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WATCH: Montana Senate Candidate's Record of Antigay Stances and Bad Jokes

WATCH: Montana Senate Candidate's Record of Antigay Stances and Bad Jokes

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A profile of Denny Rehberg highlights an attempt at humor by giving a colleague a gift package with a stuffed sheep, a book on cross-dressing, and a Village People CD.

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Denny Rehberg, the Republican challenging U.S. senator Jon Tester of Montana in this year's election, "has opposed the LGBT community at every opportunity" and once pranked a colleague with a gay-mocking gift package that included a stuffed sheep and a Village People CD, ThinkProgress reports.

ThinkProgress profiles Rehberg as part of its series "Better Know an Anti-LGBT Senate Candidate." It notes that incumbent Democrat Tester has been "a fairly reliable supporter of LGBT equality," but Rehberg, a U.S. House member and former Montana lieutenant governor, has an antigay record that includes opposing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and calling LGBT-inclusive hate-crimes laws "extremist." Also, in 1994 he observed of AIDS funding, "The problem with AIDS is: you got it, you die. So why are we spending money on the issue?"

Rehberg also riffed on the arrest of Idaho senator Larry Craig for lewd conduct in an airport restroom by giving Mike Simpson, a congressman from the state, a joke gift package that "included a stuffed sheep with gloves attached to it, a Village People CD, books on cross-dressing and sign language and a T-shirt that reads, 'My senator may not be gay, but my governor is Butch,'" a reference to Idaho governor C.L. "Butch" Otter, according to The Independent Record of Helena, Mont. Rehberg said he "meant no offense."

Read the full ThinkProgress report here, and watch video of Rehberg trying to evade a gay constituent's questions below.


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Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.
Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.