Oklahoma Senator Criticized For Bill that Would Protect Pastors Who Speak Out Against Homosexuality

By Rusty Surette, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Senator Steve Russell is being attacked for legislation he says protects free speech, but others say wrongly targets one group of people.

Oklahoma law doesn't cite sexual orientation as a basis for a hate crime, but federal law does. It's called the Matthew Shepard Act and was signed into law last year.

Fearing it would silence religious leaders who speak out against the gay lifestyle, Oklahoma State Senator Steve Russell introduced his own legislation that he says would protect free speech. It would also give state agencies the right to challenge any federal agency that takes an interest in a local hate- crime case.

"We have to take the current Oklahoma law and make sure we have operating provisions with regard to the new federal law," said Sen. Russell. "It is necessary."

Gay rights groups have said his bill will essentially allow Oklahoma to "opt-out" of the new federal hate-crime law, but Senator Russell says that's not the intention.

"People have tried to make this a different issue than what I'm working on and I'm working on those issues," Russell said.

There's also the issue of the language in his original bill that has already cleared the Senate. Instead of citing Title 18 U.S. Code Section 249, the Matthew Shepard Act, it cites Section 245, the federal law that covers hate crimes related to race and religion. Some call it a blunder, and it's caught the attention of national media.

On the MSNBC show "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," the host this week called the Republican lawmaker from Oklahoma City the "worst person in the world." The show host went on to say, "So, the religious nuts in Oklahoma tried to strip the rights from gays, wound up stripping the rights from the religious nuts in Oklahoma."

But Senator Russell says it's not a mistake. He says when he wrote the bill, the Matthew Shepard Act had not yet been signed into law. That's why it's not referenced in the legislation.

To help clear things up, Senator Russell has re-written some of the bill's language before it heads to the House next week.

And as far as the title of "Worst Person in the World", the Senator says being on Keith Olbermann's naughty list isn't exactly a bad thing, at least in Oklahoma.