Mo. senator: Gay chorale resolution rejected

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A state senator says her resolution honoring the Heartland Men's Chorus has been rejected by the chamber's top leader because it mentions gay men and fighting homophobia.

Democratic Sen. Jolie Justus of Kansas City said she had planned to present the resolution during the group's "And Justice for All" performance on Saturday at Kansas City's Folly Theater.

The Kansas City-based chorus was founded in 1986 and has performed throughout Missouri and Kansas as well as nationally and abroad. Its "And Justice for All" program honors anniversaries of female suffrage, Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech and the Stonewall gay rights riot in New York.

Missouri lawmakers approve hundreds of courtesy resolutions every year, usually honoring such milestones as constituents' 50th wedding anniversaries or Eagle Scout achievements.

Before the Legislature took a weeklong break earlier this month, Justus asked Senate President Pro Tem Charlie Shields about the resolution. Shields said he couldn't sign the document as written because some senators might find it too controversial.

"I thought the language that Sen. Justus had would probably not meet the standards of all of the senators," Shields, R-St. Joseph, said Thursday.

Shields added that some resolutions have been rejected because liberal senators objected to the content.

Shields offered to rewrite the resolution, but Justus refused.

"I told him, 'The words you're asking me to take out, they aren't making any statements, they're just descriptive words,"' said Justus, who is gay.

Rather than "de-gay" the resolution by removing words such as LGBT and homophobia, Justus said, she will present the Heartland Men's Chorus a certificate from her office rather than one from the full Senate.

"I'm going to let them know, 'Your state Capitol finds you to be offensive just because you're gay,"' she said.