GOP Lawmakers Slam LGBT Teens & Community

After the Republican Party announced in its party platform that it would not support marriage equality this week by calling for a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage across the country, conservative politicians are still criticizing the LGBT community and are even going after gay youth.

LGBTQ Nation reports that the Kansas Secretary of State and Mitt Romney's surrogate in the Sunflower State compared gay people to drug users and polygamists while debating the party's platform on same-sex unions in preparation for the national convention in Tampa, Fla.

Kris Kobach was arguing against an amendment that would end the GOP's support for the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

"Our government routinely judges situations where you might regard people completely affecting themselves," Kobach said. "Like, for example, the use of controlled substances, like for example polygamy, that is voluntarily entered into. We condemn those activities even though they are not hurting other people, at least directly."

After the debate, the Human Rights Campaign not surprisingly took issue with the politician's remarks. HRC spokesman Fred Sainz called Kobach's statements "offensive" and cited them as proof that the Republican Party has been hijacked by those who no longer represent what most Republicans now believe.

"It's time for leaders within the GOP to take some responsibility and realize that their outdated platform - and the incendiary and vitriolic language used by some of their colleagues like Kris Kobach - sends a dangerous message and has a very real impact on the LGBT community, particularly youth," Sainz said.

This isn't the first time Kobach has made outrageous remarks regarding the LGBT community. About eight years ago the politician targeted the HRC and other LGBT organizations and said that they support "homosexual pedophilia."

Meanwhile, Tennessee GOP State Sen. Stacey Campfield appeared on SiriusXM OutQ with Michelangelo Signorile and continued his string of outrageous statements. Campfield dismissed bullying among LGBT teens as a "lark," the national news site the Examiner reported.

"That bullying thing is the biggest lark out there," he said. "There are sexually confused children who could be pushed into a lifestyle that I don't think is appropriate with them and it's not the norm for society, and they don't know how they can get back from that. I think a lot of times these young teens and young children, they find it very hard on themselves and unfortunately some of them commit suicide."

Campfield then went on to say that it is "virtually impossible" for heterosexuals to contract HIV through sex.

"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," he said. "It was an airline pilot, if I recall. My understanding is that it is virtually, not completely, but virtually impossible to contract AIDS through heterosexual sex."

The politician is best known for promoting the controversial "Don't Say Gay" bill in Tennessee. The measure would prohibit children in grade school from talking about LGBT issues. The proposed law states, "no public elementary or middle school shall provide any instruction or material that discusses sexual orientation other than heterosexuality."

Statewide business interests have joined local LGBT organizations in opposing the measure, which they say would create the impression of an inhospitable environment to companies considering doing business in the state.