Pol Compares Gays to Drug Dealers

A Georgia state representative known for his extreme opinions says letting gay people serve in the military is equivalent to allowing drug dealers and other criminals in the ranks.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Marietta Daily Journal, Rep. Bobby Franklin said of homosexuality, "The Bible says it's a capital offense. You want someone with unrepentant criminal behavior? And it's not just that, neither should adulterers, neither should thieves, neither should a lot of things. The church is full of sinners, but we're told in 1st Corinthians it rattled off the homosexual, the adulterer, the thief, the liar, and such were some of you, but you've been washed, you've been justified and so forth. It's not what you were. You're not punishing a thought. But do you want an unrepentant drug dealer in the military? Same thing."

Franklin has authored a variety of unusual bills, seeking to require the state to conduct financial transactions in gold or silver; prevent local governments from regulating the keeping of chickens, rabbits, or goats; exempt Georgia from the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion; and eliminate property taxes. So far, none of these has passed.

Property taxes, he said, are communist. "The first plank of the Communist Manifesto is the abolition of private property and if you tax it you're claiming ownership over it," he told the Journal, adding, "We've really adopted all 10 planks of the Communist Manifesto in one form or another in this country."

Franklin, in office since 1996, represents a portion of Cobb County, a largely suburban area just north of Atlanta. Cobb County made national news in the early 1990s when the county board passed a resolution condemning homosexuality.

Read the full interview with Franklin here.