Janice Daniels, the mayor of Troy, MI, compared being gay to smoking cigarettes on a recent radio-show appearance, according to CBS Detroit.
Last December Daniels earned the ire of many—and finds herself facing a recall effort—after she posted on Facebook “I think I am going to throw away my I Love New York carrying bag now that queers can get married there.”
That little dig cost Daniels her job at the real-estate company Century 21, even though she claimed, “I know that as mayor, I represent all of the people in this city.” Organizers of the recall effort against Daniels submitted 9,300 signatures to the city’s Election Division this week. (They only needed 7,985.)
Not realizing she should’ve quit while she was behind, Daniels went on Charlie Langton’s morning talk show on Radio 1270 to “explain” herself.
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What I said while I was mayor … I was in a business meeting, I come from a business perspective … I said that I would bring a doctor into a meeting that would say that the homosexual lifestyle is dangerous,” Daniels said, adding, “Had I been with a group of smokers I might have said I would like to bring a doctor into this meeting to say that smoking is dangerous.”
When Langton asked Daniels if she thought being gay was “dangerous,” she replied “I think that doctors can make a case for it certainly,”but said she personally “had no opinion” on it.
Really, no opinion? Because it sounds like you’ve been running your mouth off about it.
Determined to make every faux pas in the book, Daniels even trotted out the “some of my best friends are gay” card. Well, her version of it, anyway:
“I am refinancing a home mortgage for a man who I would suspect could potentially be homosexual and we get along famously … In fact he brought papers into the office the other day and we actually grabbed each other’s arms and kind of stood together in solidarity because we’re refinancing his home loan …”
What a mensch.
1equalityUSA
Gay animus aside, I can’t stand when old people have too young hair. It’s as conflicted as she.
Recall Janice Daniels
You can help us rid Troy, Michigan, and the Nation from this bigotry. Donate to our campaign to recall Janice Daniels: http://www.recalljanicedaniels.org/donate.html.
The Realist
She touched a homo? Well that changes everything.
Mark
“I am refinancing a home mortgage for a man who I would suspect could potentially be homosexual and we get along famously … In fact he brought papers into the office the other day and we actually grabbed each other’s arms and kind of stood together in solidarity because we’re refinancing his home loan …”
Idk why but this just seems so much more offensive then the typical. “all my best friends are gay line”
RomanHans
I can’t believe that this woman actually touched a suspected gay and you aren’t cutting her any slack.
Jason
I don’t get it. Why is a drag queen badmouthing gays?
mdthom
@Jason: Please don’t insult Drag Queens.
BJohnM
Her line about the suspected potentially gay man reminds me of a remark made to me by Timothy Whitaker, Bishop of Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. He told me once that he couldn’t be homophobic because there were gay people living in his neighborhood.
Startled, I asked, “What, does that mean you get to vote on who moves in?” He stuttered and stammered a bit, but just like this lady, what it means is that they are so homophobic, they don’t even want to trot out the tired old, “why I have lots of gay friends,” line.
Randall
She’s a very bad joke. What is the matter with the people of Troy, Michigan?? This is not a redneck area. I hope that the voters will come to their senses and throw her out.
Belize
@Jason: Why are you so mean to your mother?
Paul
Hopefully you were being sarcastic with that last line.
Mensch (Yiddish: ????? mentsh, from German: Mensch “human being”) means “a person of integrity and honor.” The opposite of a “mensch” is an “unmensch”
Baba Booey
The reason why this woman is still in office and because she has not been asked to resign is because one, homophobia is acceptable, and two, gay people are too indifferent to make it unacceptable.
JayUVA
What an idiot. “Gays are dangerous/I don’t have an opinion” is as intellectually dishonest as “hate the sin/love the sinner.” The queers in NYC and gays are dangerous are just two times she made national news – imagine how many stupid things she must say that don’t get picked up on the news wires. LoL
BigSea
No big whoop. When my dad found out i was gay his response: “first the cigarettes and now this.”
Mike
Oh, this bitch again. Yo, Gretchen, don’t you have a cake to bake for Benson and the governor? Stop your yapping and get back to it!
David Gibson
This mad (insane) woman must go–NOW. Off with her head!
vklortho
@Baba Booey: They’re attempting to recall her from what it sounds like and those things take a little bit of time. Maybe the people who voted for her didn’t realize she was that special brand of crazy that sometimes occurs among conservatives. For all I know maybe she ran as a moderate Republican.
steve Morrison
Hopefully the home she is refinancing will drop on her like it did to her sister, the Wicked Witch of the East!
1equalityUSA
By the look of this picture, she needs to go to a home.
Alexi3
@Mark: I don’t know why either, Mark, but I had the same reaction. This was the point at which I got good an angry with her. Up to that remark she was just another annoying, not terribly bright bigot. Then she stepped over some sort of line in my head. I think it was the “kind of stood there in solidarity because we’re refinancing his home loan” that set me off. What does that mean? She felt solidarity with the man because of the money? I don’t understand what she is talking about and that was when I moved her from annoying to dangerous. I started thinking over her earlier statements more closely and all of a sudden the whole “I was in a business meeting, I come from a business perspective…I said that I would bring a doctor into the meeting who would say the homosexual lifestyle is dangerous”. What kind of “business” meeting was she having as mayor of Troy that such a topic would even be on the agenda. No, not merely annoying; dangerous.
Ty
Penny Marshall is looking bad….
Flick
@Randall: Michigan as a state has a rampant homophobia problem. It makes states like Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas look progressive. Gays get almost no protection there, and their sodomy laws were among the most oppressive until the SCOTUS invalidated them.
Robroberts
This ugly hag has ugly opinions. And she seriously looks like a man in a wig. Probably hasn’t had her yunt pounded in decades, no wonder she hates gay men.
FunMe
Can someone shut that bitch up? Seriously! She’s a homophobe .. and a HATER of other Americans who happen to be GLBT. She does not deserve to be serving in any political office.
dvlaries
When you look like Daniels, you’ve probably got some experience, back in your youth, of losing prospects to other men.
As with Maggie Gallagher, I suspect with Daniels too, this bitterness has its root in some long-ago personal rejection.
Gabriel
sorta looks like Mickey Rourke in a wig. CANNOT UNSEE IT
JON
Hmmm…comparing homosexuality to smoking. You’d think, someone who has reached the status of mayor would actually possess the intelligence to know the difference. Evidently not. Maybe she is lighting the wrong end!
mododavid
smoking = homosex? Well, no. blow jobs are just ONE aspect of gay sex.
Linda
Janice just won’t quit. She recently brought an individual into the city council meeting to support her opinion that a homosexual lifestyle is dangerous. This has to stop!!!! This is not representative of Troy, Michigan. I am part of the recall campaign. Janice has a group of supporters with money to back her. Please help us make a statement that this behavior is not acceptable. For more information or to donate, please go to wwww.recalljanice.com Together we can make a statement and let others know this bullying will not be tolerated.