Tennessee State Senator Stacey
Campfield on Sunday was denied service at a Knoxville restaurant over
his anti-gay views.
The Republican lawmaker told ABC
News that the owner of The Bistro at Bijou restaurant refused to
seat him and his friends.
“We were just standing there waiting
for a table, and this woman came up to me saying, 'I'm not serving
you, I'm not serving you, you hate gay people,'” Campfield
recollected. “I said, 'Ma'am I'm not a homophobe,' and I offered
to send her links from the CDC website to back up what I said about
homosexuality being a dangerous lifestyle, and being a risky
behavior.”
Campfield created a firestorm of
controversy last week when he said that a gay man was responsible for
HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and that only gay men acquire the
disease.
When Sirius XM radio host Michelangelo
Signorile asked, “What's harmful about [homosexuality]?”
Campfield asserted that “AIDS came from the homosexual community.”
“It was one guy screwing a monkey, if
I recall correctly, and then having sex with men. … It was an
airline pilot, if I recall.”
“My understanding is that it is
virtually – not completely, but virtually – impossible to
contract AIDS through heterosexual sex. … [It is] very rarely
[transmitted vaginally],” Campfield insisted as Signorile denied
the claim.
Campfield, the chief sponsor a bill
dubbed “Don't Say Gay,” which would outlaw the discussion of
sexual minorities in Tennessee's public schools before the ninth
grade, defended his remarks.
“I was talking last week on a radio
show and I said the homosexual lifestyle is a dangerous lifestyle.
There are heterosexuals in Africa that do have it, but the odds of a
person getting AIDS in America is much less unless you're having sex
with a high risk group,” Campfield asserted.
Restaurant owner Martha Boggs said she
tossed out Campfield because his “comments have gone from stupid to
dangerous and I think someone needs to stand up to him.”