In a wide-ranging interview with the Current last Friday, Bexar County Democratic Party Chair Dan Ramos likened homosexuals to children stricken with polio and the Stonewall Democrats, an organization working to advance the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals, to the Nazi Party.
In immediate response, State Democratic Party Chair Boyd Richie called on Ramos to resign his post. Texas Stonewall Democrats called on him to apologize or resign. And Bexar County Young Democrats urged him to apologize and resign “for his profane display of bigotry.”
Among his more incendiary comments to the Current last week, Ramos said, “I liken [Stonewall Democrats] to the Tea Party — the Tea Party and the fucking Nazi Party — because they’re 90 percent white, blue-eyed, and Anglo, and I don’t give a shit who knows that. That’s the truth. Just like the blacks, they’re strong. And there’s nothing wrong — they’re Americans — but you can’t get your way just because you’re black.”
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Ramos frequently suggests that anti-Hispanic racism is to blame for the division that has been on display at past party meetings. When asked if race or sexual orientation were more a cause of concern for him, Ramos responded: “I go back to an old very well-used slogan: blacks wanted to get their way because they were black. What it is, is we have a very, very sinister movement in which you don’t know, at the end of the day, you didn’t even know that your next door buddy, your bosom fishing buddy was gay. That, I guess, goes to my belief in the religious thing. Look: this is not natural. This is like a kid who was born with a polio leg, you can’t kill him and you can’t sweep him under the rug. … I’m glad that Texas has not yet come to where gays can adopt children … because the poor kids have already come from a troubled family and then to be ‘hey, how come my momma is my daddy type of deal.’ It’s not natural.”
When challenged about his comments, Ramos insisted that he has been fighting for civil rights for 40 years. “I feel equal opportunity is meant for everyone that is being violated, regardless of who they are,” he said. “All I said was that equal opportunity should not be used as a umbrella to gain any kind of advantage over other people. It is pretty obvious that the advantage they [Stonewall Democrats] take is way beyond the pale. Certainly, all the people with handicaps, I represent them all the time.”
(from the San Antonio Current)
Our political future is in the very best of hands.
For the record, my uncle has a polio leg. He is a university-educated man and he works in social services because he cares about his community. I like him very much, and I'm proud of him. And I doubt his mother ever thought about killing him or sweeping him under the rug.
UPDATE: Ramos held a press conference Thursday, March 17 concerning this controversy. KENS-5 reports what he said:
Do you think Ramos has read any Carnegie?Thursday, Dan Ramos called a new conference to set the record straight about an interview published in the Current in which Ramos is accused of making “bigoted” remarks.
However, while Ramos said the Current took his comments out of context, many local Democrats said the chairman only added fuel to the fire at his conference as he again likened the Bexar County Stonewall Democrats, a group that advocates for gay-rights, to the Nazi Party.
"I think Hitler made a pretty good example of when an individual perceives that he has power beyond control, and this is what these people (Stonewall Democrats) are doing in the Democratic Party," said Ramos.
Ramos also called members of the group “termites”.
"They have infiltrated the Bexar County party much like termites infiltrate your house, and they are trying to destroy what's been around for a long time."
When asked about Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie's remarks that he should resign, Ramos said Richie is an “idiot”.
1 comment:
Yikes!
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