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(108,903 posts) Tue Jan 31, 2012, 08:52 AM Jan 2012

Christie Refers to Gay N.J. Lawmaker as “Numbnuts”

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2012/01/30/Christie_Refers_to_Gay_NJ_Lawmaker_as_Numbnuts/

New Jersey governor Chris Christie called a gay state lawmaker “numbnuts” Monday while attempting to explain his controversial remarks from last week about a marriage equality referendum.

The Star-Ledger reports that the Republican governor made the comment about Assemblyman Reed Gusciora during a press conference in Trenton where he clarified his remark that activists in the 1950s and ’60s “would have been happy to have a referendum on civil rights rather than fighting and dying in the streets in the South.” Christie drew the analogy last Tuesday while calling for lawmakers to put marriage equality to a public vote and reiterating his vow to veto any bill that reaches his desk.

On Monday, the governor followed up his comment by saying, “The political climate in the South didn’t give them the option to have a referendum back then.” A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed that 52% of New Jersey voters support same-sex marriage. The governor added, “They wished they would have had the option, but the political climate did not permit it, meaning they would not win.”

Then, according to the Star-Ledger, Christie singled out Gusciora, one of two openly gay state lawmakers, as “numbnuts” for comparing him to segregationists such as Lester Maddox and George Wallace because of the referendum suggestion. Prominent African-American officials and leaders of the Democratic-controlled legislature had also expressed outrage over the referendum comments.