issues on the latest edition of Puro Politics.

ggarcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @gilgamesh470

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Podcast: The awful sound of Shelley Luthers moral bankruptcy - San Antonio Express-News