LOS ANGELES — L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center Chief Executive Officer Lorri L. Jean issued a statement yesterday, calling Assemblymember Michael Duvall’s extra-marital affairs “despicable.”
“Even as he resigns in shame, former California Assemblymember Michael Duvall is wallowing in hypocrisy. While engaging in extra-marital affairs, he used ‘family values’ as a justification to vote against every bill that would have provided any measure of equal treatment or fairness to LGBT people,” Jean said (pictured, left).
“He used the same justification to support taking away the lawful right of same-sex couples to marry.”
Duvall (pictured, below right), 54, a Republican from Yorba Linda, whose votes on family-oriented bills received high marks from conservatives, resigned Wednesday amid growing outrage over a videotape that caught him bragging in graphic detail about having sex with a female lobbyist and another woman.
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“It’s Duvall’s hypocrisy regarding his infidelity that makes him so especially despicable. He joins a long line of equally discredited, anti-gay ‘family values’ conservatives like evangelical U.S. Senators David Vitter and John Ensign, and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford,” Jean wrote in her statement.
“‘Family values’ has become a code word for more than abject anti-gay bigotry, it’s now a sham to divert attention from the real behavior of those protesting to be such devoted family men,” she added. “Duvall and his brethren should focus on their own ranks, rather than attacking LGBT people and trying to prevent loving same-sex couples from marrying.”
Established in 1971 the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center provides a broad array of services for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, offering legal, social, cultural, and educational services.
