HRC Blog

Anti-Gay Tennessee Lawmaker Says Being LGBT is Akin to Having Heroin Addiction

February 7, 2013 by Dan Rafter, Online Campaigns Manager

Tennessee lawmaker Stacey Campfield is at it again.

The lawmaker behind the state’s notorious “Don’t Say Gay” legislation recently compared being LGBT to having a heroin addiction. Campfield said:

You know, you could say the same thing about kids who are shooting heroin. We need to show them the best ways to shoot up. No, we don't. Why do we have to hypersexualize little children? Why can't we just let little kids be little kids for a while?

Campfield’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation – which passed the state Senate in 2011 but died in the legislature last year – was recently re-introduced, and is even more extreme than earlier versions. The latest bill also includes a tattle-tale clause that requires school officials to inform a child’s parents if their child comes out.

Campfield has compared homosexuality to bestiality and has claimed that gays and lesbians have shorter lifespans simply because of their sexual orientation. He’s also blamed the LGBT community for AIDS and said it was virtually impossible for straight people to contract HIV: "Most people realize that AIDS came from the homosexual community -- it was one guy screwing a monkey, if I recall correctly, and then having sex with men…My understanding is that it is virtually -- not completely, but virtually -- impossible to contract AIDS through heterosexual sex.”

Stay with HRC’s blog for the latest on the anti-LGBT youth legislation in Tennessee.