Utah gov to sign bill to allow ban of gay-straight student clubs

Buttars is a moron

I have been trying to avoid ad hominem attacks, and for the most part I have been pretty good, but with knuckle-draggers like this I really can't think of anything else to say.  He and his ilk are the ones tearing this country down.  By gutting science programs, we are hobbling student who might one day become great scientists and researchers.

I have an idea:  a fundy exchange program!  We take people like Buttar, and swap them for a scientist in areas like Iraq or Iran.  I am sure there are people in those areas who are dying to get out of their repressive regimes (or, at least to get away from American bombs) and actually be able to pursue their studies free of dogma.  In return, Buttar can live in a land where clerics mandate that everyone believe in Intelligent Design (hell, I bet they don't even like that "evolution" word at all), there are no gay people, no gun control, and rich people have their say. 

Heaven for everyone.

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by: JoshWatermanMN @ Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 09:25:27 AM CST

This sounds like a radical move

but frankly, I'd be all for reviewing the terms of establishing statehood and launching a major, nationwide petition drive to Congress to revert Utah back to a federally-administered territory. It is rather obvious at this point that the state legislature there, and the governor, is incapable of supporting the federal constitution and cannot fathom the concept of protection of the rights (and religious liberties) of ALL citizens, so perhaps we should advocate the deprivation of all citizen rights in Utah so they can run their little Mitt Romneyesque theocracy without affecting the rest of the nation.

Of course, this would also be a grand opportunity for Democrats to introduce legislation restricting the rights of registered Republicans, citing their many moral deficiencies as threatening the foundation of our civilization. . .but I suppose Utah would be much better off becoming a colony of Nigeria.

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by: kevinbgoode @ Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 09:32:07 AM CST

Kevin, you're as brilliant as ever.

Buttars is a homohysteric.  Now, hysteria is a reasonsable reaction to the doubling of our national debt over the last 6 years, waging war without end as America does, the Earth's thermostat being reset to "slow and steady bake," and our imprisoning more citizens than the Soviets ever did.  We're a mess and widespread suffering is coming.  For the first time in my life, I'm saving, for it's not hard to see what's coming.  As a nation, we've a negative savings rate and when our nation's lenders say, "No more," hard times will pounce upon us.  So, homohysterics like Buttars should be hysterical: just not about homos.

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by: Holly Capote @ Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 10:04:26 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Speaking of 'homohysteria'...

I went searching for info regarding the GSA legislation and came across this tidbit from the Salt Lake City Tribune: (see whose name shows up blocking this bill)

"Sly add would end ban of sodomy"

Tucked inside a bill that greatly increases the punishment for sex crimes is a political bombshell.
  Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake City, amended the House-passed bill to make sodomy among consenting adults legal.
  And while he faced no opposition Wednesday from a five-member Senate committee, the provision is sure to raise eyebrows when it hits the Senate floor.
  McCoy, the state's only openly gay senator, drafted his own bill that would have removed Utah's anti-sodomy law, but conservative Republicans led by West Jordan GOP Sen. Chris Buttars have blocked it from a public hearing.
  The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 2003 Texas case that every state's anti-sodomy law is unconstitutional. But even if Utah's law blocking anal or oral sex is not enforceable, some lawmakers don't want to get rid of it for political reasons.
  Buttars, for one, believes stripping the law would endorse sodomy.
  No one spoke out against McCoy's amendment and McCoy did not directly address what the amendment would do.
  After the hearing McCoy would only say: "I figured I would give it a shot and see what happens."
  The sponsor of the sex offender bill, Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, told the committee that he didn't have a problem with the amendment, though he worried it could derail his bill.
  "I personally have a problem with sodomy and the court ruling, but they ruled and we have to abide by it," Wimmer told The Salt Lake Tribune after the hearing.

http://www.sltrib.co...

I think if BUTTars is as unhinged about homosexuality as he appears to be he should change his name and go take part in that "Be De-Gayed in THREE Weeks" program that Ted Haggard graduated from.

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by: inahandbasket @ Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 11:05:18 AM CST

[ Parent ]

This is DOA

Equal Access Act of 1984 - you can read the text here:

http://www.usdoj.gov...

Lambda Legal also has an exhaustive survey of the EAA and how it pertains to GSA's:

http://www.lambdaleg...

I was a participant in the first national GLSTN (now GLSEN) conference.  It was held in Salt Lake City in 1996, specifically to recognize and pay tribute to those brave high school students of East High School in Salt Lake City who took on the establishment BIGOTS.  They won the RIGHT to form a GSA under the EAA of 1984.  I met those kids, now many years out of high school.  I wonder what they think....

Anyway, I don't think their "reasoning" - "The bill would allow schools to ban clubs they believe would threaten the "moral well-being" of students or faculty." - will stand a chance as a legal argument.  But I'm not a lawyer.

