Oklahoma candidate for U.S. Senate warns of "rampant" lesbianism

Joe McCulley, school superintendent in Coalgate, chuckled when asked about Coburn's remark. "He knows something I don't know. We have not identified anything like that. We have not had to deal with any issues on that subject--ever," McCulley said. The comment came at a town hall meeting in Hugo on August 31 and was taped by a Democratic campaign worker.

John Hart, spokesman for Coburn, said the remark was made during a broader discussion about the challenges parents face in society "where our kids are getting mixed messages about sexuality." Hart would not say that Coburn misspoke. "I wasn't there," he said. Of the educators' skepticism, Hart said: "If that's what they say, I guess we will have to take their word for it."

Coburn and Carson are vying for the post that Republican Don Nickles is leaving after 24 years. The race could be pivotal in the battle for control of the Senate.

http://www.advocate.com/new_news.asp?ID=14031&sd=10/13/04

Former Rep. Tom Coburn, the Republican candidate in Oklahoma, sparked a controversy when he warned of “rampant” lesbianism in some Oklahoma schools. GOP Rep. Jim DeMint, running for the Senate in South Carolina, caused a stir by saying that openly gay people and unwed pregnant women should be barred from teaching in public schools.

http://www.dallasvoice.com/articles/dispArticle.cfm?Article_ID=5240

Across the Red River, a Republican congressman running for an open Senate seat has zeroed in on what he says is a shocking moral crisis in the public schools.

According to Muskogee obstetrician Tom Coburn, teen-age girls in southeastern Oklahoma are having sex in school bathrooms.

With other girls.

Quoting an Atoka, Okla., campaign aide, Coburn told a Hugo, Okla., audience Aug. 31: "He was telling me lesbianism is so rampant in some of the schools in southeast Oklahoma that they'll only let one girl go to the bathroom.

"Now think about it. Think about that issue. How is it that that's happened to us?"

At first glance, this does not seem to be the most urgent public concern in Oklahoma schools, since it is guaranteed not to contribute to the teen pregnancy rate.

However, I can see how it might be unsettling to parents, if not to the other girls waiting their turn for the bathroom.

Coburn has explained that he was referring to the moral decay of America, which is also what he says he meant when he described his campaign against Democratic congressman Brad Carson as "a battle of good versus evil."

Presumably, he thinks he's "good."

I phoned two Oklahoma school officials, one in Oklahoma City and another in Hugo, to ask about this bathroom debauchery.

Both broke out laughing.

Hugo Superintendent Dwight Davidson started giggling so hard that he had to get up and close the office door.

"Nobody has ever heard of anything like that," he said.

"Our problems are not same-gender. Our problem is keeping the different genders separated."

Hugo residents have "taken great offense" at the idea that schoolgirls can't safely go to the bathroom, he said. Southeastern Oklahoma is not exactly a hotbed of public lewdness.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/local/9975928.htm?1c