Arkansas school board member will resign over anti-gay comments

Via CNN:

A school board district member in Arkansas who came under fire for an anti-gay post on a social networking site regrets the comments and will resign his seat, he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Thursday.

“I’m sorry I’ve hurt people with my comments,” Clint McCance, vice-president of the Midland School District in Pleasant Plains, Arkansas said. “I’m sorry I made those ignorant comments and hurt people on a broad spectrum.”

McCance wrote on his personal Facebook page that he wanted gay people to commit suicide, according to The Advocate, a newspaper focusing on gay news.

McCance used the terms “queer” and “fag” repeatedly, promised to disown his own children if they are gay and stated that he enjoys “the fact that [gay people] give each other AIDS and die.”

His apology:

“I would never support suicide for any kids,” he said. “I don’t support bullying of any kids.”

“I’d like to extend apologies to those families that have lost children, for all those children who feel that suicide is the only way out, especially for the five families who have already lost children,” he said, referring to a rash of recent suicides by gay teens. “I brought more hurt on them… they didn’t deserve that and I do feel genuinely bad for them.”

I’m glad he has apologized, and is stepping down from his school leadership position, but it’s hard to believe an apology like this that could come so few days after his original hate spewing.