Posted on 08/21/2018 5:39:09 PM PDT by Ennis85
In a sweeping, one-hour meeting with The Salt Lake Tribune's editorial board on Monday, the Salt Lake County Republican Party's new communication director made claims about the LGBTQ community that the county health department described as "wildly inaccurate" and Equality Utah said are " deeply irresponsible. "
Dave Robinson joined county GOP Chairman Scott Miller, who has been on the job for a little more than a month, for a conversation about where they see the party headed on issues ranging from water to land use and the LGBTQ community.
Miller said he's looking to make his party "relevant again" during his roughly nine-month term, noting that it has been "apathetic" in the past. In the future, he said, the party needs to work to represent the entire county and not just the "far right."
"As far as changing the direction of the party, [it] is really just to re-engage with our communities as a whole," he said, indicating environmental communities and people of color.
Robinson, the party's communication director since late July, also noted that some people view the Republican Party as unfriendly toward the gay community.
"I said, you can own your own business, you can run for office - I do not think there's a better time on this planet in history to be gay than right now," Robinson said, citing his recent response to his neighbors when they expressed beliefs about an intolerant GOP.
But what about the high rate of suicide among the LGBTQ community? they countered.
"So then I walked through and I said, 'I actually think it has more to do with the lifestyle that the gays are leading that they refuse to have any scrutiny with,'" said Robinson, who is gay.
Robinson told The Tribune that while many people attribute the high suicide rate to the culture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or to Utah's high altitude, that may not capture the full story. He said he knows people in the community who have had "over 2,000 sex partners" and said he thinks that could be at the root of "some of the self-loathing to the point of suicide."
"You talk to some of these people that have had grundles of sex partners and the self-loathing and basically the unhappiness and the self-hatred level is tremendously high," he said, noting that they may turn to sex to fill a hole left by a lack of acceptance in Utah. "The gay community really needs to start having some conversations within their community, saying how our lifestyle affects our mental health."
Utah's youth powder rate has grown at an alarming pace , according to recent studies conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state's suicide rate among young adults ages 10 to 17 had more than doubled from 2011 to 2015, growing at an annual clip nearly four times faster than the national average.
In all, 150 youths died by suicide over the five-year period, and it's thought that LGBTQ youth are at a higher risk.
Troy Williams, executive director of Equality Utah, pushes back on Robinson's comments about the suicide rates, saying his theory is based on "old, tired stereotypes and tropes" that members of the LGBTQ community are promiscuous. He also noted that the suicide problem is most prevalent among youth, many of whom have probably never had a sex partner.
"Condemning who and how we love is a strange way to build a bridge between the Republican Party and the LGBTQ community," Williams said. "Mr. Robinson's rhetorical is deeply irresponsible and unbecoming of a leader in a political party in the state of Utah. "
At the meeting with The Salt Lake Tribune, Miller said high sufficiency rates are an example of one of the "internal issues" in a community that the party wants to have dialogue with. But he told the newspaper later that he does not need to agree with Robinson's stance that a multitude of partners may contribute to high rates of suicide, noting that he does not have enough information on that particular issue.
As far as his stance on the LGBTQ community, Miller told The Tribune that although he would likely "catch some grief" from hard-right Republicans, he thinks that allowing members of the LGBTQ community to "live their life the way they deem fit" is a fundamental tenet of the Constitution.
Robinson also said in the meeting that he thinks issues around the PrEP pill, a daily preventive strategy for those at risk of contracting HIV, need more attention as a factor for the rise of STDs in the LGBTQ community and also to the rise of mental- health issues.
He said the gay community "went to the county health department and said, 'Look, if you love the gays, then you need to give us and all of our people this medicine for free.' And so the county's like, 'Yes, we love the gays,' so they start giving them all this medicine. "
Then, he said, members of the LGBTQ community began having unprotected sex like "bunny rabbits" at monthly "sex parties" because they were unaware that the pill did not prevent STDs.
Lynn Beltran, the STD and HIV epidemiology supervisor at the Salt Lake County Health Department, called Robinson's claims "wildly inaccurate."
Although she noted that Salt Lake County did work with a member of the LGBTQ community on PrEP outreach, she said it has never given out free pills - and that the county's STD clinic is not even able to prescribe the medication.
She agreed that there had been a national lack of education on PrEP that may lead more people to engage in unprotected sex.
Robinson said he relayed the information from the health department as he understood it and that there may have been some mischaracterization in his conversation with the county.
But Williams said Robinson's statements are a misguided way to reach the group the county Republican party is looking to engage with.
"He is mischaracterizing and spreading misinformation about our community," Williams said. "And if he truly wants to help the Republican party open up their doors to actually invite the LGBTQ community in, he needs to stop this salacious and egregious misinformation."
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A church not accepting them drives them to suicide? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. A guilty conscience and using alcohol/drugs to deal with is the downward death-spiral.
Big time. Imagine that, living a lifestyle where everything is OK is unhealthy.
A lifestyle where everyone tells you that harmful things are good for you, just so they won’t be called a bigot. A self-destructive road if ever there was one.
Did yer homework fer sure.
Rabbits don’t fornicate, they procreate.
Too many jilted heterosexual partners usually leads to mayhem and homicide.
When you find out that you’ve been only one of, say, 50 sex-partners, what on earth could possibly make you feel “special”?
I mean it’s not like you’re sharing an experience with your partner that hasn’t been shared with gobs of other folks.
One light year is about 5 trillion miles.
There are telescopes that can see planets around stars more than 50 trillion miles from Earth.
If you put one of those telescopes in my front yard and I stood two feet from it, it couldn’t see my interest in homosexual suicides.
Well, we can hope...
The reason they have hundreds of sex partners is they are mentally unhinged. Thus their mental instability leads to suicide.
ps
I worked in a VA hospital with some gays. Most were very normal aside from their sexual preference. Many were in a monogamous relationship and they did not go and kill themselves. Most were damn good workers and just wanted to be left alone. A few very hot hot nurses were gay. I did not even try as it would have been a waste of time. They were good nurses.
I was most fond of one because of her extreme professionalism as a nurse. If I were ill I would have been most happy for this lady to take care of me. She was very good at her job. I had respect for this lady.
Yep - many were horribly abused as children and they and others suffer mental and emotional stresses by living in a state of confusion about the very essence of what and who they really are....then the idiot Left steps in and refuses to allow the availability of counseling that might be able to help them...those who want to pursue some sort of help are more stigmatized by that community than any of them were by regular society in the past.
I would suggest that living a life of depravity and abnormality contributes to the high suicide rate within this group of humans.
When one lives his/her life in such a manner as to separate oneself from the blessings of God, one does not live a satisfying or fulfilling life. God refers to their lifestyle as an abomination.
Dedicating one’s life to the practice and promotion of foul and unnatural acts is bad for the mind and bad for the soul. That habitual buggery leads to suicide is unsurprising.
None of them involve committing buggery. The Biblical word for that is "abomination".
I’m thinking that anyone who has sex with 1000 partners has not been satisfied by any of them. I’m also thinking sex with a thousand goats, sheep, ponies, knotholes, etc. is just as unsatisfying. Maybe they should try something different.
Maybe it’s the demonic possession!
5,878,499,000,000 miles. Usually rounded to 6 trillion.
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