"If I were your brother, I would have been afraid to tell you, too”

Mackey recalled Basye telling a story about his brother a year ago during a similar debate. Basye said he had received a phone call from his mother.

“Your brother wanted to tell you that he was gay, didn’t he?” Mackey asked Basye.

Basye said his brother was hesitant to share his sexual orientation with the family out of fear he would have been shunned.

“Why do you think he thought that?” Mackey said, to which Basye said his brother would have been embraced, no matter his orientation.

“Can I tell you if I were your brother, I would have been afraid to tell you, too?” Mackey asked. “I would have been afraid to tell you too, because of stuff like this. Because this is what you’re focused on, this is the legislation you want to put forward. This is what consumes your time. I would have been afraid to tell you too. I was afraid of people like you growing up.”