The author of the so-called “Don’t Say Gay Bill” said Tuesday that homosexuality was “very dangerous” and compared it to injecting heroin.

During an tense interview with TMZ, Tennessee state Sen. Stacy Campfield (R) said homosexuality was dangerous because of HIV/AIDS.

“The homosexual community gets AIDS at a 50 times higher rate than the heterosexual community,” he claimed. Campfield said AIDS was such large problem in Africa because sodomy was more prevalent in that part of the world. He added that sodomy was a “deadly thing to do.”

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Campfield’s proposed law would prohibit pre-K through eight-grade students from being taught any material that was “inconsistent with natural human reproduction,” such as homosexuality. He said the issue was inappropriate for children.

Near the end of the interview, Campfield was asked why schools shouldn’t teach young homosexual students how to protect themselves from HIV.

“You know, you could say the same thing about kids who are shooting heroin,” he replied. “We need to show them the best ways to shoot up. No, we don’t. Why do we have to hypersexualize little children? Why can’t we just let little kids be little kids for a while?”

Watch video, courtesy of TMZ, below:

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[H/T: Think Progress]