Members of the Cape Cod Assembly of Delegates and the Cape & Islands Legislative Delegation are calling for Barnstable County Commissioner Ronald R. Beaty Jr. to resign after Beaty posted homophobic comments on Twitter and Facebook.
“I’m calling for Commissioner Beaty to resign, I’m that upset,” state Rep. Timothy Whelan, a Republican from Brewster, told the Cape Cod Times. “I don’t even know what else to say.”
Beaty’s posting, across both social media platforms, read as follows: “Generally speaking, are gay politicians too self-absorbed and self-centered to adequately represent ALL of their constituents in a fair and equitable manner?”
“The post comes less than a week after two openly gay elected officials who represent the Cape and Islands—state Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, and state Rep. Sarah Peake, D-Provincetown—were named to leadership positions on Beacon Hill,” pointed out the Times, which went on to report:
“I am disappointed to hear that Ron Beaty made such an uninformed statement regarding the value LGBTQ people bring to Cape Cod and our commonwealth,” Cyr said. “It appears he would prefer to spend his time as an elected official causing division and spreading disrespect.”
Cyr invited Beaty to work with him to address the Cape’s challenges and priorities.
State Sen. Viriato “Vinny” deMacedo, R-Plymouth, who represents the Cape with Cyr in the Senate, said he was shocked when he read the tweet. “I can’t believe we’re having this conversation,” he said.
Peake, who has served in the House since 2007, did not want to “dignify Mr. Beaty’s statement with a response, other than to say it demonstrates the depth of his ignorance and homophobia.”
Dennis Selectman Robert Mezzadri also expressed his displeasure with Beaty.
“As an elected official who happens to be gay, I find that comment appalling and baseless,” he said.
Beaty, who has modeled his politics and style after President Trump, said he was not referring to any particular person in the tweet, but he “had people make some statements to me in recent weeks, so I thought I’d look for other people’s opinions on the matter.”
Calls for Resignation
At this week’s meeting of the Cape Cod Assembly, Beaty’s members of the community showed up to voice their objections to Beaty’s comments and fellow delegates publicly criticized Beaty, with at least four calling for his resignation, according to the Falmouth-based Enterprise, which also reported:
Six of eight members of the Cape & Islands delegation released a statement yesterday reprimanding Mr. Beaty and defending their two LGBT colleagues.
“Recognizing that Ronald Beaty engages in this boorish behavior to elicit reactions for his own amusement, we would prefer to simply ignore this latest example of his tone-deaf rhetoric and have the press and social media do the same,” the lawmakers said. “However, our silence could be interpreted to imply indifference, and that would be a gross misrepresentation of how we feel about the situation.”
“Instead, we defend our colleagues who were attacked and encourage Mr. Beaty to stop besmirching the reputation of everyone in county government, both elected and appointed, by resigning his office immediately,” they said.
The letter is signed by Sen. deMacedo, Rep. Dylan A. Fernandes (D-Falmouth), Rep. Randy Hunt (R-Sandwich), Rep. David T. Vieira (R-East Falmouth), Rep. Timothy R. Whelan (R-Brewster) and Rep. William L. Crocker Jr. (R-Centerville).
