Tolerance is alive and well in Utah's GOP

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Tolerance is alive and well in Utah's GOP

So, last Tuesday, Utah Senate Democrats called for the ouster of a GOP lawmaker from two additional key committee posts because of his anti-gay comments. In recent comments to a documentary filmmaker, state Sen. Chris Buttars compared gay activists to radical Muslims and said they are "probably the greatest threat to America going down." He also said gay people lack morals. Here's a clip:



OK, here's my question: How many times do you have to be dropped on your head as a child before you are qualified to become a Republican legislator in Utah?

Apparently, Buttars has been reprimanded by his state party. The GOP out there in the Beehive State has decided not that Sen. Buttars is wrong in thinking that gays are the most significant threat to the United States -- far worse than armed terrorists -- but that he didn’t raise his hand and take his turn while speaking. No, it isn’t because they disagree with Buttars. The Utah GOP evidently had an agreement with this numbskull that he’d keep his trap shut unless he got permission, especially when it comes to gays. From the Salt Lake Tribune:

Senate leaders disciplined Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, not for anti-gay comments he made in a recent interview, but because he violated a deal with leadership that he not talk about gay issues, a senator said Saturday.

“Most of what Senator Buttars said, I agree with,” Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, said in a weekly Red Meat Radio program he hosts on K-TALK. “We as a Senate caucus had an agreement that because Sen. Buttars had become such a lightning rod on this issue, he would not be the spokesman on this issue, and basically he violated that agreement.”

Buttars was under fire for statements he made to a documentary filmmaker in which he compared homosexuals to radical Muslims, called them the greatest internal threat to America and said they had no morals.

Senate President Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, announced Friday that he was removing Buttars from two committees: the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee and the Senate Judicial Confirmation Committee, both of which Buttars had chaired.

In making the announcement, Waddoups said he was trying to ensure the Senate runs smoothly, but also noted that “we agree with many of the things he said. … We stand four-square behind his right [to say what he wants].”

At no time did Waddoups mention that Buttars had actually been told he could not speak on gay and lesbian issues. But it was the breach of that directive that led to the reprimand, according to Stephenson.

Of course, we know the real reason why they don’t want to let him speak -- because when he does he comes off as a complete whack job, and as a committee chair Buttars then makes the Republicans look, well, exactly what they are in Utah, a party of whack jobs.

Needless to say, Sen. Buttars is a sad, hateful little man who dishonors his office, his constituents and his status as an American citizen. The last time I checked, Sen. Buttars, gays are Americans, too. And get this, some even serve in the military and defend the right of homophobes and bigots like you to speak freely. You were rightly censured and lost your committee seat for spreading your message of hate. You should also have become unemployed. Your words were nothing more than prejudiced, ignorant bigotry. You and your ilk are truly pathetic, un-American and slowly fading into a shameful footnote in American civil rights history.

Regardless of how people feel about homosexualilty, gays, lesbians, bisexuals and the transgendered deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.

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