From The Office Of Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R., GA): “All Faggots Must Die”

A staffer for U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss left a threatening slur on an Internet discussion of the right of gays and lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. military.

It appears that someone in the local Atlanta office of Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss spent part of their afternoon yesterday leaving an anti-gay slur on the Internet in the wake of the Senate’s vote on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell:

U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss confirmed Tuesday that he investigating whether one of his staffers left a threatening slur on an Internet discussion of the right of gays and lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. military.

“We have seen the allegations and are moving quickly to understand the facts. This office has not and will not tolerate any activity of the sort alleged,” Chambliss spokeswoman Bronwyn Lance Chester said. “Once we have ascertained whether these claims are true, we will take the appropriate steps.”

The comment was posted on Joe.My.God., a blog dedicated to gay and lesbian issues.

“All [gays] must die,” wrote the commenter, identifying himself as “Jimmy,” shortly after a Democratic bid to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” faltered in the U.S. Senate.

Blog author Joseph Jervis of New York City used the Internet Protocol address attached to the comment to trace the slur to “the neighborhood” of Chambliss’ office in Atlanta. Readers quickly helped.

While it hasn’t been confirmed in print yet, it would seem that the Senator’s office admits that the offending quote originated from a computer in their office:

I’ve just gotten off the phone with Atlanta Journal-Constitution political writer Jim Galloway who says that Sen. Saxby Chambliss has confirmed that the “All faggots must die” comment left here on JMG earlier today did indeed come from his Atlanta office. Galloway reports that Chambliss told him his office is conducting an internal investigation.

Of course, not everyone reading the story about this at the Atlanta Journal-Counstitution thinks this is a bad thing, juding from some of the comments:

This “investigation” smacks of religious persecution. Whoever made the comment was just paraphrasing the Holy scripture: “If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.” (Leviticus 20:13) Our laws should reflect God’s law, right? This is a Christian nation after all.

No word on whether Senator Chambliss plans to fire the person responsible for this when they are discovered.

H/T: Jason Pye and Stephen Gordon

FILED UNDER: LGBTQ Issues, US Politics, , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Alex Knapp says:

    I find it amusing that the same people willing to quote the paltry number of verses in teh Bible condemning homosexuality seem to ignore the voluminous number of verses condemning the wealthy, forbidding the charging of interest, mandating that the state take care of the poor, etc etc etc….

  2. Or, you know this:

    One of the scribes, when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well he had answered them, asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?”

    Jesus replied, “The first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!

    You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’

    The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

    Not a whole lot of loving thy neighbor going on from these people is there ?

  3. Tano says:

    ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself

     
    Actually, this is probably the key. An awful lot of these really obnoxious and out-front anti-gay attacks end up coming from closet cases – those who actually do love their neighbors to the same extent as they love themselves – i.e not at all. Thats where the “self-loathing” line comes from…..

  4. TJ Mahoney says:

    Separation of church and state, enough said. the first person to comment needs to realize that because a nation was founded by some christians that its a christian nation. yes we have “in god we trust” on our money and so forth, but at the time they were designed Christianity was pretty much the law. changing it at this point would cause more problems then the government would want to deal with. Every christian has something to complain about. if you guys love your god so much worry about him and love him, dont worry about talking crap and bitching about other peoples issues, god related or not, just shut up and be happy with yours. let people have their pride parades and let them live their life in peace, if you think they are going to go to hell for it then just deal with it. I personally was raised catholic but made my own religious decisions when i was old enough to understand them. With all the catholic church issues and all the Christianity issues in general, they should have plenty to worry about other then gays/lesbians. it seems like 90% of today’s christians should join the westboro baptist church…
    im not even gonna bother rereading that for errors, i just dont care for that. Christianity has ruined the advancement of the human race for too long. It’s time they just realize they aren’t really helping anything with all the bitching they do about OTHER PEOPLE. just shut up, please.

  5. TJ Mahoney says:

    i made a mistake, by first commenter i meant the comment posted within the article, the last one posted. i was thinking it was the first comment.
     
    the first comment is spot on

  6. Brummagem Joe says:

    The GOP does seem awfully hung up on this issue which is what makes it so funny when Republicans leading the charge ultimately emerge as gays themselves. It’s all very strange.