Chris Buttars- A Reminder of the Real Face of Today's GOP

Last year Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern exploded onto the national scene with her incredibly anti-gay remarks and underscored the bigotry that is a hallmark of today's Republican Party. Now, Utah State Rep. Chris Buttars (scowling at left) has taken up the baton and has taken anti-gay bigotry to an even higher level. However, gays are not the only ones that Buttars has maligned. He doesn't like blacks either and the Utah Chapter of the NAACP is on record calling for his resignation from the legislature due to past racist remarks. In a nut shell, the GOP has become a racist, homophobic, religion based party and has betrayed what ought to be true conservative values. The Party can try t use window dressing like electing Michael Steele as RNC Chair, but Kern and Buttars are the real face of the GOP today. In terms of blacks, here are some highlights from KLS-TV5 from February 4, 2008:

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Utah's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) says Sen. Chris Buttars should resign. The group's executive committee reached that conclusion after investigating a comment Buttars made on the Senate floor two days ago. According to the NAACP, Tuesday's comment was simply the final straw. For years, they say, Buttars has been making what they call "bigoted" statements about African-Americans, gays and lesbians, and others and getting away with it.

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Tuesday's comment was quick in length, yet explosive with impact. "Senator Stevenson, this baby is black, I'll tell ya. It's a dark, ugly thing," Buttars said on Tuesday. Many people found that comment alone offensive, racist or bigoted. But Buttars has a history of such comments: referring to fellow Sen. Scott McCoy as "The Gay" one year, saying that Brown versus the Board of Education was "wrong to begin with" another time.

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In terms of gays, as the Salt Lake Tribune reports, Buttars out did himself in statements he made during the filming of a documentary for ABC 4. While Buttars is apparently trying to do some damage control - he claims he was set up - his words speak for themselves. Here are some story highlights:

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Buttars' latest remarks come from an interview with documentary filmmaker Reed Cowan that aired on ABC 4 this week. Buttars told Cowan the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community doesn't want "equality, they want superiority." "It's the beginning of the end," the West Jordan Republican said. "Oh, it's worse than that. Sure. Sodom and Gomorrah was localized. This is worldwide."

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Cowan conducted his interview with Buttars on Jan. 30, days after Buttars helped defeat the initial bill in the Common Ground Initiative, a legislative effort that would have expanded legal protections for gay and transgender Utahns. The Legislature has stopped the initiative for 2009, with a House committee voting down the final bill Wednesday. Of that first bill, Buttars boasted to Cowan, "It lost 4-2, and I killed it. I've killed every one they've brought for eight years."

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Sadly, the fact that Buttars has been consistently re-elected speaks volumes about his district. People need to take a long look at Kern and Buttars and ask themselves whether this is what any responsible political party should have among its ranks.