Jim DeMint criticized for comments on gay and sexually active single teachers
Gay groups and women's group are calling on Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) to apologize for comments he made Friday about who should and shouldn't be in classrooms.
At a 2004 debate, DeMint declared that openly gay people should not be teaching public school. "We need the folks that are teaching in schools to represent our values," he said. DeMint later added that he "would have given the same answer when asked if a single woman, who was pregnant and living with her boyfriend, should be hired to teach my third grade children."
At the time, the Senate candidate apologized: "sometimes my heart disengages from my head and I say something I shouldn't - and that's what happened yesterday. I clearly said something as a dad that I just shouldn't have said. And I apologize." His campaign manager added that DeMint was raised by a single mother and was not opposed to unwed mothers teaching.
But last week, DeMint said that he had been privately encouraged by reaction to his words.
"[N]o one came to my defense," he said at at a rally. "But everyone would come to me and whisper that I shouldn't back down. They don't want government purging their rights and their freedom to religion."
Jimmy LaSalvia of the gay Republican group GOProud told CBS News that he saw DeMint's comment as a reaffirmation of his original statement -- that gays and unwed mothers should not be allowed to teach children. "I don't know anybody in 2010 who thinks that," he said.
"Sexist bigots like Sen. Jim DeMint don't belong in the United States Congress," said National Organization for Women President Terry O'Neill. "He thinks gay women and men and sexually active single women should be banned from teaching, but he said nothing about sexually active, single straight men."
"It is salt in the wound in our community," said Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "It's irresponsible for Sen. DeMint to reassert this position in this day and age. I would ask him to apologize."
"What matters in the workplace is your ability to do your job, yet you can be fired for your sexual orientation in 29 states and for your gender identity in 38. I can't imagine what people think is 'moral' about job discrimination," said the Human Rights Campaign in a statement.
Tom Clements, the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, weighed in. "The public has the right to know the full extent of DeMint's plans to put public employees to a morals test and he should reveal details of who he would target and what the criteria for judgment are," said Clements. "DeMint's efforts to push his own zealous beliefs on all of us clearly demonstrate the extent of his radical agenda and show that he is not fit to be a senator." (Clements joined the race in response to Democrats' disappointment with their surprise candidate, Alvin Greene.)
DeMint has positioned himself as a conservative kingmaker, wading into Republican primaries and thumbing his nose at the GOP establishment. Here's a gallery of candidates endorsed by DeMint to watch this fall.
