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Arkansas School Board Member Steps Down After Anti-Gay Rant on Facebook

by Amar Toor on October 29, 2010 at 01:00 PM

clint mccanceA school board member in Pleasant Plains, Arkansas has announced that he will step down from his position, after having faced widespread criticism for a torrent of anti-gay rants he posted on his Facebook page.

Clint McCance, who served as the vice president of the Midland School District, recently spewed a slew of homophobic sentiments all over his Facebook page, in response to GLAAD's October 20th 'Spirit Day' campaign. The campaign aimed to raise awareness of the bullying dangers that young gay people face, and to honor those who had recently committed suicide as a result. McCance, however, had no sympathy for the cause.

In his post, the board member wrote that he would disown his children if they were gay, and claimed to derive pleasure from "the fact that [gay people] give each other AIDS and die." He also said he would encourage young gay students to commit suicide, and found it ridiculous to honor kids who "sinned and killed therselves [sic] because of their sin."

The Advocate, a gay news publication, soon caught wind of McCance's posts, and grabbed a few screenshots from someone who had access to the non-public areas of his Facebook profile. The news soon gave rise to a new Facebook Page, where over 60,000 users urged the Midland School District to fire its vice president. After facing public condemnation from both local and state school officials, McCance finally announced his intent to resign on Thursday. "I'm sorry I've hurt people with my comments," McCance told CNN. "I'm sorry I made those ignorant comments and hurt people on a broad spectrum."

McCance added that he and his family have received hate mail and death threats since news of his posts first broke, but admits that he has only himself to blame. "I'm reaping what I've sown," he acknowledged. "I've had a lot of hate speech thrown at me and my family on every level." Still, McCance hasn't completely ruled out the possibility of serving on the school board at a later date, once the storm passes. "If they decide after five or ten years to vote me back in, then I'll run again," he said. For the sake of every student in Midland, let's hope that never actually happens.

Tags: arkansas, ClintMccance, cyberbullying, facebook, gay, GayRights, glaad, hate, HateSpeech, homophobia, resignation, school, SocialNetworking, Suicide, top, web

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