MI Republican Thinks Gays Cause Half the Murders in Cities, Refuses to Resign

dave agema, by MLive

Dave Agema called the cries for him to resign a “joke” today in an email to supporters. See if you can spot the funny.

The Republican effort to rebrand the party keeps tripping over the ugly rhetoric behind their policies. The latest fail comes from Michigan, where Republican National Committeeman Dave Agema of Grandville posted a raging anti-gay article on his Facebook wall, rife with inaccuracies (aka: conservative “facts”), like how gays are responsible for half of the deaths in large cities (not guns, eh?).

Now SOME Republicans are calling for his resignation, while he clings to his sanctity of traditional marriage hat and the elephant is torn asunder again. The Detroit Free Press reported today:

Agema’s posting Wednesday, during U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments regarding the legality of same-sex marriage, was based on an online article titled, “Everyone Should Know These Statistics on Homosexuals,” which appeared under the byline Frank Joseph, M.D.

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The post depicts gays as sexually promiscuous, rife with sexually transmitted diseases and responsible for “half the murders in large cities.”

The post from Tradition in Action cites things such as “One study reports 70% of homosexuals admitting to having sex only one time with over 50% of their partners.” So to follow this logic through, well, anyone who is promiscuous (hello, many Republicans) is a threat to traditional marriage and should therefore be denied the right to get married. Oopsie.

Citing an article written in 1993, the author of this dirty bomb shares, “Judge John Martaugh, chief magistrate of the New York City Criminal Court has said, “Homosexuals account for half the murders in large cities.””

Wait, there’s more, “Captain William Riddle of the Los Angeles Police says, “30,000 sexually abused children in Los Angeles were victims of homosexuals.”

I guess that no one in the Catholic Church can get married anymore then, if these fictitious rumors mean that gays shouldn’t get allowed to get married. But wait. Tradition in Action “is committed to defend the perennial Magisterium of Holy Mother Church and Catholic traditions.”

Oh. Of course. Defenders of the Catholic Church are behind these slurs and the Catholic Church knows morality.

We shouldn’t be surprised that Agema is basing his “facts” on a thinly sourced blog rant by a Catholic Church “defender”, which is based in part on a 20-year-old article about the opinions of “some people” back in 1993.

It seems like Agema’s a great mascot for the current GOP. Stuck in 1993? Come to the GOP. While Dave Agema‘s stated goals for the GOP are
“. . to Elect :
· Constitutional,
· Fiscal, and
· Moral Conservatives
To Public Office” (this is from his website where the state infringing religion upon citizens seems to be Constitutional), his Facebook rant is causing problems for the “electing” department.

Dennis Lennox, a Republican precinct delegate from Grand Traverse County, issued a statement Wednesday signed by 20 other Republicans, “This isn’t about what we believe either politically or as women and men of faith. This is about common decency and realizing that you cannot win an election by insulting a wide swath of the electorate, whose votes our Republican Party needs to once again form a national majority.”

Yes, the Republican Party wants Republicans who get their info from 1993 to stop insulting the people they need to vote for them! Don’t tell them what the Party really believes about them! SHHHHH, you fool. For the love of God, can’t you see we’re trying to rebrand here?

No go. Agema, who is also the chairman of the “Top Gun Republican” political action committee, told the Gongwer News Service he would not resign. He is very proud to carry the mantle of bigotry under the guise of “traditional marriage”, but he’s now distancing himself from the very article he pushed on Facebook. Those are not his words, you see? He believes horribly inaccurate and slanderous things about the gay community, but it’s not discrimination or hatred, you meanies, because he only posted them to engage in a “discussion” (where was the other side of that discussion, or is there no other side to blatantly crazy fiction?).

Matt Frendewey, a spokesman for the Michigan GOP who also issues inflammatory statements for the Tea Party against President Obama, said, “The Republican party believes every American deserves the utmost respect and dignity and we are a party that believes in traditional marriage. But that should never be confused with any form of discrimination or hate and any message to the contrary undermines the optimism and solutions that our party provides to people.”

Tell me again, how is it not discrimination to discriminate?

The policies speak for themselves: Denying a group a right based on their sexuality is discrimination, and no one, certainly not the Catholic Church, can put Humpty the broken Bigot back together again.

Sarah Jones

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