Chris Buttars

**EDIT ADDED AND LINK CORRECTED**

I just got an email from the HRC (Human Rights Campaign). I can't watch the video, because I don't have time to be pissed off, write letters to Utah's Senate, at the moment. I will later, trust me.

Letter from HRC President, Joe Solemonese:

So what's America's greatest threat? The weakest economy in 80 years? Widespread layoffs, bank collapses, meltdown in the auto industry and a housing crisis?

Not according to Utah State Sen. Chris Buttars. In a recent interview obtained by HRC, he says America's greatest threat is the LGBT community. He goes on to call lesbian and gay relationships "abominations" and claims LGBT people lack morals.

Just appalling. We need to make sure that these kinds of remarks by a public official do not go unanswered.

Words matter. They can't just be laughed or shrugged off. In the interview, Sen. Buttars calls LGBT people "the meanest buggers I've ever seen" – this kind of rhetoric creates an atmosphere of hatred that incites violence against LGBT Americans.

Here are a few more lowlights from Buttars' vile rant:

* LGBT people "are destroying the Constitution."
* Their "number one goal is to proselytize to youth" and use schools as "a recruiting station."
* Thanks to them we are, "moving toward a society that has no morals."
* They will "destroy the foundation of American society... In my mind, it is the beginning of the end."


Watch the video on youtube.

More to come on this later.

**EDIT**

The clip provided by the HRC doesn't give context, but it's enough. Enough to make me completely lose respect fro Sen. Buttars.

He asked, "What are the morals of a homosexual?" and answers himself, "You can't answer that because anything goes."

Hahhah. What are the morals of a straight person? Are they all completely sin free and non-judgemental like Sen. Buttars obviously is?

"They talk about being nice. They're the meanest buggers I've ever seen."

The first problem I have with this, is if you're blatantly homophobic and make comments like Buttars has, you're not going to get very good reception from the gay community. Just like you straights, we don't like being treated like a piece of rubbish. My second problem is his use of the term "bugger," which literally means "anal intercourse," maybe he's just an idiot and that's an unfortunate choice of words whose meanings he isn't quite sure about, or maybe he has the gall to insinuate promiscuity in the gay community. ''

And tell me, how are gay people destroying the Constitution? We embrace what this country was built upon. We embrace the freedom to be who we are. Are we somehow bastardizing free speech to use the word lover, partner, and mate to describe someone of the same-sex? Tell me how we've touched the constitution. Because I want to know. Because if we already have, maybe we can again, so I can marry and have the same rights as everyone else.

I thought we'd moved past gay people acting as recruiters in schools a long time ago. I know a girl who fears her future career as a teacher, because she's gay. What happens when she's out in the community with her partner? Will she be blamed for the 10% of people who have been coming out since the beginning of human kind? Like Harvey Milk said in the 1970s, "If children emulated their teachers, we'd have a lot more nuns running around."

Do you know who lacks morals, Sen. Buttars? The man that judges his fellow man. That accuses a diverse group of people-- just a diverse as the straights-- of entirely lacking morals. Of being SOLELY RESPONSIBLE for the decay of society... Instead of blaming those who are responsible. The blatantly uneducated bureaucrats that stand in front of a nation and condemn.

I understand that Buttars is from a heavily conservative state... and here's the thing I DON'T CARE. It's still unacceptable. Somewhere in Utah, there's a kid listening. A kid who is learning from people like Buttars to believe that he is wrong for loving.

"Before you echo Amen in your home or place of worship, think and remember. A child is listening."
- Mary Griffith

Take it from Mary Griffith. Her son, Bobby Griffith was driven to kill himself because his mother couldn't accept his sexuality and continued to try to cleanse him through religion. No more mothers have to lose their sons. No more sons have to feel as though they are wrong for feeling in a way that they can't help.

Just... end hate speech. End discrimination. And elect no more closet-case bigots like Buttars to office.