Tennessee Senator Stacey Campfield was reportedly kicked out of a local Knoxville, Tennessee restaurant for recent comments he made about gay people and HIV/AIDS. The Facebook page of Bistro at the Bijou reads, “I hope that Stacy Campfield now knows what if feels like to be unfairly discriminated against,” and in only 14 hours has 478 likes.
Campfield has become infamous for his comments last week to veteran LGBT journalist Michelangelo Signorile, in which he claimed it was “virtually impossible†to contract HIV/AIDS through heterosexual sex. Campfield is also the force behind his state’s infamous “Don’t Say Gay†bill.
Of course, Campfield now is claiming his comments were taken out of context, but he still stands by them.
You can sign the petition to fire Campfield, and like the Facebook page that is attempting to recall him.
Now, here’s where the going gets scary.
Campfield actually pointed to this website, claiming it offered the “cold hard facts” on the “homosexual lifespan.” Remember, this is a sitting state senator who is relying on some freakish website that looks like it was made in the early 1990’s as his source for “cold hard facts.”
And we wonder why the ignorant remain ignorant when the Internet actually has factual information as well. The is a state senator and he doesn’t bother to contact government authorities, like, the CDC, to get facts on HIV/AIDS?
Think Progress adds:
Campfield justified his comments by citing an advice column from 1988 and a Christian apologetics website.
But the facts don’t back up Campfield’s vicious lies. Most women who have been infected with HIV were infected through heterosexual sex, many from their husbands or boyfriends. In 2007, women made up more than 60 percent of adults living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, and the Global Council on Health reports that the male-to-female transmission of HIV is twice as likely as the female-to-male transmission. Not to mention the fact that his claim that gays and lesbians have shorter lifespans has already been thoroughly debunked.
Campfield has a history of degrading the LGBT community. But his lies downplay the HIV risk that women face by trying to incorrectly make it only a gay issue.
Campfield defended his outrageous comments, saying he was simply speaking “on the fly,†and that while he’s not an AIDS historian, “I’ve read and seen what other people have read and seen and those facts are out there.â€
UPDATE: We first reported that ‘Towleroad was the first to report the story.” It now appears a local Tennessee blogger, Sean Braisted, was the first to report the news, and Michelangelo Signorile tweeted the piece this morning. We try to give credit where credit is due, although it’s not always apparent! Thanks, Sean, for the excellent column. Here’s an excerpt:
Stacey Campfield, who I’ve met, talked to, and actually kind of like as a human being, is a person of power in this state who has used said power to promote discrimination, misinformation, and outright hatred towards his constituents and other Tennesseans. Knoxvillains who wish to eat out have a whole host of different options from which to choose from. But Tennesseans who want equal representation and rights have only one legislature to look to. While there are many representatives, theirs, Stacey Campfield has made it a mission in his life to make life harder for those who don’t fit his own personal view of ‘normal’.
There is nothing inconsistent or incoherent about discriminating against those with power who actively discriminate against those without power. There is no difference between refusing to serve David Duke than there is Stacey Campfield.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Stacey Campfield as Stacey Campbell in the first paragraph.Â