Hackett said it. And he meant it.

Paul Hackett, who is running as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate, responded late on Monday to the Ohio Republican Party's demand that he apologize for remarks he made to The Columbus Dispatch in a news release that basically tells the ORP to take a hike.

Straight from Hackett's mouth: "I said it. I meant it. I stand behind it."

Hackett was defending his view that gay Americans deserve the same legal rights - like marriage, for example - as every other person in the country. To think that gays deserve less just because they are gay is, as he explained to the Dispatch, "un-American."

In 2004, Ohio voters approved a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Hackett: "Equal justice under the law for all regardless of who they are and how they were born is fundamental to our American spirit and our American freedoms. Any person or group that argues that the law should not apply equally to all Americans is, frankly, un-American."

And that's not all... Hackett also defended remarks he made about the Republican Party being taken over by religious fanatics.

Hackett: "The Republican Party has been hijacked by religious fanatics, who are out of touch with mainstream America. Think of the recent comments by Pat Robertson - a religious fanatic by any measure - that the United States should assassinate a democratically elected leader in Venezuela, and that Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine punishment because Sharon wished to trade land for peace."

Hackett continued: "Since the Republican Party has been utterly unable to stand for something positive, they have created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation, and have pandered to religious fanatics not to vote for something they believe in, but to vote against their fellow Americans with whom they disagree. Those among us who would use religion and politics to divide rather than unite Americans should be ashamed."

Hackett is running against Rep. Sherrod Brown, R-Ohio, for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate. The winner of that primary would face Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, in November.