The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has been accused by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation of homophobia for its slow public response to the meningitis outbreak among gay men. But when it comes to indisputable homophobia in public health one only has to look a few miles northeast to Pasadena.
Dr. Eric Walsh, that city’s public health director, has been recorded preaching sermons criticizing society’s growing acceptance of gay and lesbian people. Walsh even attacked the American Psychiatric Association’s decision in 1973 to declassify homosexuality as a mental illness, saying those who supported it were “raised up by the (devil).”
In a sermon focused on the Bible’s story of Sodom and Gomorrah, Walsh also attacked schools for their tolerance of LGBT students.
“In our public school system they began to teach moral relativism,” he was recorded as saying. “They began to teach that there really is no absolute right or wrong. It’s more a matter of what you think or what you accept. And (according to that doctrine) if two adults agree to do something, it’s not wrong because they are both consenting adults. That is doctrine from the pits of hell. What makes something right is not based on man, it is based on God.”
Pasadena is one of the few California cities with its own public health department. Most, including West Hollywood, are served by a county health department. It is a town lauded by the Advocate, a national gay magazine, for its gay community. “This beautiful but sleepy city adjunct to Los Angeles (is) a kind of bedroom community for gays who like to garden,” the Advocate said in its ranking, noting that the city also had two gay elected city officials.
Walsh, a Seventh-day Adventist, also has spoken out against the theory of evolution, accusing those who teach it of doing “the devil’s handiwork.”
“I want you to understand that evolution is a religion created by Satan,” he has said.
It’s not just gay rights advocates and supporters of the scientific theory of evolution who Walsh opposes. He also has attacked the Walt Disney Co., calling it a “dark empire,” and he has railed against the Harry Potter books and movies, saying they are witchcraft.
Oddly, it’s Walsh who the Pasadena City College has chosen as a commencement speaker to replace Dustin Lance Black, the Oscar-winning gay screenwriter and producer who initially was asked to address the graduating class. PCC rescinded its invitation to Black after learning about the existence of a video shot in 2009 showing him having sex with his then boyfriend.
The San Gabriel Valley Tribune has called for Walsh’s resignation as public health chief.
We should be able to agree to disagree without it being call hate.
@Msles70, so you would trust someone in a government position to be fair to you, when they have announced time and time again that they hate you? You are either very stupid or very naive.
@Robsmom, he appears to be living exactly as Christ would have him live – he doesn’t agree with the behavior – at all – but he does not let it affect his work or interactions with the people whose lifestyles he does not agree with. I realize that this can be hard to accept since there are so few true Christians in public life, but not only is is possible, to be a Christian, it is required. Why is disagreeing with the homosexual lifestyle hate? Hate is preaching harm against people because you don’t agree with them. That is not… Read more »
It is clear that he has run an outstanding public health program, and interacts daily with people of all walks of life and belief systems. So calling him a homophobe is inaccurate. Unless you can find where he has discriminated in his running if the office, he should be left alone. He is entitled to his beliefs, and you are also entitled not to agree with his beliefs. This thought-police garbage is getting out of hand.
You are right; it is ah-maz-ing how so-called Christians don’t have the first idea of what ” thus says the Lord” means. Open the bible and it is written that homosexuality, hating your fellow-man for no reason, stealing, liars, idol worship, are all sins, among others. Don’t be DECIEVED. Matthew 24:3,4 don’t let the word sin scare you. Christ says all have sinned, and He came into this world to save us from sin. Don’t hold anything against Eric Walsh, he is a messenger of God for these last days so that we wont continue to allow Satan to deceive… Read more »
It always amazes me when some so-called Christians, are so judgmental,when Christ’s main teachings was love, helping others and non-judgement.
How did this superstitious homophobe manage to earn a medical doctorate? I checked the Tribune’s editorial and they identify him as a physician as does his bio on the City of Pasadena’s website. From his tone and the fact that he likes to preach his intolerance from a church pulpit in his spare time, I thought he would have some sort of divinity doctorate. But no, the University of Miami School of Medicine seems to have “blessed” his medical bona fides, And how did he get appointed to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS by two different administrations? This guy… Read more »