Sen. Chris Buttars called gay activists “the meanest buggers” and alleged they have no morals. America Forever, in full-page newspaper ads, compared gay men and lesbians to “druggies” and “hookers.”

Just words. No sticks. No stones. But such talk does hurt. It can leave emotional scars and, some observers warn, inspire others to inflict physical ones.

Utah hit a national “hate watch” list twice in recent weeks for headline-grabbing onslaughts of anti-gay rhetoric.

“It’s not the kind of America we want,” said Heidi Beirich, spokeswoman for the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala. “You can have a difference of opinion over somebody’s lifestyle but to put them in a position of threat — that’s going too far.”

The national civil rights organization monitors hate groups, such as white supremacists, and publishes “Hatewatch,” a newsletter and blog that spotlighted the comments from Buttars, R-West Jordan, and America Forever.

“The kinds of things they’re saying,” Beirich said, “can give credence to others who would like to take their actions further than speech, into the realm of violence.”

The FBI reports that in 2007, the most recent year of available data, Utah had nine hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation bias.

Not that those who oppose gay rights mean to incite violence.

 See Some fear anti-gay words will lead to anti-gay sticks and stones

Salt Lake Tribune - 

 

ens of thousands of people from Burundi, an impoverished East African nation, demonstrated Friday in their capital of Bujumbura to demand the outlawing of homosexuality, reports Agence France-Presse.

The demonstration, which drew up to 20,000 people, follows the government’s failure to implement a law that would have criminalized homosexual acts. On February 17, senators voted through a draft criminal code law that abolished the death penalty, but rejected an amendment that outlawed homosexuality.

At Friday’s protest, Jeremie Ngendakumana, the ruling party’s chairman, said, “[We are] protesting today to support the [view of the] majority of Burundians that homosexuality should be punished by law. Homosexuality is a sin. It is a culture which has been imported to sully our morals and is practiced by immoral people.”

 See Burundians Demand Homosexuality Be Criminalized Advocate.com