Steve Hickey is a former state representative for South Dakota’s 9th district (2011 to 2015) who received even some national attention when he sponsored a bill that would allow businesses to deny services to same-sex weddings or any others that violate their “sincerely held religious beliefs.” According to Hickey, gay rights are taking the United States “down the road of Iran,” which is certainly an odd claim to make (Iran still has a death penalty for homosexuality).
Hickey’s main characteristic seems to be a persecution complex that might make even Todd Starnes blush. When resigning from the legislature, he was ostensibly going to continue his studies of Christian ethics with a focus on the power of modern surveillance deployed by governments, which he took to be of particular importance since two-thirds of the world is hostile to Christianity. Said differently: If you don’t share his beliefs, you are hostile, an attitude that is the very definition of a persecution complex. He is also bizarrely obsessed with anal sex, going on about it at length even when it is entirely irrelevant to the topic at hand.
Presumably, this Steve Hickey, who has voiced his opposition to having high standards of evidence in medical research, apparently because quackery can’t meet them, is a different one.
Diagnosis: A rather off-putting and unsavory fellow. At least he’s (apparently) out of the legislature by now.