Montana lawmaker rips conservatives who voted against bill to decriminalize being gay

Montana state Rep. Amanda Curtis (D-Butte) slammed her Republican colleagues on Monday for supporting a state law that makes homosexuality a felony.

A bill to repeal the obsolete law was passed by the state's House Judiciary Committee, but 38 Republicans voted against it. Curtis noted that during debate over the bill, state Rep. Krayton Kerns (R-Laurel) implied that LGBT individuals lacked a "moral character."

"It was so hard to sit through that and not walk across the floor and punch him," she said in video uploaded to YouTube. "That's so offensive. Talk about starting a fight. I've had so many people asking me how I sit through this testimony without just standing up and screaming -- and it was really, really hard today."

"I was able to sit through the crazy abortion talk and not be as offended as I was today," Curtis continued. "To say that our friends and our neighbors and our brothers and sisters and our cousins, aunts and uncles should be felons, and we support this because the Bible says so? First of of all, its wrong. Second of all, its wrong."

Montana state Rep. David Halvorson (R-Sidney) evoked the Bible to oppose the bill. Paradoxically, the lawmaker also said he opposed the bill because of the separation of church and state.

"Both of those two people were promoting hate today on the House floor," Curtis said. "It took every fiber of my being to not stand up and say, 'I object.' I don't know what you do except vote these people out."

She noted a Republican lawmaker, Rep. Steve Gibson of East Helena, stood up and did a "beautiful job" of condemning his anti-gay colleagues.

Watch video, uploaded to Facebook, below: