Gay Lawmaker Not Welcome at Mission

Rep. Jim Kolbe was asked not to volunteer at a Tucson homeless shelter’s Thanksgiving dinner because he’s gay. “This decision is based on your publicly announced sexual orientation that is diametrically opposite to admonitions in the Bible,” Gospel Rescue Mission board member Evelyn H. Haugh wrote in a faxed memo. Kolbe, the only openly homosexual Republican congressman, downplayed the snub but said biblical teaching “tells us that no people should be made to feel smaller than others.” Mission official Skip Woodward said, “Kolbe’s very public stand on homosexuality is inconsistent with our beliefs. We wouldn’t want anyone who advocated adultery to serve either.”