Utah GOP Leaders Cave in to Homosexual Campaign Targeting Veteran Republican Legislator

Timid Utah GOP Leadership Rewards ‘Gay’ Activists

TAKE ACTION: Contact Utah Senate President Michael Waddoups and other GOP Utah Senate leaders and urge them to reinstate Utah St. Sen Chris Buttars (right) and NOT to punish him for speaking his mind against the aggressive and often hateful homosexual activist movement. Use the following contact information: e-mail: waddoups@utahsenate.org (other GOP State Senate leader e-mails HERE); Waddoups’ senate office: (801) 538-1407 or Utah Senate switchboard: 801-538-1035. Support Buttars at dcbuttars@utahsenate.org.

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By Peter LaBarbera

Folks, I don’t know which aspect of this story is more preposterous: the notion of anti-Christian, homosexual lobby groups like Human Rights Campaign (HRC) — with their long history of demonizing people of faith as hateful bigots — setting themselves up as arbiters of responsible speech; OR … the specter of Republican Party leaders bending to pro-Democratic HRC’s pressure tactics.

My good friend Matt Barber (a Board Member of AFTAH) is correct below: if the Republican Party’s leaders think they are going to succeed in the long run by caving in to the Left’s version of “tolerance,” then we’re looking ahead at decades of Democrat Party rule in these United States. You simply cannot appease the homosexual activist movement, and groups like HRC are now engaged in a campaign of intimidation against pro-family lawmakers nationwide. Their unsubtle campaign attempts to classify any discussion of organized homosexual activism as a “threat” as beyond-the-pale hate speech leading to violence. More ominously, savvy homosexual moneymen like Tim Gill are targeting pro-family legislators for defeat using out-of-state “gay” PAC bundling, and it’s working [see this 2007 NPR story, “Wealthy Gay Donors a New Force in Politics,” featuring Americans For Truth].

Chris Buttars is hardly alone: remember Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern, who was trashed by hateful homosexuals across the country for a speech she gave identifying the “Gay” Lobby as a serious threat to our nation? (Kern easily won reelection last year despite the hate campaign.) There have been other pro-family lawmakers who have been targeted in what is becoming a new “gay” direct-action political tactic of Intimidate, Demonize and Isolate Politically. (Take note of how the Left tried to erroneously paint Buttars as a racist; here’s a link with Buttars’ response.)

We understand that Sen. Chris Buttars is somewhat of a curmudgeon who comes from a different generation of Americans less apt to use politically-correct nuances and obey the speech codes set up by hypocrites on the Homosexual Left (who are among, of course, the most intolerant activists in the nation). But for Waddoups and the Utah State Senate GOP leadership to buckle to a group like HRC (see their pressure-letter against Buttars HERE) is unconscionable and a good example of why so many cynical conservatives call the GOP the “stupid party.”

The Republicans need to follow the example of their new chairman, Michael Steele, and get a backbone, and St. Sen. Chris Buttars should be reinstated to his post on the Judiciary Committee ASAP.

TAKE ACTION: Contact Utah Senate President Michael Waddoups and other GOP Utah Senate leaders and urge them to reinstate Utah St. Sen Chris Buttars and NOT to punish him for speaking his mind against the aggressive and often hateful homosexual activist movement. Use the following contact information: e-mail: waddoups@utahsenate.org (other GOP State Senate leader e-mails HERE); Waddoups’ senate office: (801) 538-1407 or Utah Senate switchboard: 801-538-1035. Support Buttars at dcbuttars@utahsenate.org. 

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Statement by Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs at Liberty Counsel (and Board Member of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality):

Contact: jmattbarber@comcast.net; February 24, 2009

Homosexual Activists Target Veteran Utah Legislator

Lynchburg, VA – During recent comments to a documentary film maker, Utah State Senator Chris Buttars observed that – as every major world religion and thousands of years of history have held – the homosexual lifestyle is immoral. Buttars further opined that militant homosexual activism poses a grave threat to American culture. Tens of millions of Americans and the majority of Utahns happen to agree.

Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs with both Liberty Alliance Action and Liberty Counsel*, released the following statement today in response to news that Utah Senate President Michael Waddoups has caved to pressure by an anti-Christian homosexual hate group (the “Human Rights Campaign”) and has taken punitive action against Buttars by removing him from his post as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“If you need a prime example of why the Republican Party is presently spiraling into the abyss of political irrelevancy, you need look no further than to Utah,” said Barber. “The conservative majority in both Utah and across the country is starved for leaders who will represent the traditional values upon which our great nation was founded, and who will do so boldly and unapologetically. Sen. Buttars has done just that. He was elected in Utah to represent his constituents and the conservative values they hold near and dear. He’s been tested and has passed that test. By bucking left-wing extremism and speaking truth in plain and simple terms, Buttars has shown true leadership. Although his comments certainly lacked in political correctness and were quite direct, they were acutely accurate. Wouldn’t it be nice if more politicians would speak directly and accurately?

“Unfortunately, Senate President Waddoups has failed the same test. He’s responded in exactly the wrong way. No one should be surprised that HRC and other radical leftists are calling for Buttars’ head on a silver platter. That’s what bullies do when they don’t like what they hear. The self-styled proponents of ‘tolerance’ and ‘diversity’ are the most intolerant and hateful among us.  They allow zero room for dissent and seek to destroy anyone who stands in their way.

“But what is troubling is that Senator Waddoups has played right into their hands. He’s given their radical left-wing agenda an illusory air of legitimacy. He had a golden opportunity to shine here by standing firmly behind Senator Buttars. He could have told these liberal extremists to take their extremism elsewhere. Instead, he threw Senator Buttars under the bus.

“Waddoups’ equivocation is a slap in the face to his own constituents. He’s indirectly told every American who holds a biblical view of sexual morality and who rightfully believes that radical homosexual activism poses a grave threat to our American culture, that they should be ashamed of these traditional beliefs – that they should keep these beliefs to themselves.

“Therefore, I’m asking that people contact Sen. Waddoups and respectfully request that he immediately reinstate Sen. Buttars to his post as chairman of the Judiciary Committee and publicly apologize to both Buttars and to the millions of Americans whose traditional values Waddoups has impugned,” concluded Barber.

(*Titles provided for identification purposes only.)

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TAKE ACTION: Contact Utah Senate President Michael Waddoups and other GOP Utah Senate leaders and urge them to reinstate Utah St. Sen Chris Buttars and NOT to punish him for speaking his mind against the aggressive and often hateful homosexual activist movement. Use the following contact information: e-mail: waddoups@utahsenate.org (other GOP State Senate leader e-mails HERE); Waddoups’ senate office: (801) 538-1407 or Utah Senate switchboard: 801-538-1035. Support Buttars at dcbuttars@utahsenate.org.