Mere months before Jonathan Saenz became president of the anti-gay group Texas Values, his wife left him for another woman, according to Hays County district court records obtained by Lone Star Q.
The revelation could help explain Saenz’s seemingly abrupt transformation from socially conservative lobbyist to homophobic firebrand.
Saenz, a devout Catholic, has been a right-wing operative in Texas for many years — working on abortion and religious liberty cases as a staff attorney for the Plano-based Liberty Legal Institute as far back as 2005.
However, it wasn’t until recently that Saenz emerged as one of the state’s best-known — and most extreme — anti-LGBT voices.
Court records indicate that Saenz’s ex-wife, Corrine Morris Rodriguez Saenz, is a member of the LGBT community who was dating another woman when she filed for divorce from Saenz in August 2011.
In early 2012, with their divorce still pending, Saenz would take the helm of Texas Values after the organization spun off from the Liberty Legal Institute, where he’d risen to chief lobbyist.
Since becoming president Saenz has been very aggressive in fighting against marriage equality and other gay rights.
You know I have known a few men that have experienced this situation. I don't know ANY that have becoming raging homphobes as the result however.
When I was talking to one of my friends I said that in some ways it was better that she had left him for a woman instead of a man.
When he asked in what way, I replied "Because when a woman leaves you for another man you might ask yourself what they have that you don't have? But in this case you know exactly what they have that you don't have, and that's just nature's fault not yours."
And then I added, "Besides now you can literally tell people that your wife left you because you were too much man for her."
This Saenz guy must be awash in insecurities for this to have had the impact on him that it seems to have had.
Just imagine, if his wife had left him for a black guy he would probably have joined the Klan.
My husband's first wife left him for another woman. It didn't turn him into a raging homophobe - in fact, he became more sensitive to LGBT issues. Damn, how I loved that man!
ReplyDeleteI remember when the resident stud-man with the hot g.f. came into work one Monday hung over and mumbling to himself. He was a real macho man, always boasting of his prowess with women and dangling his gf out there so we lesser men could see what it was like when a real Alpha male was hitting the women. We finally collared him after work and he starting bawling into his beer because his all-woman woman had dumped him for another woman. Needless to say the "empathy" was hard to work up for the guy. She ended up being a real force in the gay community while he went on to a string of increasingly shallow relationships. And yes. He hated gay people
ReplyDeleteIf you truly loved your spouse and realized that they were suffering in silent pretending to be someone they weren't just to be accepted in society -- I think you would have empathy for them. It may hurt to realize that they may have love you as a brother/sister but not as a lover, then you will need to let them go. You both deserve to be fully love, and you can accept that love comes in different ways. You can still your your ex, but in a different way.
ReplyDeleteA stinging rebuke..........has he tried therapy?
ReplyDeleteWell, he and his wife now have something in common, they both prefer women. What's his argument? This could be a "good thing".
ReplyDeleteI imagine it'll take him years of therapy to get over this one, but just imagine the ribbing he'll get from his colleagues. "The best man for the job is a woman"