An Indiana lawmaker said this week that
he's opposed to LGBT protections because “being gay is a behavior”
like being a “psychopathic killer.”
“You can't control it sometimes. I
understand that,” State Rep. Woody Burton, a Republican, said
Saturday during a town hall meeting in his hometown of Whiteland.
“If someone's a psychopathic killer, it's a behavior thing. They
can't help it. Okay? Somebody's a homosexual, maybe it's a genetic
thing. Maybe it's not. They can't help it. But it's still a
behavioral thing.”
“This thing with Subway and Jared is
a classic example of what's the next step,” he continued, referring
to former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle, who last year pleaded guilty
to crossing state lines to have sex with a minor. “And you say,
'Oh, that will never happen.' I've got article on my computer at
home from the English newspapers saying that those people can't help
it and they ought to be protected in England.”
“If I pass a law that says
transgenders and homosexuals are covered under the civil rights laws,
then does it say anywhere that fat white people are covered?” he
rhetorically asked.
Burton's comments came before a Senate
committee approved an LGBT protections bill opposed by LGBT rights
advocates for excluding transgender people and providing broad
exemptions.
(Related: LGBT
groups oppose protections bill that cleared Indiana Senate panel.)
Peter Hanscom, interim director for
Indiana Competes, criticized Burton in comments to The
Indianapolis Star.
“Rep. Burton's comments display a
lack of overall education and understanding of the legal
discrimination that LGBT Hoosier face daily,” Hanscom said. “False
comparisons that suggest sexual orientation and gender identity are
'behaviors' identical to obesity or child molestation are
categorically false and have no place in this conversation.”