Seattle police snubbed a kind gesture by Franklin Graham after the evangelical leader invited them to an appreciation dinner for cops – all because Graham doesn’t support the left’s militant LGBTQ agenda.
According to PJ Media, Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz nixed a department-wide invitation to attend Graham’s dinner, one of several that the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association was holding to honor local law enforcement at a time when cops are increasingly coming under fire – literally and figuratively – from leftists calling to defund and even abolish the police.
Per an message Diaz sent to the department, Seattle-area law enforcement will no longer attend the event, which was to be held at a luxury hotel, because the hosts “its hosts do not share the inclusive values of the SPD.”
“An internal email was shared this week informing SPD employees of a free appreciation dinner hosted by the Rev. Franklin Graham. Based on Graham’s history and affiliations, the email has raised concerns that the SPD may not be committed to the equity of our community’s LGBTQ members,” Diaz stated in a message posted on the department's police blotter.
“I want to make clear the Department fully supports the equity and just treatment of all people. The SPD did not sponsor this event and is not connected in any way to its hosts. Today I sent a department-wide email to rescind the invitation because its hosts do not share the inclusive values of the SPD,” he added.
The Seattle Times reports Sgt. Randy Huserik, a spokesperson for the Seattle Police Department, confirmed the decision was made after some officers complained about the BGEA’s supposedly anti-gay history, saying that “Obviously it was not the department’s intent to offend the LGBTQ members of the department and the LGBTQ community at large.”
Graham’s organization, named after his late father, as an established record of not discriminating against members of the LGBTQ community in their humanitarian and disaster relief efforts, despite Graham’s long-stated traditional Christian views that marriage is between one man and one woman and that there are two non-interchangeable biological genders.
During the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, a field hospital set up by Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse in New York City came under fire from rabid leftists who called the group “bigoted” and “hateful,” despite their volunteers having treated COVID patients for weeks without regard to a patients’ sexual orientation or gender identity. After protests from Democrat officials in the city, the field hospital was eventually kicked out, even as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was shoving sick patients into nursing homes and care facilities and covering up the death tolls.