A split legislative committee on Thursday dismissed allegations of misconduct against a southern Oregon Republican who read a sexually explicit book passage on the House floor.
The House Committee on Conduct met virtually at noon to discuss whether Rep. Dwayne Yunker, R-Grants Pass, violated legislative rules and created a hostile work environment after he read a passage from the book “The Haters,” on the House floor. Yunker, who routinely uses the three minutes allotted to each lawmaker for comments to rail against Democrats and LGBTQ+ issues in particular, read the passage to protest the book’s accessibility to high schoolers in his district on March 17.
The Oregon Legislative Equity Office, which operates similar to a human resources department for lawmakers, lobbyists and legislative staff, received at least two complaints from legislative staff members alleging Yunker made sexually explicit remarks on the House floor that day. The identities of the staff members were not disclosed during the meeting or in a report investigating the instance.
One of the staff members subsequently accused Yunker of retaliation after he publicly disclosed the letter that the Oregon Legislative Equity Office had delivered to his office informing him of the allegations against him.
Two of the four lawmakers on the committee, Republican Reps. Kevin Mannix of Salem and Ed Diehl of Stayton, voted to dismiss the allegations that Yunker engaged in verbal conduct of a sexual nature. Meanwhile, Reps. Jason Kropf, D-Bend and Rep. Thủy Trần, D-Portland, voted to support the allegations. The motion failed to pass because of the 2-2 vote.
Misconduct or freedom of speech?
Lawmakers on the committee spent two hours discussing amongst each other and listening to the results of the investigation from Legislative Equity Officer Bor Yang and independent investigator Kia Roberts, both of whom found credibility in the staff complaints.
Diehl voted against the misconduct allegations against Yunker, explaining that what’s debated on the House floor is protected speech. And while he is sensitive to workplace harassment complaints, he said people shouldn’t be working in politics if they’re offended by debate.
“Part of our job is to also uphold the Constitution and preserve the ability of legislators to speak freely on behalf of their constituents,” Diehl said. “We have difficult things to talk about, and this issue is very important to many of my constituents and Rep. Yunker’s constituents.”
Kropf said he somewhat agreed with Diehl about the extent to which lawmakers have freedom to say what they want to on the House floor, and he agreed with the Republicans that Yunker did not act in retaliation because the staff members’ identities were kept confidential.
“His release of the information did not target any individuals,” Kropf said, while acknowledging the courage it took from the staff members to file a complaint. “It targeted a system. And so my view is, when I look at the intent, I don’t see intent of retaliation against the complainants. I see an intent to expose and complain about a system which the representative disagrees with.”
Trần was consistently outspoken against Yunker’s remarks and the accusations of retaliation, even calling Kropf’s understanding unjust and saying that it disregards the people who made the complaints.
“You understand the intent of Rep. Yunker, but do you understand or take into consideration the intent of the victims that were involved?” she asked Kropf, adding that she was “very disappointed and ashamed” to be a legislator today.
Yunker was not present at the meeting, but shortly after the meeting concluded he celebrated the committee’s decision on social media.
“This isn’t just a victory for me,” he wrote. “It’s a victory for every Oregonian who believes their elected representatives should speak freely, without fear of punishment for their viewpoints.”
In a previous news release about the investigation against him, Yunker said he stood by every word he read and would not apologize for defending parental rights and biblical values.
