One Cheer For Senator Buttars?

By now you may have heard a bit about what is going on in Utah. Or not. First we have the utter failure of every one of the Common Ground bills. These were launched after Prop 8, to try to get the Mormon church to make good on its statements that it did supported at least some kind of minimal benefits for LGBT couples. I think we can all see how far that support went:

No Common Ground In Utah [BTB]

Utah House Business and Labor Committee Endorses Anti-Gay Discrimination in Employment and Housing [BTB]

Utah Legislators Show Blatant Contempt for LGBT People [BTB]

And then we had the astoundingly bilious comments made by the titular (in this post) Utah state senator Chris Buttars (Box Turtle Bulletin has a full transcript and audio.)



Well, now we have some more news about Buttars:

Utah Senate May Sanction Buttars [BTB]

Now, there's not much info now, according to Jim Burroway:

It’s unknown right now what the GOP leadership will announce tomorrow. They may strip Buttars of his committee chairmanships, or they may extract some sort of apology. Resignation, at the moment, appears unlikely. But whatever the move, it seems to be an attempt to head off threats by minority Senate Democrats to bring the embarrassing episode to the Senate floor.

But there is this interesting tidbit that has come out of the whole thing:

A Republican senator told the Deseret News that GOP leadership is already asking that work get under way on a new version of the Common Ground bills intended to secure rights for gay and other nontraditional couples. The package of bills carried by Democrats has failed this session, but the senator said leadership is interested in seeing if “a common point of reference” can be found on issues including the ability to file a wrongful death suit and secure health insurance benefits.

Perhaps this lends itself to a new strategy. I don't know if it would be repeatable or not, but maybe a good way to get at least some basic protections in places where the odds are stacked against us is to get ragingly homophobic politicians to speak out and give their tirades, thereby shaming their more humane colleagues into taking at least minimal action.

So, while I'm not going to give you three cheers (or any, like as not), I would thank you, Sen. Buttars, for being a big enough public asshat to inspire shame in your party members. (And, of course, for once more showing people what the anti-gay movement tends to look like when the mask slips a bit.)