Talking
Points Memo is reporting that members of the Tea Party hurled an
anti-gay slur at Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank.
Tea Party protesters swarmed the
Capitol on Saturday to launch an 11th hour campaign
against a health care reform bill. Representative Michele Bachmann,
a Minnesota Republican, and actor Jon Voight, addressed the crowd at
a morning rally before members proceeded on their own to lobby
lawmakers.
Frank, who is openly gay, was
approached by an older protester as he rounded a corner to leave the
Longworth House Office Building. “Barney, you faggot,” the
anti-health care reform protester yelled. A surrounding crowd
erupted in laughter.
Other sources are reporting that
African-American Democratic lawmakers were also insulted.
Representatives Andre Carson from
Indiana and John Lewis from Georgia told The
Hill that they were subjected to racial epithets from protesters
as they walked outside the Capitol.
“I've heard this before in the 60's,”
Lewis, considered a leader of the civil rights movement, said. “A
lot of this is just downright hate.”
Appearing on NBC's Meet the Press
Sunday, Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National
Committee, denounced the racial and anti-gay slurs. “We do not
support that,” Steele, the first black person to helm the party,
said.
“What you had out there yesterday
were a handful of people who just got stupid and said some ignorant
things,” he added.