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by: inahandbasket @ Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 10:54:44 AM CST

Bloody hands

Personally I think the Utah Legislature is all to fond of bathing its hands in blood. The thing I will always remember about the battle over East High's GSA is its student leader committing suicide during the fight over the student group's right to exist and meet at the school. The suicide of Jacob Orosco is in actuallity a murder perpetrated by the Utah legislature. The number of loops that those kids, and they were just kids, had to jump through just to simply meet with each other at school were incredible. The state even went so far as to ban all extracurricular clubs for a time and even considered forgoing all federal funding to escape the EAA. Those bigots are truly deranged.

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by: craigkg @ Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 18:32:34 PM CST

[ Parent ]

This has been going on for a decade!

This was big news when I lived in Utah in the 90s. Federal judges kept smacking down the SLC school board's attempt to cut out the GSA from the herd. I can't believe it's still going on. The Utah powers that be must love paying the ACLU every time they lose one of these cases.

/M/

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by: Mirele @ Fri Feb 23, 2007 at 08:06:01 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Ban clubs which threaten moral well-being?

Can I add a few clubs to the list.

Young Republicans

NRA

Kiwanis, Rotary and Lions

Please feel free to add a few of your own.

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by: TomHickey @ Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 10:56:46 AM CST

Even more..

For the Mormon majority:
Christian evangelical clubs or Catholic clubs
For the Christian minority:
Mormon clubs
For everyone:
philosophy clubs

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by: NancyP @ Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 11:04:16 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Yes!

I'm glad someone else came up with this idea!

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by: Jarred @ Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 12:28:57 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Be Careful What You Wish For

I was thinking the same thing about Romney and his recent flip-flops on gay marriage and all other topics, it seems. If Romney and other Mormons, or even regular Protestants, succeed in getting such laws, or God forbid, case law to support their concept of "religious liberty" - basically the ability for any individual or religious-affiliated organization to ignore anti-discrimination laws because they "offend" their theological sensibilities - we could be on a real slippery slope. Imagine just what you pointed out - Mormon groups thrown out of schools and public areas in the Southern states, Catholic hospitals refusing to recognize certain spouses (e.g., those married under "invalid religions" - like the LDS - and anyone divorced and remarried), and, of course, gay waiters in DC refusing to serve fundie losers who pollute our city when they visit (oh, I can dream, can't I). Didn't our Founding Fathers endorse the First Amendment just because they knew, and in some cases had lived, the nightmare of such clashes of religions in Europe?

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by: CPT_Doom @ Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 18:46:45 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Buttars and Tilton Contemplate their next legislative move

To eradicate those pesky Amendments in the Bill of Rights.

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." -- Thomas Jefferson

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by: Daimeon @ Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 11:08:33 AM CST

Trust me, that's only the tip of the iceberg

I think what's not being appreciated here is that if  Buttars and Tilton (and few others in our illustrious legislature) have their way, Alabama and Mississippi can stop competing for last place in every measure of community health - Utah will win that honor.  We're racing that direction as fast as our legislature can carry us.

In all seriousness, Buttars isn't our worst offender here in Utah, just the most outspoken.  I've been attending our legislative sessions as a citizen activists every year since 1999 and this year was by far the worst in terms of bigotry on parade.  A few years ago, during yet another failed attempt to pass actual enforceable hate crimes legislation, the talking point being used was "All crimes are hate crimes and this bill would endorse homosexuality.  I could support it if the sponsor would remove the parts about sexual orientation."  The entire Republican caucus in our state legislature was saying that. 

The year I was outed to the entire state Senate was fun - I've never seen such terror on the faces of normally stolid boring straight white men.

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by: glendenb @ Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 13:49:22 PM CST

I think these Utahans are wearing their magic underwear way too tight.

And these are the kind of people that share faith with Mitt Romney. . I think they all need subscriptions to the Undergear catalogue.

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by: Alan down in Florida @ Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 14:49:24 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Missouri

Interestingly, a similar bill is pending in Missouri.  It would require that permission forms be signed before students can participate in any clubs.  It is aimed at GSAs, of course, but the sponsor-- homophobe and ardent anti-GSA Repub Jane Cunningham -- SWEARS the bill is only so that parents will know if their kids are in the chemistry club or playing football because the kids could conceivably be hurt.  The nice thing about Utah is that their bigots are honest about what they are trying to do and why.

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by: tony2 @ Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 16:17:34 PM CST

HOLD THE PRESSES

It didn't really pass, and now it has been defeated.

http://www.365gay.co...

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by: tony2 @ Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 16:19:26 PM CST

It's still early in the session

Trust Buttars and the rest of the gay hating crew up at the Utah Lege to try again and again and again. Of course this just consumes time that could be better spent on other things.

/M/

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by: Mirele @ Fri Feb 23, 2007 at 08:09:02 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Actually almost done

The session is almost over - Utah has a 45 day session that starts on Martin Luther King day.  We're nearly done - I think this week was the last regular week of the session.  Unfortunately, the last week of the session is rules suspension when a lot of stuff gets pushed through by the leadership. 

The good news is the leadership doesn't like Buttars since he makes them look like bigoted fools - they don't mind looking bigoted, it's the fools part they don't like.

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by: glendenb @ Fri Feb 23, 2007 at 13:03:36 PM CST

[ Parent ]