'Brownbacking': Jon Stewart tackles gay rights in Kansas, Alabama

Jon Stewart wants to make a thing of Gov. Sam Brownback&#039;s name

(Image credit: The Daily Show)

published 12 February 2015

Earlier this week, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) signed an executive order rescinding legal protections for gay and lesbian state employees. On Wednesday night's Daily Show, Jon Stewart noted that Kansas is moving in the opposite direction of most states, then made a pretty good Wizard of Oz joke: "It being Kansas, I guess Brownback clicked his heels three times and said, 'There's no place like homophobia.'" Noting that the internet turned Rick Santorum's last name into a dirty sex act, Stewart laid out a challenge: "You're really telling me we can't do better with the almost-already-there name Brownback? C'mon internet."

Stewart also looked at Alabama, where state Chief Justice Roy Moore ordered local courts to defy a federal court ruling and not hand out licenses to same-sex couples, citing the Bible. There is a nice bit about Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia as a celebrity couple, a good zinger about Mardi Gras, and a Selma reference. But Stewart brought it back home by noting that Alabama just last year passed an amendment barring the use of foreign law in state court deliberations — and since the Bible was written in a foreign land, "you have f---ed yourself with your own statute," Stewart told the Yellowhammer State. "Or as I hope it comes to be known: 'Brownbacking'."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.