When Homophobic E-Mails Attack

Ever clicked "send" on an e-mail and then immediately had that heart-dropping sensation of, "What did I just do!" Cue San Diego City Council wannabe Lorie Zapf, who is catching a whole host of criticism over an e-mail she sent a few years ago that was, by almost any standard, homophobic through and through.

In the e-mail, sent to an anti-gay activist in San Diego, Zapf said that she had serious concerns about politicians advancing gay rights.

"I absolutely want to keep homosexuals out of public office and not be allowed to influence our schools, textbooks, altering marriage, children and on and on," Zapf wrote in an e-mail to James Hartline, a self-described ex-gay who is on a mission to "confront the powers of darkness" in San Diego.

Yes, that's right, a legitimate City Council candidate -- one who has $30,000 in her pocket to run her campaign, placing her second among almost a half dozen candidates in fundraising -- once wrote that homosexuals should be kept out of public office. And now Zapf wants to brush off the e-mail as something she wrote in haste, and didn't really mean to send.

Sorry, Lorie. Apology not accepted.

The story broke when San Diego Citybeat obtained a copy of the e-mail, which was originally sent in 2006. Turns out that Hartline didn't think that Zapf was following through with her pledge to root out all queer people from public office, so he wanted to release some official documentation of Zapf's homophobic ways. Politics, as we all know, makes for strange bedfellows. And sometimes those bedfellows pack a nasty punch if they feel they're being betrayed.

Zapf is now trying to dig herself out of a ditch the likes of which maybe only Gov. David Paterson or Rep. Eric Massa can relate.

"I chose my words poorly because clearly I don’t believe that gays should be kept from office because I have supported and endorsed candidates who are gay, strongly and publicly,” Zapf said. “Have you ever had an e-mail that you sent that, you know, pops up years later, and it was a hastily written e-mail? … My words were hurtful.”

Yeah, they were hurtful, Lorie. And you can't escape from them by blaming haste.

Zapf's original e-mail, of course, didn't stop at just wanting to root out homosexuals from public office. Zapf also took a swipe at her LGBT relatives.

"I do believe homosexuality is a sin. I have three homosexual first cousins. I love them all and would ‘be seen’ in a photo with them. I believe they all live in sin and frankly all are very unhappy people and had horrible childhoods as well," Zapf wrote.

Wow, she would be seen with us in a photo. Anyone feel really special?

Zapf is now trying to say that she doesn't believe this anymore. As she told the San Diego Union Tribune, this was four years ago, and she doesn't understand why her commentary is all that newsworthy.

“This is what keeps good people from running for office,” she said. “Everyone’s got something. It’s going to be a little sentence plucked out, taken out of context … and then used against me to try to destroy me and my family.”

Sure, people deserve the benefit of the doubt, and folks do certainly change over time (thank God for that). But really, in what "context," as Zapf writes, could her original e-mail be taken in that would ever make it appropriate? There's absolutely nothing appropriate about what she said four years ago. Until she recognizes that, can any apology she's willing to offer have any teeth?

Photo credit: Robert S. Donovan