"You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion._ Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly._ It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, intelligent enough."

- Aldous Huxley

State Representative Dan Swecker (R-Rochester)had his picture in the daily paper last week as the point man for the senate Republican caucus's thrust to disallow any sort of rights to gay people in this state. His motivating force? "I am just following what the Bible says", he said.

I found this declaration disturbing on a couple of levels.

The primary one is that I believe there should be a separation of religious idealism and the making of state law. So does one of our most famous political sons, former Governor Dan Evans.

Apparently a lot of other members of the senate caucus agree with Swecker, however, that gays are evil, for his political brethren have give him their tacit support.

Sen. Mike Hewitt, a second term Walla Walla Republican, recently was appointed_senate majority leader. He told a newspaper reporter last week that he "picks the best person for the role" and thinks Swecker, a former commercial fisherman, is the right man to carry the No Gays flag.

Hewitt, himself a retired beer distributor, apparently subscribes to the same philosophy that his fellow travelers espouse-that gays are as unwelcome in society as the untouchables of India, but that they can be 'converted' to a savory lifestyle because homosexuality is a choice.

Don't expect to see a contingent of the state senate at a showing of Brokeback Mountain soon.

I know Mike Hewitt. He is an intelligent, charming and affable man. I am not surprised his peers chose him as a leader. I don't know Mr. Swecker, who opted to run for elective office rather than face the rigors of commercial fishing.

His allusion to the Bible is a little perplexing to me, for I find it ironic that a man who waves the Bible around in the senate chamber and declares that it is guiding him in his lawmaking process also overlooks some paradoxes in that same good book.

The Bible also condones slavery, misogyny, revenge, and whatever else people of Swecker's ilk decide it condones or prohibits.

I feel sorry for Rep. Swecker, who must live in fear that his homo button will pop out if he gets near someone who is gay. Both Swecker and Hewitt represent areas of the state that are bastions of conservatism. Life is slower there, and notions such as the existence of homosexuality have traditionally been kept hush-hush.

But when these people bring their narrow views to the conclave in Olympia, where some of their fellow lawmakers are publically out of the closet, you have to give them credit for standing up and mouthing their fearful points of view while holding the Bible.