Stacey Campfield Insists His 'Don't Say Gay' Bill Is Neutral

Tennessee state Senator Stacey Campfield argues his 'Don't Say Gay' bill is neutral.

With a 6-3 party line vote last week, the bill, which would prohibit the discussion of sexual minorities in public schools before the ninth grade, won the approval of the GOP-controlled Senate Education Committee. It is expected to reach the Senate floor this week.

Campfield has argued hat his measure would give teachers more time to focus on the basics, such as arithmetic, and in a CNN interview, he insisted the bill doesn't take a side.

When asked what was the inspiration behind the bill, Campfield responded: “Well, you can look around the nation, you see the things that are happening and the different agendas that people are pushing, one way or the other. And I just decided, you know, listen, let's leave it up to the families to decide when something is age appropriate, when it isn't age appropriate. When those children are ready to talk about those issues, let's leave it up to the families how they want to handle that issue.”

“My bill is neutral. It doesn't say anybody can speak for it or against it. So, I'm sure people wouldn't want someone coming out and saying, you know, there are some people who say, you know, we should be preaching against it and saying it's evil, dirty and wrong, or some people say hey, it's great, wonderful thing.”

“I don't think that's appropriate,” he added. “Like I said, I think we need to let the families decide that.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)

While he may be touting his bill as neutral to the mainstream press, Campfield, who has sponsored the bill in five previous sessions, likened being gay to bestiality during a 2009 interview with Sirius XM's Michelangelo Signorile.

While discussing the bill, Signorile, who is openly gay, asked, “If you teach the civil rights movement, why not teach the gay rights movement?”

“Because they're different types of movements,” Campfield responded. “If I want to talk about the bestiality movement, do you think we should be teaching that?”

Earlier in the interview, Campfield mocked Signorile's claim that people are born gay – “You don't believe that? Who are you kidding?” he rhetorically asked – and insisted that being gay was a “learned behavior.”