The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation (GLAAD) has criticized Utah Senator Orrin Hatch's
faithless gay people slam.
The seventy-six-year-old Republican
made his remarks while addressing about 300 people on the campus of
the Dixie State University in St. George, Utah, the Salt Lake
Tribune reported.
While discussing how to end the
Democrat's “tax-and-spend” policies, Hatch told the crowd that
Republicans need to emulate the tactics of unions, environmentalist,
personal injury lawyers and gay rights activists in supporting
Democratic candidates.
“Gays and lesbians don't pay tithing,
their religion is politics,” Hatch said.
The comment drew harsh criticism from
one the nation's largest gay advocates.
“This rhetoric is highly insulting
and offensive to lesbian and gay people, particularly to devout
followers of a wide range of faith traditions,” Jarrett Barrios,
president of GLAAD, said.
Hatch, a member of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), also complained about the
Tea Party's emotional “Throw the bums out” anthem, saying
experience matters on Capitol Hill. Utah Republicans booted
three-term Senator Bob Bennett last month and polling suggests Hatch,
who was first elected to the chamber in 1977, could face a similar
fate in 2012.