Tea Party health care protesters showed their true colors Saturday, hurling racial slurs at black lawmakers and anti-gay epithets at openly gay congressman Barney Frank.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus were accosted by protesters who repeatedly racial slurs, including “nigger” as they left a heath care meeting and walked to the Capitol.
“I haven’t seen heard anything like this in more than 40 years, maybe 45.” said Civil rights icon and veteran Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia. “Since the march from Selma to Montgomery really.”
According to the website Talking Points Memo, “When Rep. Barney Frank rounded a corner to leave the building, an older protester yelled ‘Barney, you faggot.’ The surrounding crowd of protesters then erupted in laughter.”
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A CNN producer also reported hearing the word “faggot” yelled at Frank several times in the lobby of the Longworth building. Frank said he heard someone yell “homo” at him.
“I’m disappointed,” Frank said. “There’s an unwillingness to be civil.”
Frank, who said he rarely hears such slurs anymore, said the health care issue has become “the proxy for a lot of other sentiments. A lot of which are perfectly reasonable but some of which are kind of ugly.”
