The Louisiana state lawmaker, the architect of a radical new law that would require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms across the state, is no stranger to the culture wars.
Republican Rep. Dodie Horton of Houghton, Louisiana, was also a driving force behind a bill in her state that would ban K-12 teachers from discussing gender identity or sexual orientation. A similar law, dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by critics, gained notoriety after it was passed in Florida.
The bill now awaits the signature of Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a conservative Republican who signed the Ten Commandments bill into law on Wednesday.
Civil liberties groups are already campaigning to challenge the constitutionality of both laws that Horton supports, and they have precedent: In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms was unconstitutional.
NBC News reached out to Houghton, but in previous interviews he made no apologies for bringing religion into public schools.
“I’m not worried about atheists. I’m not worried about Muslims,” ​​Houghton, a Southern Baptist, said during a House debate in April. “What I’m worried about is kids seeing and understanding what God’s law is.”
But the law could also face liturgical problems because the newly signed law requires churches to post a version of the Ten Commandments used by Protestants that differs slightly from the version used by Catholics and Jews.
The daughter of a Shreveport, Louisiana, police officer, Horton is 67, married, the mother of three and grandmother of four. Her largely Protestant northwestern Louisiana region is closer to Dallas, geographically and religiously, than it is to Catholic New Orleans in the southern part of the state.
Horton, who graduated from high school but does not appear to have gone to college, was a longtime legislative aide to Henry Burns and succeeded Burns in 2016 when he won election to the seat in a heavily Republican district.
At the time, Houghton said he was a member of Fillmore Baptist Church in Houghton.
Houghton made his first attempt to pass a “don’t say gay” bill in 2022.
“Some teachers are using class time to inform our most vulnerable citizens about their sexual orientation and gender identity preferences,” Horton told the Louisiana House Education Committee, without providing evidence.
Houghton said the curriculum should be taught to students instead of, “Hey guys! Yesterday I was a woman, but tomorrow I might be Ms. So-and-so.”
Horton’s bill never made it out of committee, and she eventually withdrew the bill altogether.
“Next year,” Horton vowed.
But the following year, Houghton authored a bill that became law in June 2023 requiring the motto “In God We Trust” to be displayed in all public school classrooms.
“The church doesn’t preach a specific religion, but it certainly recognizes a higher power,” Houghton said at the time.
Houghton, who describes himself as a “problem solver,” didn’t mention the cultural issues that sparked his national spotlight when he spoke to his local Bossier Press Tribune newspaper in September about what he would do if elected to a third and final term.
Instead, Horton spoke about everyday issues like fighting crime, lowering taxes and lowering home and car insurance costs.
“I have the experience and I have a record of voting as a Conservative which proves beyond a doubt that I have truly represented the voice of the people,” she argued.
