Rep. Gohmert: Hates crimes amendment 'holding our soldiers hostage'

A conservative member of Congress took to the House floor Tuesday night to argue that a hate crimes amendment attached to a defense bill is "holding out soldiers well being hostage to this sociological attack on what used to be the morals of America."

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) vehemently voiced his opposition to the amendment during floor speeches in which Democratic lawmakers were mostly arguing for repealing the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy barring openly gay people from serving.

"For those who say this is critical...actually the crimes, according to the FBI have decreased regarding hate," Gohmert said. "So there are no statistics that demand this bill be attached and that our soldiers will be held hostage for this bill."

The congressman spent a portion of his speech addressing the hate crimes legislation, which is named for Matthew Shepard, a gay man who was murdered in Wyoming because of his sexual orientation, and James Byrd, who was a black man murdered in Texas because of his race.

Though he opposed the current legislation, Gohmert said he would support a hate crimes bill that allowed for a strong death penalty.

"It would be fine with me if we passed a bill that said when you do what was done to James Byrd, then the victim's family gets to choose the vehicle and the rope or chains by which they're going to drag the defendant to his death. But this doesn't do that," he said.

Gohmert added that the government could not rightly define what "sexual orientations" the hate crimes bill would cover.

"If you're oriented toward animals, bestiality, then, you know, that's not something that can be used, held against you or any bias be held against you for that [under the new law]," he said.

Gohmert also spent much of his speech railing against the repeal of DADT, calling openly gay service members a "distraction" to one another.