I was surprised this morning to see an article that showed Senator Buttars in a positive light.
Eric Ethington and Elaine Ball, founders of the grass-roots, service-oriented Pride in Your Community, stopped Republican Sen. Chris Buttars in his driveway on Saturday morning to share some home-baked bread and conversation.
Buttars invited Ball, Ethington and two other gay activists inside his home for what turned into an hourlong chat about Equality Utah’s Common Ground Initiative, a collection of Democratic-backed bills that would provide some legal protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Utahns.
"I don’t think we were expecting such a warm welcome," Ball said. "It was nice to be invited in."
The bread-and-Buttars discussion chipped away some stereotypes on both sides.
"That group has been hostile to me for many years," Buttars said Tuesday. "They said, ‘Hi,’ and it was easy to recognize they weren’t there to argue or to condemn me. They were there to talk."
I’m sure the senator is very happy to see an article that does not cast him in a bad light.