The Chief of the Atlanta Fire Department has published a book that calls gay people “unclean” and compares them to people who have sex with children and animals.
For less than a year, Kelvin Cochran was FEMA’s Administrator for the United States Fire Administration. When he was sworn in he had his photo taken with then-Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. But less than a year later, Cochran was back in Atlanta, as the city’s new Fire Chief. Today, he’s not serving the people of Atlanta, but rather a one-month suspension for writing an ugly book that uses religion to support his anti-gay beliefs.
The book, Who Told You That You Were Naked?, currently selling on Amazon, proposes ugly and ancient lies about gay people.
“Uncleanness,” in Cochran’s book, is described as “whatever is opposite of purity; including sodomy, homosexuality, lesbianism, pederasty, bestiality, all other forms of sexual perversion.”
“From God’s perspective nakedness,” the book’s description on Amazon reads, “meant condemnation and deprivation to his most precious creation-mankind. Though He reconciled Adam’s condition by clothing him in coats of lambs’ skin, Adam never got over what he had done. Condemnation has dominated ever since. Now we have a more permanent solution. We have been clothed with Christ!”
But, according to Cochran’s beliefs, “Naked men refuse to give in, so they pursue sexual fulfillment through multiple partners, with the opposite sex, the same sex and sex outside of marriage and many other vile, vulgar and inappropriate ways which defile their body-temple and dishonor God.”
The Georgia Voice, which first published the story, notes that “Cochran’s book also includes an author page and describes him as a ‘devout Christian man’ whose ‘greatest desire is to fulfill the purpose of God for his life and to be living proof of God’s exceeding great and precious promises.'”
The Voice, in an update, reports that “Chief Kelvin Cochran suspended for one month without pay by Mayor Kasim Reed.”
On Facebook, Mayor Reed, whose city just received a 100 percent rating from HRC, writes:
I was surprised and disappointed to learn of this book on Friday. I profoundly disagree with and am deeply disturbed by the sentiments expressed in the paperback regarding the LGBT community. I will not tolerate discrimination of any kind within my administration.
We are conducting a thorough review of the facts surrounding the book and its distribution. In the interim, I have directed that the following steps be taken:
• Chief Cochran will be suspended for one month without pay;
• Chief Cochran will be required to complete sensitivity training;
• Chief Cochran will be prohibited from distributing the book on city property; and
• Deputy Chief Joel G. Baker will serve as Acting Fire Chief in Chief Cochran’s absence.I want to be clear that the material in Chief Cochran’s book is not representative of my personal beliefs, and is inconsistent with the Administration’s work to make Atlanta a more welcoming city for all of her citizens – regardless of their sexual orientation, gender, race and religious beliefs.
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Image via Wikimedia