Brody's Notes... Arkansas School Board Member Tells CNN's Anderson Cooper He Will Resign Over Anti-Gay Facebook Posts

Clint McCance   Photo By CNN

By Brody Levesque (Bethesda, Maryland) OCT 29 | In an interview with CNN correspondent Anderson Cooper on AC360 last night, Independence County Arkansas' Midland School Board Vice-President Clint McCance, told Cooper that he was resigning his position.

Speaking live, McCance said told Cooper that he'd made some very ignorant comments not realising how ignorant they were.

"I'm sorry I've hurt people with my comments. I'm sorry I made those ignorant comments and hurt people on a broad spectrum.

McCance told Cooper that;

 "I would never support suicide for any kids," he said. "I don't support bullying of any kids. I'd like to extend apologies to those families that have lost children, for all those children who feel that suicide is the only way out, especially for the five families who have already lost children," he said, referring to a rash of recent suicides by Gay teens. "I brought more hurt on them... they didn't deserve that and I do feel genuinely bad for them."

McCance said to Cooper that  that he disapproves of homosexuality, but;

"I give everyone a chance and try to love everyone."

Also during the interview he indicated that he had received an outpouring of criticism over his comments, including "thousands of phone calls, hate mails, people threatening to kill my family and me." He said he has sent his wife and two kids out of the state because of fears for their safety and that he is installing a security system at his home.

"I'm reaping what I've sown," he told Cooper. "I've had a lot of hate speech thrown at me and my family on every level."

He said he would resign from the school board to spare the district the bad press and distractions of dealing with the fallout from his comments. "If they decide after five or ten years to vote me back in, then I'll run again," he said. 

Appearing immediately after McCance's interview were David and Amy Truong whose 13 year old son Asher  Brown had shot himself in the head in September, killing himself after being bullied at school for being Gay. The Truongs told Cooper that McCance, had "dehumanised our children" with what he posted, referring to not only their son but the other youths who had committed suicide in the past couple of months also as a result of Anti-Gay bullying.