By Marshall Zelinger
m.zelinger@krdo.com

DIVIDE - A former un-wed teenage mother can't believe the derogatory term used by Colorado Springs Representative Larry Liston.

"A slut is a whore, that's the same word," says 63-year-old Divide resident Carolyn Cook.

Cook says she was shunned as an un-wed teenage mother.  She also has a daughter, who at the age of 19 was not married and pregnant.

"My daughter's not a slut, she's gone through some hard things in her life," says Cook.

Representative Larry Liston used the term "slut" when talking about teenage pregnancies at a Wednesday luncheon for the Colorado Health Foundation.

"That's the words that I used and I regret in the way it was interpreted," Liston said Thursday.  "I was talking really about personal reasons and how we have to be accountable for our actions."

"What comes out of somebody's mouth is what's really in their heart," says Cook.

Cook finds the words discriminatory.  When she won an art scholarship in high school, the organization ultimately didn't give it to her because she was pregnant.

"I'm a survivor, I made it.  I raised my children, I was a good mother," says Cook.  "He needs to talk to some young women, he needs to have some compassion.  If I had the authority to fire him, I would fire him for making such a derogatory statement."

This isn't the first time an El Paso County representative has used the term "slut".  In 1998, then-County Commissioner Betty Beedy was quoted saying women who receive child support and sleep with men, are sluts.  Beedy told NEWSCHANNEL 13 in 1998 that her comment was misinterpreted.

Liston's comments follow last month's attention from Representative Doug Bruce.  Hours before Bruce was sworn in as a representative, he kicked a photographer from the Rocky Mountain News.  Bruce wanted the photographer to stop taking his picture during the Morning Prayer.  His colleagues later censured him.