I imagine by now you’ve probably heard about the latest outrageous remarks spewing from the pie-hole of Utah state senator Chris Buttars, and you may be thinking to yourself, “what the hell is with that place anyhow?” Well, I live in this place, and I don’t get it either.
As far as I’m concerned, Senator Buttars is an ignorant, hateful old son-of-a-bitch who oozes contempt for anyone who isn’t just like him, i.e., white, male, heterosexual, Republican, Mormon,* and dressed by Mr. Mac. I have no doubt that in another time and another place, he would’ve been proud to stand alongside Governor Wallace on the steps of that elementary school. He is an embarrassment to this state and he ought to be an embarrassment to his church, as well, although I know there are quite a few people in both who agree with his opinions but are too polite to phrase them in terms as inflammatory as he likes to use. There’s got to be or else he wouldn’t keep getting elected.
When you’ve spent your entire life in Utah, as I have, nearly 40 years now, it is impossible — or at least highly dishonest — to deny that there’s a deep, ugly wellspring of bigotry flowing beneath this state. It’s directed at many types of people for all kinds of reasons, all of which basically boil down to someone being “different.” But not everyone who calls Utah home drinks from that spring. Not everyone here is afraid of people who don’t look like they were pressed out of some kind of biological cookie-cutter, or who don’t believe the things we do or behave and think in exactly the way we do. It disgusts me that this big-mouthed, belligerent, obstinate asshole keeps drawing national attention to himself and making it look as if his bad attitude is representative of what Utah is all about, even as he tries to portray himself as a misunderstood victim of a liberal press and “mean” special-interest groups. Mean, Buttars? Seems to me that’s a classic case of the pot talking to the proverbial kettle.
This isn’t about the political football issue he’s discussing in the interview that started this brouhaha, gay rights, not really. It’s about a nasty-spirited, awful man who likes to try and hurt people he doesn’t like. You can see it in the video excerpts of that interview, the glitter in his eye when he starts throwing around nasty terms like “pig sex” — a term I’ve never heard before the righteous Mr. Buttars introduced it to me, by the way, and I fancy myself a reasonably worldly guy — he’s itching for a fight, and he’s being deliberately provocative in hopes of getting it. He’s a bully and an ass, as bigots usually are.
Buttars makes me ashamed of my home state, ashamed that this is a place where enough people agree with his thinking to keep voting him into office. But I have to say again, and keep saying it as loudly as I can, that not everyone from Utah is like him.
* Disclaimer: I’ve got nothing against Mormons. As I’ve said before, most of my friends and family are Mormon and they’re good people whom I love, even when I occasionally disagree with them. But a lot of Buttars’ bile is fueled by, or at least informed by, his religious beliefs. I don’t suggest he’s a bigot because he’s Mormon — you can find fearful, close-minded bastards in any particular group — but Mormonism gives shape to his bigotry, and membership in the church is very obviously one of the criteria he uses to judge others, so I consider it fair to mention it here.
