‘Inarticulate,’ Hatch Calls Reference to Democrats as ‘Party of Homosexuals’

SALT LAKE CITY —  Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who delivered a speech calling the liberal wing of the Democratic Party “the party of homosexuals,” said Friday his comments were “somewhat of an inarticulate statement.”

“I don’t think gays are bad, and I certainly don’t mean to criticize gays,” Hatch said on the CBS “This Morning” program. “I’m criticizing the radical left and in some ways the Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

“But I don’t mean to criticize . . . all gays as being radical left,” Hatch said. “Nor do I . . . want to denigrate them by saying all gays are Democrats.”

Hatch made his controversial comments Wednesday while campaigning in St. George, Utah.

In that speech he said Democrats “are the party of homosexuals. They are the party of abortion. They are the party that has fought school prayer every step of the way. They are the party that has basically, I think, denigrated a lot of the values that have made this country the greatest country in the world.”

But in the CBS interview, Hatch said from Salt Lake City, “It was somewhat of an inarticulate statement that I really hadn’t realized that I made. The media lifted seven or eight words out of a 25-minute off-the-cuff speech where I criticize the Democrats for basically some of their values.”

The conservative senator, who noted he is co-sponsor of an AIDS bill with liberal Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), said of the Democratic Party leadership: “They are constantly currying favor to the radical left groups, including the radical gays, the radical abortionists, the radical people who want to have gun control throughout this country. . . .”