Media eulogy of troubled mayor ignores his disturbing behavior and the women he targeted

I wanted to add a little more information about the Alabama mayor who committed suicide. (LZ Granderson, “America’s tragic war on LGBTQ,” Nov. 10 Insight page.)

He is believed to have engaged in some very disturbing behavior online such as making suggestive posts using pictures of minors obtained without consent. He also wrote and shared erotic fiction with predatory themes. In one story, a man stalks a woman and murders her in order to assume her identity. The victim in the story had the same name as a real woman in his community.

This proclivity is not a protected identity and has no connection whatsoever to being homosexual or to medically altering one's secondary sex characteristics to appear to be the other sex. His alleged actions were not simply a "lapse" from his religion, they caused serious harm to the women he targeted.

Why are you lionizing this man for his potentially criminal behavior? Again, use of porn, creepy online activity and the fetish of wearing women's clothing is not a sexual identity or a sexual orientation, it's a disease that harms everyone around the afflicted person.

Jeanne Smith

Kalona