Conservative blogger and columnist Ari Armstrong says state Sen. Scott Renfroe should resign and calls on the state GOP to “publicly condemn” the Greeley Republican for his remarks comparing homosexuality to murder during a debate over a bill to extend health benefits to same-sex partners of state employees.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Armstrong writes in his FreeColorado.com blog, “and it’s also the prudent political move, if the GOP wishes to be taken seriously as a political force in Colorado.”
Renfroe quoted scripture, including a passage that says gay men have “committed a detestable act and they shall surely be put to death,” on the Senate floor Monday before an initial vote on SB 88, which passed 22-12 the next day. Republican Sens. Ken Kester and Al White voted with Democrats voting in favor of the bill, which moves on to the House for consideration.
Calling Renfroe’s “bigoted remarks” a “blatant attack on church-state boundaries,” Armstrong points to a larger issue:
Renfroe’s tirade illustrates why the Republicans are the minority party in Colorado. In attempting to impose their religious doctrines by force of law, such Republicans undermine individual rights and alienate mainstream voters.
Again I call on the Republican Party of Colorado to publicly condemn Renfroe’s remarks. Whether the party does so will say a great deal about whether the party wishes to win competitive elections here again. And, more importantly, whether it deserves to win.
“Several GOP lawmakers have privately expressed dismay over Renfroe’s comments,” Rocky Mountain News reporter Lynn Bartels writes Wednesday morning in the newspaper’s legislative blog, but so far they’re keeping their reactions private.
