Catholic Government Appointee Loses Job Over Views on Homosexuality
From The Baltimore Sun:
WASHINGTON // Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. fired one of his appointees to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority yesterday after the board member asserted on a local cable talk show that homosexuals lived a life of "sexual deviancy."(emphasis and editorial comment added)
The termination came a few hours after Metro board member Robert J. Smith, an architect and unsuccessful Republican candidate for the General Assembly from Montgomery County, was publicly confronted by a transit board colleague. Board member Jim Graham, a District of Columbia councilman who is openly gay, called on Smith to disavow his remarks or resign during yesterday's regular meeting of the panel, which oversees Metro business.
Graham said he was gratified that Ehrlich decided to replace Smith. Earlier in the day, Smith said that he stood by his beliefs, which he said stemmed from his Roman Catholic faith, and insisted that he would not resign unless ordered by the governor.
"Governor Ehrlich got it; Mr. Smith was clueless until the end," Graham said. "This is serious. To defend this point of view is beyond the pale. And so I think Governor Ehrlich got that very clearly, very quickly. So I appreciate his action."
Ehrlich said in a statement that Smith would be replaced immediately.
"Robert Smith's comments were highly inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable," the governor said. "They are in direct conflict to my administration's commitment to inclusiveness, tolerance and opportunity." [ED.: This is a "conservative" Republican?]
In an interview last night, Smith criticized Ehrlich for bowing to public pressure. "At this juncture, I assume that the confrontation that arose today and the heat it generated was too much to take in an election year," he said. "I'm disappointed that the governor's office kind of reacted with dispatch to a groundswell of press criticism without contacting me."
Earlier, Smith was unrepentant in a discussion with reporters, saying that Graham was attempting to create "high theater" and that Smith's personal views should not have been aired in that forum. Smith also reaffirmed his beliefs - expressed on the show 21 This Week, a political roundtable that runs on cable Channel 21 in Montgomery County - and said he is entitled to his opinion.
"The notion that I consider homosexual behavior as deviant behavior is correct," Smith said.
When asked whether he should apologize to Graham for upsetting him, Smith said he would not. "I'm sorry that he feels that way, but I don't agree that his lifestyle is an appropriate way to live one's life," he said.
[More]
My Comments:
Coming soon to your workplace.
What kind of world do we live in where Mr. Smith is the one considered deviant because of his beliefs?
posted by Pro Ecclesia 12:39 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Hmmm....seems to me that I once read the phrase, "Woe to those who call good evil, and evil good...".
And I note that liberals never see the irony in their own hypocrisy, i.e., the heterophobe governor showed intolerance and lack of acceptance of the viewpoints of others, by firing someone he labelled as being intolerant...and the governor 'remained clueless to the end'.....personally I hope the governor is haunted by dreams of Ann Coulter pointing a finger at him. That would shake him down to his bigoty boots !
I think Governor Ehrlich is more of a gay-fascist-a-phobe than a hertophobe. He is running for reelection in a liberal state during what promises to be a very tought year for Republicans, after all. I still wouldn't vote for him if I lived in Maryland, and I'd send him a letter telling him precisely why.
As I've said before, It's coming. Just watch. Their right to be left alone is quickly morphing into the end of our right to decline to participate.
And also the end of our right to even disapprove.
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