Stacey Campfield, Tennessee Senator Behind 'Don't Say Gay' Bill, Confirms He Was Asked To Leave Restaurant

The Republican senator at the forefront of Tennessee's controversial "Don't Say Gay" bill proposal has confirmed reports that he was kicked out of a Knoxville eatery by the owner in response to his recent anti-gay remarks.

In a new interview with The David Pakman Show, Stacey Campfield said of the incident, "It is true, [The Bistro at the Bijou owner Martha Boggs] asked me to leave. It's unfortunate that some people -- you know -- we can't sit down and talk about issues." (statements occur at about 8:24 in the above clip).

Campfield went on to note, "I always say liberals are the most open-minded people...until somebody actually has a different point of view, and then they sort of freak out and don't know how to handle people with different points of view."

The senator also spoke at length about both the bill itself and a controversial interview he gave last week to Michelangelo Signorile, HuffPost Gay Voices' Editor-at-Large, in which he made some surprising claims about the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the media's supposed "glorification" of homosexuals.

You can listen to Signorile's full interview with Campfield here.

Comments

[liberalleetn]

12:19 PM on 02/04/2012

Send those photos that Stacey Campfield really want to see to..2011 Flagler
Knoxville, TN 37912...write, PERSONAL on the outside of the package...

[Jefferson Vickers]

04:04 PM on 02/03/2012

Wow if the Resteraunt were closer I would go eat 3 meals a day there!

[The hell with it]

07:22 PM on 02/01/2012

I wonder how there was no law broken by that owner kicking out anyone not making a spectacle of themself and creating a scene. Next she'll be able to start kicking out blacks because they don't look like her.Or other people of different religions because they don't pray like her or anyone because she has a mean streak in her. I can only hope that people will boycott her establishment because mo matter who you are you have a right to eat anywhere you are willing to pay for the service.Let's keep the long-haired hippies out or goth wearing people or turban wearing religious people or those that wear yamulkas or tie-dye,paisley,plaid kilt,short-sleeved,lon-sleeved,bermuda-short,capris,khaki wearers. What I would have done is sat there until she closed the place for the evening and been there first thing in the morning when she opened until I was served. I would talk a blue streak all day. I am not trespassing when asking for service and have money to pay for such. I would not bend or let her get away with what she did.

[elvoz]

07:57 PM on 02/01/2012

absolutely -- can I kick two gays out of my restaurant for handholding and lip locking

and thanks for the idea -- I aint serving anyone with a yamulka or a rug or a towel on their head or a cross on their neck -- yeah and kilts too -- and druid and dervish robes are out too

[Peter G]

01:10 PM on 02/20/2012

I'm fairly certain that gay people in Tennessee did not break any laws, either. But that doesn't seem to keep Sen. Campfield from discriminating against them. If he wants to push them outside of society, Ms. Boggs can certainly push him outside of her restaurant.

[mulee]

06:13 PM on 02/01/2012

Senator, I'm going to make this very clear for you:

There's "opinion" and then there's "creating and pushing a bill that turns YOUR opinion into required law for everyone".

Which one is more likely to get you kicked out of a private establishment?

[baronvm]

03:10 PM on 02/01/2012

A Senator from Tennessee. Tennessee. A "Senator." What a surprise. Next we'll be hearing about inbred mountain people and barefoot Sheriffs. Where? Why in Tennessee. These days they even have good ol' boys they call "Senators." Well, Goll-eeee! Kudos to the restaurant owner - now all we need is about 100,000 more like her and Tennessee can join the community of nations, by gum!

[lonebuzz]

01:14 PM on 02/01/2012

"as homosexual­s do not naturally reproduce" - excuse me Senator - but not all heterosexuals can naturally reproduce either. I know several heterosexual people who were born without the ability to reproduce. It is WHO THEY ARE. NOT what you perceive them to be.

[SoquiliAsgaya]

04:33 PM on 02/01/2012

I have documented facts that 80% of people with questionable sexual choices are Republican politican affilated starting with Larry Craig and Mark Foley on up. The ultra conservative snake handlers, stricknine moonshiners cults.

[mercury613]

06:00 PM on 02/01/2012

"but not all heterosexu­als can naturally reproduce either."

Not all heterosexuals even *want* to reproduce.

[loveteec3]

07:22 AM on 02/01/2012

I do find it interesting that he assumed the restaurant owner was liberal and ruled out altogether that she may have just disliked his comments or disagreed with his sentiments, party affiliation aside. Not agreeing with a conservative does not make one liberal, and not agreeing with a liberal does not make one conservative. There are plenty of people who have like or differing opinions who don't tie themselves to any political party simply because that is the way said opinions lean.

[VagabondBull]

06:00 AM on 02/01/2012

Part 5 (final):
-Nor do we need to silence the first amendment rights of religious free speech of those in our schools whose family may hold different beliefs (as long as those beliefs are not physically threatening).

-While there is a scientific and educational need to mention the basics of heterosexuality when teaching the basics of reproduction (XY chromosomes, etc.) there is no scientific need to mention homosexuality as homosexuals do not naturally reproduce.

-We are falling behind the rest of the world in math, science, and English amongst other things. Tennessee ranks about 46th in most areas. Social engineering is just one less issue teachers should have to worry about teaching as part of their curricula.

