A Visalia prayer breakfast meant to bring encouragement and peace to the community has instead stirred up a potential lawsuit against Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux for alleged discrimination and harassment. The complaint has upset people from as far away as Washington, D.C.
According to Marguerite Melo, an attorney for the Law Offices of Melo and Sarsfield LLP of Visalia, she submitted a complaint on behalf of five clients who were offended the sheriff attended the religious event in full uniform, along with a few deputies, with a keynote speaker well-known for his anti-gay beliefs.
“Specifically, our clients object to the presence of multiple Sheriff’s Department officials, in uniform, presumably on duty, at wholly religious/political events,” Melo wrote in the complaint. “Worse, the keynote speaker at this event is reportedly a notorious anti-gay and lesbian activist.”
Tony Perkins of The Family Research Council (FRC) was the keynote speaker. His group has been listed as a hate group on the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) website, which is the site Melo references in the complaint.
The website claims, “The Family Research Council (FRC) bills itself as ‘the leading voice for the family in our nation’s halls of power,’ but its real specialty is defaming gays and lesbians. The FRC often makes false claims about the LGBT community based on discredited research and junk science. The intention is to denigrate LGBT people in its battles against same-sex marriage, hate crimes laws, anti-bullying programs and the repeal of the military’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy.”
Boudreaux said he did attend the event to lead in the Pledge of Allegiance and offer a prayer for military and law enforcement, but that he did not know who the keynote speaker was before attending the event.
“Quite frankly, I never heard the keynote speaker introduced or the speech,” Boudreaux said. The sheriff and deputies stayed only for a brief time before returning to work where Boudreaux said he had to swear in five new people to the department.
Melo did not hear the speech either. “I don’t know exactly what was said, that’s why we wanted to start the investigation,” she said. As for the five clients on whose behalf Melo filed the complaint, “Our clients were not in attendance at the event itself,” Melo said. “We have members of different belief systems who were offended by the event.”
The prayer breakfast was held at the Visalia Convention Center on May 4 and had several protesters outside holding signs such as “no hate in my state.” The prayer breakfast has been held for more than 25 years and, according to Pastor Bob Grenier of Calvary Chapel in Visalia, the event is “based on the Book of Timothy, Chapter 2, verses 1-4 to pray for those in authority and for the community.” But, with Perkins as the keynote speaker, several people were upset.
“There was absolutely nothing mentioned, not the word ‘gay,’ ‘homosexual,’ ‘lesbian,’ ‘alternate lifestyle,’ mentioned,” Grenier said of Perkins’ speech. “There was never any thought or indication of that.”
Melo claims Boudreaux’s attendance in uniform is cause for harassment and discrimination. “Such activities by the Sheriff and his staff can fairly be interpreted as supporting and participating in anti-gay and lesbian political/religious activities on county time,” Melo wrote in the complaint.
“This was a community event ," Boudreaux said. “I support the gay and lesbian community ... I support the community as a whole. My job is to support every aspect of our community.”
Melo said Boudreaux’s attendance was offensive in nature. “When you have uniformed officers with guns, there’s clearly a show of power,” she said.
There were also California Highway Patrol officers in uniform in attendance, but Melo said she was not yet filing a complaint against that agency.
Attorney Chris Gacek from Washington, D.C. didn’t think Boudreaux was in the wrong, legally. “He was within his rights to attend. We have these kinds of events all the time in D.C. Senators, congressmen, all kinds of officials and military personnel attend these things. A prayer breakfast – it’s not a Klan meeting, you know what I mean?”
The Southern Poverty Law Center is a watchdog of sorts for hate groups and became known for its efforts in the 1970s against the Ku Klux Klan. Over the years, however, the SPLC has been questioned for its labeling of hate groups.
“They are labeling people and organizations as hate groups” without actual facts, said Retired Lt. General William Boykin, former commander of Delta Force of Black Hawk Down operations and a member of the FRC. “The Department of Defense and Department of Justice have taken them off of their websites as being an authentic source of information.”
Boykin referred to an incident in 2012 in which Floyd Corkins went into the FRC building armed with a loaded semi-automatic pistol and 100 rounds of ammunition with the intention of “slaughtering as many FRC staff as he could” because the group was listed on the SPLC’s website as a hate group.
A letter to the president of the National Sheriff’s Association dated May 20, 2014 and sent by Edwin Meese III and Michale Mukasey Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, states “Floyd Corkins was the only person to have been convicted under the D.C. terrorism statute since its enactment in 2002.” It further states, “Corkins said he picked his targets by relying on the SPLC website’s Hate Map,” which is the site Melo uses to refer to Perkins and the FRC in the complaint against Boudreaux.
“Why would anybody accept who they are and what they are saying, knowing their background?” Boykin said, referring to the SPLC.
The FRC is well-known for its firm beliefs on a marriage between a man and a woman. It states on its website: “Family Research Council champions marriage and family as the foundation of civilization, the seedbed of virtue, and the wellspring of society.” It further claims “families” are formed only by ties of blood, marriage or adoption, and “marriage” is a union of one man and one woman.
Although the FRC website shows several articles and discussions on homosexuality, Pastor Grenier, who asked Perkins to be the keynote speaker at the prayer breakfast event, said the topic was never discussed. “The way Mr. Perkins is being categorized and his speech is being categorized [is] as untrue as the moon is made out of cheese,” he said.
Melo was asked if Perkins had not been the keynote speaker would the complaint against Boudreaux still have been filed. “Yes, it would still be an issue,” she said. “The government is not allowed to sanction a purely religious event.”
“Let’s stop and think about this. Does the sheriff give up his First Amendment rights?” Boykin asked. “The sheriff is the sheriff for all the public, not just the secular, not just the religious. We hear about this all the time. It’s an intolerance and discrimination against Christians.”
Melo said she is hopeful the county will conduct an investigation, but she will continue to gather facts and determine whether to file a lawsuit. “I do have a suspicion that the county will refuse to do an investigation and say everything is fine,” she said.
“I’m confident that we acted appropriately and within the law; that it’s appropriate to attend events in uniforms to support our community,” Boudreaux said.
Poster Comment:
The near non-stop referencing of the SPLC tells the whole story. Commies, queers, and other degenerates crying about a prayer breakfast is the very definition of subversion and un-American activity.
