Homosexuality is a religion, a porn ban | Kansas bills stir controversy

A pair of bills that have been proposed in the Kansas House is raising concerns.

refers to same-sex marriages as parody marriages, likening it to polygamy and marriage to an animal or inanimate object, and calls homosexuality and the LGBTQIA community a religion.

The bill argues that because there is no proof of a "gay gene," sexual orientation is a "mythology, dogma, doctrine or orthodoxy" that is part of what it calls the religion of secular humanism, which it defines as western, individualistic moral relativism.

It says like the Christian Cross and Ten Commandments, "the LGBTQ secular humanist community has the gaypride rainbow colored flag to symbolize its faith-based worldview."

automatically blocks pornography on all electronics, unless a user pays a fee.

The bill is called the "Human trafficking and child exploitation prevention act." But, the context of the bill calls for Kansas to install porn-blockers on all electronic devices sold in the state. Anyone wanting it removed would have to sign up on a registry and pay a fee.

It's not really about child exploitation or human trafficking at all, those against the bill say. They argue it violates the First Amendment.

These bills are nearly identical to similar bills that have been proposed in other states over the last few years.

Former lawmaker Rep. John Whitmer says it is a common mistake for new lawmakers to sign bills they don't fully understand.

"You have a case here in particular with the freshmen who probably didn't either take the time to read it or trusted the person who brought it to them and said, "Hey, this is a good bill" and they didn't know any better so they signed on to it," said Whitmer.

He says he spoke to a few of the bills sponsors' over the weekend and they told him they regret signing the bills.

13 NEWS' sister-station KWCH reached out to all of the sponsors behind the bill and only heard back from Rep. Cheryl Helmer, a Republican lawmaker from Wichita, who is also a counselor of Wichita Public Schools. She said she made a mistake when she signed the "parody marriage" bill.