Coroner’s Comments Draw National Indignation San Francisco Gay Alliance Attacks Amend On The Internet

Spokane County Coroner Dexter Amend’s anti-gay stance has gone national on the Internet.

The San Francisco chapter of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has attacked Amend for comments he made last week against sodomy and gays.

This week, the group made Amend the top item in its “Media Watch” update, posted on the worldwide computer network over the weekend.

Amend said last week that gays should be condemned for destroying lives. He called gays “abnormal” and “animalistic.” He said he hopes people would realize that a homosexual lifestyle is “not OK.”

Now, gays on the Internet are saying Amend is not OK.

“That a LICENSED medical doctor and an ELECTED coroner could espouse such nonsense is a horrific commentary on the state of professional medicine - not only in Washington but across the nation,” “Media Watch” said.

Amend now has been mentioned in cyberspace with others who have been targeted by “Media Watch” for offending gays, lesbians, bisexuals or transsexuals - advice columnist Ann Landers and the Christian Coalition’s Pat Robertson.

Amend is a retired urologist. He made his controversial comments last week to KXLY-TV and to The Spokesman-Review when he released autopsy results on Rachel Carver, the 9-year-old girl who was killed in June. Amend said Carver had been sodomized for years and that the homosexual lifestyle had contributed to the girl’s death.

On Tuesday, Amend tried to clarify his statements by saying he was talking only about gays practicing sodomy.

He said he had heard about the discussions on the Internet but hadn’t seen them.

The coroner’s office has received about 130 letters supporting Amend. At least two-thirds of the people who write or call the office support him, Amend said.

“They think that I have a responsibility and are proud I’m willing to speak out against a social issue that’s so important in our society.”

Members of the Spokane Human Rights Commission have asked that Amend resign from his job, which pays $46,883 a year.

On the “Cityhall Link” discussion group on the Internet, some residents have suggested that Spokane find another coroner.

Amend said Tuesday he won’t resign.

The gay and lesbian “Media Watch,” out of San Francisco, is a weekly report that tries to promote accurate representation of lesbian, gay and bisexual lives in the mass media.

Nationally, Internet users are picking up on Amend’s comments via “Media Watch.” One man sent a fax to The Spokesman-Review from South Carolina, and several people talked about the issue in the Mensa discussion group on the Internet. Mensa is a social organization for people with IQs in the top 2 percent.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Recall rally A rally is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at the Spokane County Courthouse to organize a recall committee against County Coroner Dexter Amend.