When it comes to right-wing extremism, sadly, Texas seems to provide an abundance — especially with political attacks on gay people.
Case in point: Congressman Louis Gohmert, an East Texas Republican. Last week during debate over hate crimes legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Gohmert launched into a diatribe comparing homosexuality to bestiality, necrophilia and pedophilia.
Yes, that’s right: Rep. Gohmert equates gay folks with people who have sex with animals, corpses and children.
From Talking Points Memo:
“There are all kinds of perversions, what most of us would call perversions, some would say it sounds like fun, but most of us would say were perversions and there have been laws against them,” said Gohmert.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm_adM-14K4]
Of course, Rep. Gohmert is following in the footsteps of other prominent Texas politicians who have gone down the trail of gay-baiting to win votes. Gov. Rick Perry, for example, infamously said that gay veterans returning from the war in Iraq should consider living somewhere other than Texas. He also refused to disavow a suggestion by a preacher with whom he was sharing a podium that God might have sent Hurricane Katrina to “purify” New Orleans because of its supposed toleration of homosexuality. Gov. Perry was angling for the votes of the folks the preacher was addressing at the event.
There are plenty of other examples. Shamefully, in 2009 we still see Texas politicians describing fellow human beings in the most vile and venomous ways. And then they cast votes against legislation intended to protect those people from acts of violence based on hatred for who they are.
