Honorable mention toJim Campbell,but giving him a separate entry would be rather ridiculous. Instead we returnto … the state legislatures – Tennessee, this time. Stacey Campfield served asa state representative from 2005 to 2010, and despite a record of being astupid bigot got elected to the state senate in 2010. In 2014 even the goodpeople of Tennessee’s 7^th district seems to have had enough andmanaged to ditch him in the Republican primary elections.

Much of his work as a representative concerned standardwingnut issues, likesponsoring a bill to issue death certificates for aborted fetuses in 2007 (he said wanted peopleto be able to find out how many abortions were being performed in Tennessee andto note the loss of human lives, but those figures are, of course, alreadyavailable, so Campfield was lying – big surprise), and in 2009 he introduced abill to limit lottery winnings to $600 for people on public assistance andprisoners becausehe is evil people on public assistance should not bebuying lottery tickets. (Tennessee law already prohibited the use of publicassistance money to purchase lottery tickets, so the point was presumablyreally to show that he is merciless on poverty.) Rather unsurprisinglyCampfield didn’t restrict his feelings of disgust to poor people and criminals,and in 2008, he proposed a bill to ban teachers from teaching as part of thelesson plan about homosexuality in Tennessee's public elementary and middleschools, saying that the topic should only be discussed by each student’sfamily. He has alsoexpressed incredulity over the fact that psychology departments aren’t teaching their students how topray away the gay with homosexual clients.

But his efforts in the house of Representatives pale whencompared to his efforts as a state senator (a more detailed narrative can befoundhere).In 2011 he managed to gain international attention whenhe revived his 2008 “pro traditional family education” – the infamous “Don’t Say Gay” bill–complaining that gay activists were using claims about “bullying” as a cover for pushing “theirsocial agenda in schools” and that Hollywood is “glorifying” homosexuality. Tomake sure no one would suspect him of being reasonablehe also pointed out that “[m]ost people realize that AIDS came from the homosexual community – itwas one guy screwing a monkey, if I recall correctly, and then having sex withmen,”an urban legend,and that “[m]y understanding is that it is virtually – not completely, butvirtually – impossible to contract AIDS through heterosexual sex,”estimating the odds of heterosexual vaginal transmission at 1 in 5 million.And “[w]hat’s the average lifespan of a homosexual? It’s very short. Google ityourself,” said Campfield, apparently referring to the insane andmethodologically laughable ramblings-poorly-dressed-as-scientific-investigations of lunatic pseudo-psychologistPaul Cameron.Meanwhile, Campfield’s colleague, representative John Ragan,tried to explainhow homosexuality doesn’t really exist.

In 2014Campfield compared mandatory signups under the Affordable Care Act to the “train rides” the Jewstook under Nazi Germany (“Democrats bragging about the number of mandatory signups for Obamacare is like Germans bragging about the number of mandatory signups for ‘train rides’ for Jews in the 40s”). He later complained that criticsmissed the point, which they surely didn’t (“the post was meant to drawattention to the loss of freedom that we are currently experiencing,”said Campfield,so the critics definitely didn’t misunderstand it), and besides there aredeath panels and government funding abortions (false),concluding that “I think Jewishpeople should be the first to stand up against Obamacare.”

In 2014 he also passed legislation protecting schools,teachers and students from possible prosecution for using traditional winterholiday greetings or displays. Though innocuous-sounding, it is pretty clearthat it was intended as means to encourage religious proselytazion by teachersin public schools.

And if you wish to know Campfield’s views on the separationof church and state, as well as on evolution,this one is illuminating – virtually none of the “facts” cited are correct. It complainsthat evolutionists build “supposition upon supposition” and that scientifictheories are both removed from common sense andalways changing,therefore they should be viewed with suspicion (as should the separation ofchurch and state be because [some oblique analogy]).

To date there have been two musicals and one play writtenabout Campfield and his life in the legislature.