They’re all about sex

It seems that sex is the only thing on the minds of Arkansas legislators these days—or the denial of Arkansans’ rights to determine and act on their own proclivities and beliefs. Taking away citizens’ rights to make decisions about their own bodies is an obsession with these far-right, obnoxiously hyper-religious legislators, who appear to believe that they have a duty to dictate and proscribe the most personal and intimate choices and actions of their constituents. This legislative session has reached an all-time high (or should I say low) in hubris and hypocrisy and is a perfect illustration of the reasons Arkansas remains at the bottom of the barrel among the 50 states in health, income, education, gun deaths, and social progress.

The last time I looked, the Old Testament was not part of the U.S. or the Arkansas constitutions, and separation of church and state was still at least a pretense. Try to tell that to any of our benighted legislators, who are committed to turning back the clock on women’s and LGBTQ rights and making sure that there are enough guns and a legal license to kill anybody who thinks differently and poses a perceived threat to their homophobia and covert racism.

I love this state, which Mother Nature has endowed with such abundant natural beauty, but its elected government is a sad, sad commentary on the worst, most narrow-minded and regressive tendencies of human nature. NANCY BAXTER North Little Rock