Louie Gohmert compares reality TV show cancellation to female genital mutilation

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) linked LGBT activism to female genital mutilation and claimed that "intolerant fascist liberals" want to ban women from owning property.

The lawmaker told Congress on Friday that "intellectual fascism" violated the civil rights of conservative Christians.

“Now, with this new intellectual fascism that has arisen in our universities, some of them – far too many of them, actually – say: ‘If you disagree with our position, we don't want you here. We want you eliminated. We don't want you to have work. We want your family defiled. We just don't want you to succeed in any way whatsoever,’” Gohmert said.

Gohmert compared the recent decision by Brandeis University to rescind its offer of an honorary degree to former Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a strong critic of Islam, to HGTV’s cancellation of “Flip It Forward,” starring David and Jason Benham, after their anti-gay statements and activity were publicized.

“We see these kinds of receptions for conservatives, for Judeo-Christian believers and followers, people eliminated from being on television because they hold the view espoused by Moses and by Jesus of marriage being between a man and a woman,” Gohmert said.

Even as public acceptance for same-sex marriage grows and federal courts strike down state laws prohibiting such unions, Gohmert claims liberals are stifling a viewpoint held by a majority of Americans.

“It is amazing that, in the name of liberality -- in the name of being tolerant -- this fascist intolerance has arisen,” Gohmert said.

He said liberals are using a tactic once employed by Nazis in Germany.

“First, they would call people haters and evil and would build up disdain for those people who held those opinions or religious views or religious heritages,” Gohmert said. “Then next came: ‘Those people are so evil and hateful, so let's bring every book that they have written or has to do with them, and let's start burning the books because we can't tolerate their intolerance.’”

He said it reminded him of another tactic that he learned about it while serving as a district court judge

“As shrinks testified before me during my days as a judge, it was called projecting,” Gohmert said. “It is those who have a characteristic and to divert condemnation on themselves, they project their characteristic on someone with whom they disagree -- so the most intolerant in America.”

He said proponents of same-sex marriage were filled with hatred for the Judeo-Christian values he said the United States was founded upon.

“Those who are the most hate-filled, who do not follow the teachings of Jesus, seek to impose or to project upon those of us who are Christians -- and some orthodox Jews and even atheists or secularists, like Ms. Ayaan Hirsi Ali -- their own hate, their own intolerance. We really need to understand what is going on,” Gohmert said.

He then compared the cancellation of the cable TV reality show to genital mutilation, forced marriage, and other indignities imposed upon women in other nations.

“It is not tolerance that becomes intolerant and says a woman who was tortured -- I don't know what else you would call some of the procedures that were done to her most private areas in the name of religion,” Gohmert said. “It was not voluntary.”

“She was ordered into a marriage she wanted no part of,” he continued. “She did not want to have to be covered up and stay in a back room and never own property and never drive. She kind of thought, like most of us do in America -- except for the intolerant fascist liberals – that, ‘Gee, women ought to be able to own property, we ought to be able to marry whom we wish, we ought to be able to espouse our own views without being called hatemongers.’”

Watch Gohmert's remarks in this video: