MERI Blog
MERI calls on Rep. Costa to disavow Sharron Angle’s bigoted positions on LGBTQ community
PROVIDENCE - Former US Senate candidate Sharron Angle’s anti-gay positions are well known throughout the country, and her expected appearance at a Tea Party rally in North Kingstown tomorrow has caused Marriage Equality Rhode Island (MERI) to call on State. Rep. Doreen Costa to disavow the event and rebuke Angle’s intolerance towards LGBTQ citizens. Costa, a first term Republican, is a recognized leader in the local Tea Party organization.
Costa is quoted in a GoLocalProv.com story from Monday characterizing Angle’s appearance as “exciting” and “a victory for our little state.”
In a letter sent to Costa today, MERI Board Chair Martha Holt urged the freshman lawmaker “to contact the Tea Party Express and Ms. Angle’s political organization and inform them that her discriminatory principles are not welcome in the Ocean State.”
Angle lost to Nevada Senator and Majority Leader Harry Reid in the last General Election while receiving significant support and funding from Tea Party organizations. She has stated in at least one candidate questionnaire that she opposes adding sexual orientation as a protected minority under existing civil rights laws. In addition, Ms. Angle supports barring same-sex couples from adopting and raising children. Like Rep. Costa, she opposes marriage equality.
Holt pointed to a number of current Rhode Island General Laws that were enacted to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. Based on her response to the “Government is Not God” PAC questionnaire, Angle would support repealing or dramatically altering many if not all of those provisions.
As to the adoption issue, Holt noted that there are almost 700 same-sex couples currently raising children in Rhode Island today, according the Williams Institute’s report on Rhode Island’s most recent census data. “Would Ms. Angle destroy these families solely based on the parent’s sexual orientation, a position that is as morally bankrupt as it is offensive,” Holt asked in her letter to Costa.
“I would hope that you would disavow any association with a group that, through its promoted speakers, endorses bigotry and intolerance towards LGBTQ Americans,” Holt wrote.
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