Earlier this week, video and audio footage of Republican Utah Senator Chris Buttars was released with very hateful and incorrect statements about the gay community. Buttars has a history of this sort of thing. Last year, he was removed from his committee chairmanship because of what is commonly referred to as the "black baby" comment. This time it will likely be referred to as the "pig sex" scandal.
This time the quotes aren't racist, but rather bigoted and hateful about the LGBT Community. Video, audio and transcripts below the jump.
Before you jump to click that "play" button, please be warned that the video is very offensive, and might be disturbing to some. It should be outrageous to all.
This is a 1:24 clip of Buttars accusing gay people of having what he calls "Pig Sex".
I am not going to provide a transcript of this, because it's just too disturbing. The context is that Reed Cowan is making a documentary on LDS involvement with Proposition 8 in California. Buttars signed an agreement, and was also told in this audio that Cowan hoped to show the documentary in film festivals starting in July. The entire interview can be heard here.
Some of the most hurtful quotes include these:
So they say, 'well, marriage is between a man and a woman and that's changed. Look around, look at all these combinations.' Combinations of abominations as far as I’m concerned.
To me, homosexuality will always be a sexual perversion. And you say that around here now and everybody goes nuts. But I don't care. I don't believe the Church will ever change it's position. I don't think they can. Because of the "Proclamation on the Family". If you read that, it's all about gender.
"Their number one goal is to proselyte the youth. That's why I threw them out of the schools because I said, 'no, it's not a friendship club, that's a recruiting station.' And there was 13 high schools and junior highs that had one and they’re all gone but two, and I don't think they’ll go 'cuz, the way it's written, the principal has the right, without recourse to the principal, to make a decision if that club's right for the school. [...] They got in and they said they was gonna sue and the ACLU, bless their black hearts, come in and say, 'Well, we'll sue you.' And personally, the principals were scared."
"But they're mean. They want to talk about being nice, they are the meanest buggers I've ever seen. They's just like the Muslems. Muslems are good people and their religion is anti-war. But it's been taken over by the radical side. And the gays are totally taken over by the radical side.
"There's just many studies that talk about how long a gay marriage averages, how many partners a gay person has and he might even say he's married to in a lifetime. And you outta get ahold of those because if I told you what it was you wouldn’t believe me. Well, it’s about 15. Not sex partners. There’s a lot more sex partners.
Well, I believe the whole thing is immoral. [...] You see, if you say to me, 'Quit shoving your morals down my throat, Buttars,' my answer back is: 'You know my morals. What's yours?' What is the morals of a gay person? You can’t answer that. Because anything goes. So, now you're moving towards a society that has no morals. There's never been a nation survive that’s done that.
I believe that you will destroy the foundation of American society because I believe the cornerstone of it is a man and a woman and a family. It is, in my mind, the beginning of the end. Oh, it's worse than that. Sure, Sodom and Gomorrah was localized, this is worldwide. You can't tell me that something was going on in Sodom and Gomorrah is not going on wholesale right now and to a large degree among the gay community. Absolutely. The underbelly is they do not want equality, they want superiority.
I believe that they're, internally, they are the greatest threat to America going down that I know of.
I can tell you the darker side. I hear all about it. I had a lady call me last night that I know well, and talk about one of the under-bellies. It's too ugly to talk about. I'm not going to talk about it.
Note: that "ugly thing" mentioned here is the "Pig Sex", as referenced in the above video.
I don't know why they act out like they do. You know some of them dress so bizarre. You take the transsexuals. Which they want to now be called transgender. They gotta get a kinder word. It's like abortion. I mean, pro-choice sounds pretty cool.
So, here we have a Utah State Senator, who is Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, making utterly hateful remarks about the gay community, lying about some truly disgusting acts that are not part of the community, and even saying they are the greatest threat to America, while comparing them to "radical Muslims".
After the video and audio surfaced, Senator Buttars used the Senate's blog site to say that Reed Cowan lied and took advantage of him. Shortly after Buttars posted this, it was proven that his accusations were lies. A local news station even called Buttars out for his lies. It was proven through the audio that Buttars' "1 year" timeframe was false, because Cowan was explaining the process to him, and said he hoped to show the documentary in film festivals as early as July. There's also a signed document authorizing Cowan to do whatever he wanted with the video.
Local LGBT community leaders were calling for Buttars' resignation, and there were even over 100 comments on Buttars' blog post with heated opinions.
This morning the Utah State Senate called a press conference, which I was lucky to get into, to make an announcement about Senator Buttars. (My personal blog posts from the press conference can be found hereand here with a little more locally flavored detail.)
Senate President Michael Waddoups (R) announced that Senator Buttars had been stripped of his Chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Waddoups said that this was so that Buttars would be more free to speak his mind, without representing that committee. Buttars will remain a member of the Senate Rules Committee. The audio from the Press Conference can be found here.
The LDS Church released this statement regarding Senator Butters:
From the outset, the Church’s position has always been to engage in civil and respectful dialogue on this issue. Senator Buttars does not speak for the Church.
Many Utahns believe that the LDS Church has their hand in the Utah political cookie jar, and so this statement is likely to have at least some impact on local politics. Even with their recent involvement in Proposition 8 in California, and opposition to the LGBT community, not even the LDS Church could stand behind Senator Buttars.
However, local activists feel like this may have just added salt to the wound. There was no apology by Buttars, or by the Republican leadership. Senator Waddoups even implied during the press conference that he agreed with at least some of what Buttars had said. Democratic Minority leaders said after the press conference that they would, of course, welcome a sincere apology, but that anything forced would be disingenuous.
Sadly, after Buttars' racially charged "black baby" remarks last year, this was exactly what happened. He was stripped of his committee chairmanship, only to have it returned as soon as the new year arrived. This appears to be a pattern, and one has to wonder exactly how far will Utah Republicans let Buttars go, before actually giving him the boot? And for a party that, especially in Utah, sees itself as the "party of morals", are there going to be any left before that party crumbles in on itself?