BY FRANK P. BELCASTRO

“They’re probably the greatest threat to America going down I know of.”

So what’s America’s greatest threat? The weakest economy in 80 years? Widespread layoffs, bank collapses, meltdown in the auto industry and a housing crisis?

Not according to Utah state Sen. Chris Buttars. In a recent interview obtained by Human Rights Campaign, he says America’s greatest threat is the LGBT community. He goes on to call lesbian and gay relationships “abominations” and claims LGBT people lack morals. He also says they use schools as “a recruiting station” and that LGBT people “are destroying the Constitution.”

These remarks were not made behind closed doors, but openly and unapologetically in a Jan. 30 on-camera interview with filmmaker Reed Cowen, taped in Buttars’ official Senate office.

This kind of rhetoric creates an atmosphere of hatred that incites violence against LGBT Americans and certainly contrary to the Christian dictum to love one another.

Yet, he was elected to office. What kind of people would vote for him?

– Frank P. Belcastro lives in Dubuque, IA and is a frequent contributor to The Oklahoma Observer

Editor’s Note: As to the writer’s question, we offer state Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City, and her constituents as Exhibit A.