Pastor Tom Brown is leading an effort
to oust three El Paso, Texas officials because they “want to reward
fornicators, and they want to reward homosexuals.”
Brown, the leader of Word of Life
Church, wants El Paso Mayor John Cook and two City Council members,
Steve Ortega and Susie Byrd, ousted because they supported giving
health insurance benefits to the unmarried domestic partners of city
workers.
While Brown and his supporters have
used anti-gay sentiment in their campaign, The
New York Times reports that only 2 of the 19 city employees
in domestic partnerships who received the benefit are gay.
The battle began in 2009, when the
Council approved the benefit for the unmarried domestic partners of
city employees. Opponents, led by Brown, forced a voter referendum,
which was approved with 55 percent of the vote last November.
In June, the Council restored the
insurance benefit. An outraged Brown countered with an effort to
recall the mayor and two council members. (The terms of two other
members who voted for the ordinance have already ended.)
The three officials are likely to face
a recall vote in May.
“Homosexuality is being trumpeted as
a moral activity,” Brown, who delivers a traveling ministry program
called Homosexuality: Its Cause and Cure,
told the paper. “How will they ever repent and turn
to Christ?”