In an interview with The Salt Lake
Tribune's editorial board, Dave Robinson, communications director
for the Salt Lake County Republican Party, claimed that too many
sexual partners contributes to a high suicide rate among LGBT youth.
Robinson, who is openly gay, explained
how he responded to his neighbors when they said that they found the
GOP to be unfriendly toward the LGBT community.
“I said, you can own your own
business, you can run for office – I don't think there's a better
time on this planet in history to be gay than right now,” he said.
The neighbors responded by asking about
the high rate of suicide among LGBT youth.
“So then I walked through and I said,
'I actually think it has more to do with the lifestyle that the gays
are leading that they refuse to have any scrutiny with,'” Robinson
said.
Robinson dismissed claims that The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' (the Mormons) opposition
to LGBT rights contributes to Utah's high rate of suicide among LGBT
youth. He said that he knows LGBT people who have had “over 2,000
sex partners,” which could lead to “some of the self-loathing to
the point of suicide.”
“You talk to some of these people
that have had grundles of sex partners and the self-loathing and
basically the unhappiness and the self-hatred level is tremendously
high,” he
said.. “The gay community really needs to start having some
conversations within their community, saying how is our lifestyle
affecting our mental health.”
Troy Williams, executive director of
Equality Utah, called Robinson's claims “deeply irresponsible.”
“Condemning who and how we love is a
strange way to build a bridge between the Republican Party and the
LGBTQ community,” he told the paper. “Mr. Robinson's rhetoric is
deeply irresponsible and unbecoming of a leader in a political party
in the state of Utah.”