Iowa Congressman Steve King insists in
an interview that he's anti-gay and anti-gay marriage.
The 61-year-old Republican defended
his anti-gay record when asked by a blogger from Political Correction
why he didn't join other social conservatives in boycotting last
weekend's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over the
inclusion of gay GOP group GOProud.
At least two socially conservative
lawmakers – South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint and Ohio Congressman
Jim Jordan – refused to attend the 3-day meet up in Washington
because the gay Republicans were allowed to co-sponsor the event.
“Well, let me just do a little bit of
history,” King said. “I was one of the authors of Iowa's Defense
of Marriage Act when I was in the state Senate.”
“And I've been a co-sponsor, original
co-sponsor of a constitutional amendment to establish marriage
between a man and a woman. When the seven Iowa Supreme Court
justices ruled and imposed by judicial fiat same-sex marriage in
Iowa, I opposed the three of them that came up on retention ballot.”
“I went on the judge bus tour with
the National Organization for Marriage and the Family Research
Council, and I climbed off of that bus into the heart of the
screaming, profane gays that met us at nearly every stop, and I took
them on directly, and in some cases actually — not direct violence,
but physical. Yeah, so, and then, I went back down and sat down in
the radio studio ...”
“You were physically – they, like,
physically tried to ...” the blogger interrupted.
“Well here's the extent of it,”
King said. “They get right in your face and they scream
profanities right at you. And you have to stand there and deliver it.
I finally, as my voice gave out, I turned it over to Connie Mackie
who is a verbal pugilist of the first order, and they even crowded
tight around her, so I turned my back to them and just, I backed up
into them. I kept bulldozing them away from Connie Mackie because
they were so intimidating and so threatening and so profane.”
“So,” King added. “Just in case
anybody wonders what I think about marriage.”