Gay Foe Trent Lott Won't Seek Re-Election
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

Posted: November 26, 2007 - 11:00 am ET

(Washington) Trent Lott, the GOP's second most powerful man in the Senate, is ending his political career.

The Mississippi Republican who currently is serving his fourth Senate term has been a consistent opponent of LGBT civil rights.

Lott was ousted as Majority Leader in the Senate in 2002 over remarks he made at retiring Sen. Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday. Lott had saluted the South Carolina senator with comments later interpreted as support for southern segregationist policies.

After the GOP fell from power in both the Senate and House Lott was made the Senate's Republican whip. 

In 2003 he was a lead supporter of  U.S. District Judge Charles Pickering's nomination to the federal appeals court. Pickering had been opposed by all LGBT rights groups over rulings in which included slurs against gays.

In one speech he called Pickering "one of the smartest individuals, one of the best judges I've known in my life.''

In 2004 and again in 2006, when Republicans dominated both houses of Congress, Lott was a key Senate sponsor of the proposed amendment to the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

Both efforts failed, but not before Lott in Senate speeches linked homosexuality to bestiality, incest and polygamy.

Lott also has voted against the Matthew Shepard Hate Crime bill and has voiced his opposition to including gays and lesbians in federal job protection laws.

Lott's resignation will be effective at the end of the year.

At a news conference Monday he described his 16 years in the House and 19 in the Senate "a wild ride - and one that I'm proud of."

He said he was leaving with "no anger, no malice."

Mississippi's Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican, will appoint Lott's replacement, who will serve until the 2008 elections, when voters will elect someone to serve out the balance of Lott's term, which runs through 2012.

Lott is the sixth Senate Republican to announce he will not seek re-election.

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