Yesterday, I wrote a post about Utah state Senator Chris Buttars’ refusal to believe that gays suffer discrimination and his threat to introduce legislation that would override any effort by Salt Lake City to pass an anti-discrimination ordinance.
The Deseret News has followed-up on Buttars’ claim and just check out his utterly ridiculous explanation:
Sen. Chris Buttars has his eyes on Salt Lake City’s proposed anti-discrimination law and the state lawmaker says he would likely take action to quash the ordinance should the City Council approve it.
“I don’t think anybody should be discriminated against,” said Buttars, R-West Jordan. “But in America, we have never given special privilege or protection to little groups. We give them to the entire nation.”
Salt Lake Mayor Ralph Becker said he was “committed to eradicating discrimination in our city” last month as he unveiled the ordinance aimed at providing fair housing and employment protection for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents.
Buttars, however, said the LGBT community doesn’t fall under the same protective umbrella as race, age and religion, which “affect everybody.”
“We’ve never done what they’re asking,” he said, “nor have I seen any evidence that it needs to be done.”
The Human Rights Commission of Salt Lake City released a report last month detailing incidences of discrimination in the city, many of which involved LGBT residents, but Buttars questioned the validity of some of those claims.
“I have never seen any facts to back it up,” he said. “They want to say they’re being hurt more than someone else, I guess. If anybody had a right to special protection it would be Mormons; they’ve been persecuted but not as bad as the American Indian. But they’re not pounding on the newspaper’s door. Or the Jewish people; the Jewish people have lots of people hate them. I love them. But you know that’s true.”
So apparently, things like race, religion, and age “affect everybody” so laws banning discrimination on those grounds are okay but “sexual orientation” only applies to a “little group” so any such law is unfair. and unneeded
Here’s a newsflash: “sexual orientation” affects everyone too since everyone, even Chris Buttars, has a “sexual orientation,” just as everyone has an age and a race.
