Nevada GOP Senate candidate tied to anti-gay movement

The Nevada Republican candidate for U.S. Senate once belonged to a conservative third-party that held extreme anti-gay views and ran a vitriolic ad against LGBT people in state newspapers, according to Talking Points Memo.

TPM reported the views of Nevada’s Independent American Party on Thursday in an article discussing GOP candidate and former Nevada Assembly member Sharron Angle’s involvement with the group during the 1990′s.

Angle, who’s seeking to oust Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) from his seat, won the Republican nomination to run for U.S. Senate on June 9 after beating out other challengers in a statewide primary.

After being involved in the Independent American Party for at least six years in the 1990′s, Angle reportedly switched to the Republican Party in 1997.

According to TPM, the Independent American Party published a 16-page newspaper ad insert in 1994 calling for a state constitutional amendment permitting discrimination against LGBT people.

The insert refers to LGBT people as “sodomites” and portrays them as “child-molesting, HIV-carrying, Hell-bound freaks.”

Angle’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to the Blade’s request to comment on the TPM article or whether the candidate held these views.

The ad insert reportedly cites an 1814 legal treatise titled “Consequences of Sodomy: Ruin of a Nation” and other articles referring to LGBT people alternately as “homosexuals,” “sodomites” and “brazen perverts.”

Other reported sample headlines are “Homosexual Curriculum In The First Grade,” “Flawed Science Nurtures Genetic Origin For Homosexuality” and “No Constitutional Right To Be A Sodomite.”

One item from an article called “True Homosexual Character Revealed” reportedly says LGBT people “argue that they are a peaceful and gay people” but notes that “the top six U.S. male killers were all homosexuals.”

Another article, called “Can the HIV Virus Survive in Water?” reportedly raises the possbility of HIV infection through public pools, hot tubs, and municipal water supplies.

According to TPM, the ad provides information on how supporters of the Independent American Party can buy “Homophobia — No, Homonausea — Yes” bumper stickers for $1.

Janine Hansen, current executive director of the Independent American Party and editor of the 1994 insert, reportedly told TPM earlier this month that “in general” Angle “agreed with our position on the issues.”