Michigan Mayor Janice Daniels Compares Being Gay To Smoking

Not The First Time Troy, Michigan Mayor Has Attacked The Gay Community

Janice Daniels, the embattled Troy, Michigan mayor, on a local radio program yesterday said homosexuality was dangerous and compared homosexuality to cigarette smoking. Daniels, whose short tenure as mayor has been marked by comments she made on Facebook against gay people, has attempted to defend her comments and her extreme anti-gay positions, and continually seems to make matters worse, not better. Unsurprisingly, the unrepentant Daniels is facing a recall election.

Wednesday, Daniels told Charlie Langton of Talk Radio 1270 that the comments which initially began the firestorm against her were made before she was mayor and therefore, Daniels insists, shouldn’t count. The comments were not discovered until after she was elected.

CBS Detroit reports yesterday’s conversation:

“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.”

Is it dangerous to be gay? Langton asked.

“I think that doctors can make a case for it certainly,” the mayor said, adding that she “had no opinion” on whether being gay is more dangerous than smoking.

…

“I don’t think this is productive for the city of Troy… This is just a diversion,” Daniels told Langton. “I would ask that these people come together with me to find mutual common ground.”

Langton asked if she had an issue being the mayor of Troy, a place that includes gay people.

“I realize that I am the mayor of all the people of Troy and I love all people … It was a pithy comment that I made, it was an in-the-moment kind of comment and I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to bring this kind of controversy upon myself.”

Daniels, who works in real estate when she’s not fulfilling mayoral duties, added:

“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 …”

In January, Daniels wanted to bring psychologists with her to a high school gay-straight alliance forum to testify that homosexuality is a mental disease. The students withdrew the invitation and Daniels never stated that she actually had any psychologists who would deliver false testimony.

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