Notorious Homophobe Rick Perry Is Out as Energy Secretary

Homophobe Rick Perry will leave his Cabinet position as Energy secretary.

The New York Times reports the former Texas governor will leave his post by the end of the year. In that role, he spent the better part of three years trying to cut funding for renewable energy while propping up the oil industry and failing to do so with coal.

But before devoting his full energies to favoring polluting energy sources over clean ones, Perry spent years crusading against equality.

During his time as the top elected official in Texas, Perry compared homosexuality to alcoholism and defended the practice of conversion therapy.

And in a move many saw as confirmation of his obsessiveness over LGBTQ rights, Perry attempted to undermine a student government election at Texas A&M when a gay student was elected student body president.

While running for president, he ran a campaign ad promising to restore the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy barring open service by gay, lesbian, and bisexual soldiers.

"There's something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can't openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school," said it the spot.

The same commercial closed with Perry saying, "Faith made America strong. It can make her strong again," lines later echoed in President Donald Trump's campaign slogan "Make America Great Again."

Perry briefly ran against Trump for the Republican nomination in 2016, but his bid quickly fell apart. Trump later tapped Perry to join his administration, putting him in charge of an agency Perry famously had preached should be eliminated before forgetting it existed.

As with homosexuality, Perry arrived with strong opinions on the Department of Energy but no comprehensive understanding of its inner workings.