Yours in service,

Sen. Stacey Campfield

[VagabondBull]

06:00 AM on 02/01/2012

Part 4:
-It is a parents responsibility to decide when a child is ready to grasp such a complex issue as sexuality and what they want to tell the child about that complex subject. Not a teachers.

- All children develop mentally at different rates. I do not feel a teacher with an agenda (Be it pro
or con) is the appropriate person to decide "Now is the time" for an entire class of children just because they may think one way or another on an issue and want to espouse it.

-A teacher is not a trained child psychologist or psychiatrist and could do as much harm as good to a sexually confused child.

-I doubt many on the other side would want a teacher who said "Homosexuality is evil, dirty and wrong" just because they felt that it was what is appropriate, that it is what they thought the children needed to and were ready to hear. This bill ensures neutrality from teachers.

-Physically threatening behavior is what is and needs to remain covered for all groups. Not the sexuality of the victim. We already have anti bullying legislation passed in Tennessee (In fact I co sponsored it 2 or 3 years ago when it passed) so all children are protected from bullying in our schools.

-We do not need an un equal justice system that creates special separate classes of protected people that gets special protection under the law.

[VagabondBull]

05:58 AM on 02/01/2012

Part 3:
I admit, I am not a historian on AIDS (If you listen to the actual uncut interview I was asked to tell what I had heard was the history of AIDS) The research on sex with a monkey being the first transmitter of AIDS has not been proven nor firmly dis proven. It is one of about 5 theories I was able to find on the source of AIDS. No credible source said any one was clearly definitive one way or the other.
It was first published I think in a book which documents the history of the AIDS epidemic is entitled "And the Band Played On." The author of "And the Band Played on" was appalled by the unsanitary and degrading behavior of homosexuals. He died of AIDS a year after his book was published. The homosexual pilot comment was first printed in the American Journal of medicine article about "Patient 0". His name was Gaeton Dugas. While possibly not the first person with AIDS he is still widely considered the person who widely transmitted the modern outbreak of the disease.

Here is a link on that...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ga%C3%ABtan_Dugas

As for the reason for the interview (My bill on parental responsibility of teaching sexuality to very young children) Here are some points of view for you to consider.

[VagabondBull]

05:57 AM on 02/01/2012

Part 2:
Lets just go with about 50% are female = 154,372,000 female population.
Lets then say you take absolutely no care and sleep with anyone willy nilly. Your odds of getting a female with AIDS is 1 in @ 4970.

Lets go with the pro in the article who said on average, heterosexual intercourse between an infected person and a non infected person results in transmission of the disease about "one in a thousand times." (I assume this is without a condom)
Right off the bat that puts your odds of getting AIDS through heterosexual sex at about 1 in 5 million.

Most "Normal" people I imagine would also stay away from the IV drug users, hemophiliacs, known disease carriers, prostitutes and other high risk people. Also conceding a man less likely to receive the disease then a women because of the nature of sex, the odds of a man getting AIDS from a female are pretty low.
Add a condom and some common sense and you can add probably at least add a 0 to the number."

Who IS getting AIDS
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/aa/ and http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/msm/index.htm or
_http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archive/ldn/2009/aug/09082609

[VagabondBull]

05:56 AM on 02/01/2012

Response I received from Stacey Campfield Part 1:

While I apriciate your passion, here are some cold hard facts.

Here are a few links with a compilation of facts found elsewhere mostly from the CDC

On the short lifespan of homosexuals,http://theroadtoemmaus.org/RdLb/22SxSo/PnSx/HSx/hosx_lifspn.htm

Odds of getting AIDS through vaginal sex
http://www.aliveandwell.org/html/risk_realities/whatever_happened.html
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/895/what-are-the-odds-of-getting-aids-from-ordinary-heterosexual-sex

Many people love to throw around numbers from Africa and say the AIDS numbers are higher there for heterosexuals. This is true but mostly because in Africa it is common to practice anal sex as a form of birth control among prostitutes (an activity that is much more prevalent then in the US) and others. When I spoke on the radio show I was talking of vaginal heterosexual sex in the US. What are the odds here?

This was posted in the KNS today and are probably conservative numbers as it probably includes anal sex as a form of heterosexual sex (Not what I was talking about).

"UNAIDS estimates that in the U.S., living with HIV as of 2009, 310,000 are women.The total US population as of 2010 is 308,745,538

[VagabondBull]

05:54 AM on 02/01/2012

I emailed this lawmaker about retracting his fallacious comments and the reply I received from him/one of his staffers was laughable. The links he provided to "prove" his point came mainly from christian based websites that were citing studies performed 20 years ago that have since been proven invalid.

Another link in the reply was regarding Gaetan Dugas once thought to be "patient zero" for spreading HIV in the U.S. and mentioned in the book "And the Band Played On." In the same link a little further down the page it states that his status as patient zero were now proven to be false and that HIV cases have been in the U.S. since at least 1969.

If the mods here let me I'll try and post the reply I received in its entirety.

[Terance Roy Crosby]

02:41 AM on 02/01/2012

Yeah, about that pic of him on the main page... Isn't stealing road signs illegal?

[mlsia]

12:25 AM on 02/01/2012

Make sure you keep emailing this guy to let him know how classy he is for being a bigot and how out of touch with reality he is. He deserves to be bombarded with emails for his hate.