Yuma Mayor Al Krieger Photo By KYMA NBC11 News By Brody Levesque (Bethesda, Maryland) June 13 | An recalcitrant Yuma. Arizona Mayor Alan Krieger has told the Yuma Arizona Sun newspaper's staff reporter Chris McDaniel that:
“As mayor I must respect the lifestyle choices of others, no matter how disagreeable they are with my personal beliefs or my personal moral standards. I apologize for my comments at the Memorial Day service at Desert Lawn cemetery on Memorial Day.”
In the referenced speech, Krieger had said;
"And I cannot believe that a bunch of lacy-drawered, limp-wristed people ... could do what those men have done in the past.”
The mayor also defended his position in an earlier interview with KYMA NBC11 News in Yuma:
“I'm reluctant to compare myself to George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, but I did get some feedback, and I don't think I said anything different than what they would have said.”
According to McDaniel in his article:
Local gay rights activist Michael H. Baughman said he disagrees with that reference to Washington:“History records prove Gen. Washington sent Benjamin Franklin to Paris to meet with the openly homosexual Prussian military genius Lt. Gen. Frederick Von Steuben, to ask him to come and train the American troops,” Baughman said. Von Steuben arrived at Valley Forge, that cold winter of 1778, with a young French nobleman who was his ‘assistant' and lover ... It is unlikely that Gen. Washington, engaged in founding a nation, had the time or inclination to concern himself with who was sleeping with whom.”
McDaniel writes that Baughman also expressed his disapproval saying:
"He should have left out the part about his own personal beliefs … because he is the mayor of Yuma. He should have just apologized. Your personal beliefs have no business in the public forum. It is disgraceful the chief executive of the city of Yuma, who should be representing all Yuma citizens, indulged in such character assassination of a particular group of fine and upstanding men and women who served in our armed forces,” Baughman said. “And what example does he set for those who wish to serve?”
The mayor's remarks had spread virually over the Internet and by Thursday had been covered by such prominent as bloggers Joe Jervis of Joe.My.God, and Andy Towle of Towleroad. The mainstream media and LGBT media had also picked up on the story resulting, in one case from the Phoenix Arizona's New Times Newspaper, a scathing op-ed from journalist Sarah Fenske who wrote:
You can add Yuma Mayor Al Krieger to the long list of Arizona politicians intent on embarrassing the hell out of this state. Unbelievably, Krieger subsequently defended his remarks to local reporter [KYMA-NBC 11] Nick Cilletti, explaining,
"It came from my heart." Cause, you know, sincerity makes bigotry completely forgivable.
The sincerity of Mayor Krieger's apology has also been questioned as noted by the Editors of the Advocate.com:
"But, based on his apology, it doesn’t sound like the critical national response to Krieger's Memorial Day speech did much to change his attitude toward gay people."
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1 comments:
Every time one of these old fogies apologises, someone somewhere is given heart that LGBT liberation is indeed working.
I just wish that people like the mayor understood they shouldn't say such things before they open their mouths, and I agree he doesn't sound sincere.
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