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California’s Vallejo Mayor Osby Davis Sorry Saying Gays Are Sinners is Offensive

Because politicians, whether local or national, sometimes commit crimes of stupidity, California’s Mayor Osby Davis, of Vallejo, northeast of San Francisco, managed to tell a reporter that gays are “committing sin and that sin will keep them out of heaven. But you don’t hate the person. You hate the sin that they commit.” Oh dear.

The comment came after Davis was asked about his mayoral Gary Cloutier, who is openly gay, and who was asked at a public forum before the election whether he would “bring the Folsom Street Fair to Vallejo,” a scary notion to a God-fearing town that’s seeing an influx of gays from nearby SF. And while Davis says that question was “really, really unfair,” it didn’t manage to keep his homophobia to himself. (Davis won the election. By two votes.)

Which is why he’s now making the apology tour: “I apologize if my words were offensive, they were not intended to be offensive,” he tells local news station KGO. He’s promised not to talk about his faith publicly again. That’s probably for the best.

But let’s not placate Davis’s wish to make this a non-scandal because of “bigger issues” that abound. Ya said it, Davis. Own it.

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