Utah State Senator Chris Buttars says
he will block a proposed Salt Lake City gay protections bill.
Buttars' contempt for the gay and
lesbian community is well documented. In 2008, he sponsored a bill
that took aim at a proposed Salt Lake City gay partner registry.
State lawmakers worked out a compromise with city leaders and
eventually the registry opened as the mutual commitment registry.
“I don't think the discrimination
they scream about is really real,” he told Salt Lake City-based
KCPW radio on Monday.
“I'm watching that to see what they
try to do, and if they keep pushing it, then I will bring a bill
about it,” Buttars added.
Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker is
backing the bill, which bans discrimination based on race, sex, age,
disability, sexual orientation and gender identity (transgender
protections) in the areas of employment, public accommodations and
housing. Religious groups and state agencies would be exempt from
the law. Becker, 57, is expected to introduce his final bill to the
City Council in mid-September.
In February, Senator Buttars, 67, was
reprimanded by Senate leaders over anti-gay remarks he made in a yet
to be released documentary. Republican leaders removed him from his
chair of the powerful Judicial Committee.
Clips of Buttars' remarks leaked to the
press on the same day the Utah Legislature voted down five gay rights
bills.
In an interview conducted with
filmmaker Reed Cowan for the upcoming documentary 8: The Mormon
Proposition, the Mormon lawmaker called the gay rights movement
“probably the greatest threat to America.”
“They're mean. They want to talk
about being nice. They're the meanest buggers I have ever seen.”
“It's just like the Muslims,” he
adds moments later. “Muslims are good people and their religion is
anti-war. But it's been taken over by the radical side.”
On the subject of gay marriage, Buttars
said the institution is the beginning of the end: “What are the
morals of the gay person? You can't answer that because anything
goes.”