A gay Republican from Massachusetts is completely flabbergasted that nobody from his party wants to hear about the homophobic smear campaign one of their colleagues launched against him.
Jeffrey Sossa-Paquette is an openly gay Trump-supporting member of the Massachusetts’ Republican State Committee currently running for the 2nd Congressional District.
But when Debbie Martell, the Republican state committeewoman, got wind of the fact that he and his husband, Julian, had two adopted children, she began emailing everyone she knew telling them she was “sickened” by the fact that a member of her party was gay and urging someone–anyone!–to primary him.
“I hear he’s a married homosexual man,” she wrote in an email obtained by the Boston Globe. “That sickens me that he adopted his children.”
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After getting wind of the emails, Sossa-Paquette created an online petition demanding Martell resign. But she made it crystal clear this week that that’s not gonna happen.
“I do not intend to be bullied into resigning,” she reportedly said during a closed-door meeting.
She also sent Sossa-Paquette an email clarifying her remarks, writing: “I am a Catholic who loves God and His Ten Commandments. I wish the best for every person in the world, including you! What sickened me was that you adopted children.”
“Children deserve a mom and a dad,” she added. “That’s how God designed marriage and the family.”
When Sossa-Paquette reached out to the state party’s chairman, Jim Lyons, for help, Lyons refused to condemn Martell because he said it would be “cancel culture.” (Evidently, however, trying to coordinate a backdoor primary challenge against a member of one’s own party is not.)
In a statement, Lyons called Martell “a woman of deep Catholic faith” and said he believes “freedom of speech and religious liberty are values that are unbending and uncompromising.”
Statement from MassGOP Chairman @JimLyonsMA. #mapoli pic.twitter.com/d8TMYDJkey
— MassGOP (@massgop) June 5, 2021
Sossa-Paquette has since been looking for members of his party to rally around him, and he’s found some, but, for the most part, their support has been tepid, at best.
A few have put out vague statements decrying bigotry and saying Martell’s beliefs have “no place in public discourse.” (Privately, however, is another story.) Massachusetts GOP Vice Chair Tom Mountain was perhaps the most forceful when he said Martell “did a bad thing” and “made our party look really bad.”
When Sossa-Paquette requested to speak about the matter before the Massachusetts Republican state committee this week, he was denied the opportunity.
“After my family and myself being attacked, I’m not allowed to address the State Committee on June 9th meeting,” he tweeted to a local journalist.
@AlisonNBCBoston After my family and myself being attacked, I’m not allowed to address the State Committee on June9th meeting. pic.twitter.com/1GWwPAq7Qe
— Jeffrey Sossa-Paquette (@JeffreyCongress) June 8, 2021
Sounds like this guy needs to learn how to take a hint. Or maybe he’s just a glutton for punishment?
Graham Gremore is the Features Editor and a Staff Writer at Queerty. Follow him on Twitter @grahamgremore.
Chrisk
This reminds me the log cabin republicans always getting shit on by the Republican party. Yet they’ll suck up to them every single time over a better tax rate for themselves.
rbernard
I never understand the logic of gay Republicans.
Someone needs to teach Jeffrey Sossa-Paquette the meaning of the old saying, “if you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas.”
Liquid Silver
In this case, with rabies.
Polaro
He needs to wake up and smell the coffee. No self-respecting gay man should be a republican. Only excuse is if you are just greedy, which of course isn’t a good excuse for a human.
Mack
Republican Party is the party of hate, what else is new? You knew it when you joined and you just figured you was going to be different and they accept you. LOL
Donston
These types of people couldn’t care less about the mistreatment and judgment they receive. If their overall politics skew right, that’s where they’re staying. While so many contend with severe insecurities, internalized phobias, inferiority/superiority complexes, just generally being hateful and resentful. Some see Republican males as “real men”. Some of them also have some serious mental issues and just get off on being “different” from other “queers” and get off on trolling due to their own traumas Milo. It all is what it is. At this point, it’s kinda a drab topic.
Fahd
This story highlights how backward the Repugnican party remains – even in Massachusetts (btw, wasn’t former Republican governor, Mitt Romney called a “Massachusetts moderate” by other Repugnicans as an insult?).
As a gay married father, he is not setting a good example for his children by joining and remaining in a political party that doesn’t want/hates him – I’d recommend he seek counseling to help him better understand his motivations.
mastik8
There’s that with Republicans then there’s the Alex Morse, Richard Neal, Gus Bickford, Dan Totten, Jim Roosevelt fiasco in the Democratic party in MA that didn’t receive nearly the attention it should have beyond the initial story about Morse. We’re fighting amongst ourselves when there is clearly still outside forces at work against us.
cuteguy
Any lgbtq who are part of the GQP deserve what they get. It’s like comparing a Jewish person supporting the Nazis. Or a black person supporting the KKK.
Josh in OR
“I do not intend to be bullied into resigning,” she reportedly said during a closed-door meeting.
She also sent Sossa-Paquette an email clarifying her remarks, writing: “I am a Catholic who loves God and His Ten Commandments. I wish the best for every person in the world, including you! What sickened me was that you adopted children.”
“Children deserve a mom and a dad,” she added. “That’s how God designed marriage and the family.”
—
Translation: “No hellbound, filthy f****t is gonna bully me out of my position of power. I am a Catholic, which means I get to do anything I want, and bully anyone I want because Jesus. If you dont like it, though, God hates you as much as I do.”
People like this deserve to have their lives catch fire, forcing them to live like the least among us in order to get some goddamned perspective.
Of course, in the Bible, the guy she claims to worship said his followers SHOULD give up all wealth and possessions and follow him with only the clothes on their back, and should do so willingly and gladly, but…we all know how THAT turned out thanks to fundamentalist bullshit once again tainting the planet.
That this cruntwaffle is a Catholic and she acts like that excuses ANYTHING in light of the Catholic Church’s history of abuse, murder, torture, imprisonment, enslavement, genocide and defamation of character of literally every person throughout history who has dared question or challenge them is…well, it WOULD be hilarious for its absolutely delicious irony if it wasn’t further evidence of the inherent stupidity and awfulness of the GOP…
Meanwhile, anyone who identifies as a gay Republican is just an idiot, a bigot or a greedy crapsack, so I have very little sympathy for Jeffrey. He chose to align with the party whose platform includes stripping him of all rights, all basic humanity, and forcing him into torture camps to become straight (if not just killed for crimes against the Baby Jesus…). He…deserves a bit of suffering, for aligning against his own interests in the interest of…paying less taxes? At BEST…?
Maybe it’ll shock him enough to see his colleagues the way the rest of the world does: regressive religious zealots and bigots, and their enablers/hangers-on
sixfootsixmusclebuck
Oh boo hoo.If you’re gonna swim with the sharks, you need to be aware you could possibly be eaten alive. What a p*ssy. Man up and look at what you’re perpetuating.
Invader7
What the F**K did he expect from the FASCIST Neo NAZI party republican party?