Seattle LGBTQ Commission Asks Mayor Ed Murray To Resign

SEATTLE, WA - The city's LGBTQ Commission has asked Seattle Mayor Ed Murray to resign. The Commission sent Murray the request via letter on Monday. The letter references recent sex abuse allegations against Murray - most recently, a report last week in the Seattle Times that an Oregon state investigator in 1984 found that Murray had likely sexually abused his own foster son.

The LGBTQ Commission is an advisory board that offers guidance to city departments - including the mayor's office - on issues and concerns of Seattle's lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and transgender communities. Murray, who is gay, has called the sex abuse allegations against him "anti-gay" because homophobic groups often falsely assert that gay people are more likely to commit child abuse.

But that "anti-gay" claim, the commission's letter states, is "divisive and damaging" to Seattle's gay community.

"We perceive Murray’s attempt to dismiss these claims as a 'politically motivated' monolithic issue of homophobia to be a maneuver that is divisive and damaging to our community. Claiming homophobic intent to shield himself from accountability and erase the experiences of survivors of sexual abuse is silencing, manipulative, and morally repugnant," the letter states.

The commission's letter comes exactly one week after Councilwoman Lorena Gonzalez asked Murray to step aside. Other members - including President Bruce Harrell, who would be first in line to take over as mayor should Murray step down - have suggested that Murray should not step down.

On Monday, Gonzalez released a statement saying that Council should "independently address issues related to either a voluntary or involuntary transition of executive leadership."

Several candidates running for mayor - Mike McGinn, Nikkita Oliver, Cary Moon, and Jessyn Farrell - have also said that Murray should resign. Candidates Jenny Durkan and Bob Hasegawa are not in favor of Murray resigning.

Meanwhile, four former Seattle mayors - Norm Rice, Charles Royer, Wesley Uhlman, and Greg Nickels - on Monday released a letter saying that Murray should stay in office. The former mayors say it would be "messy and time consuming" for Murray to resign months before the end of his term. Murray stepped out of the mayoral race in the spring after a lawsuit was filed against him by Delvonn Heckard, who claimed that Murray sexually assaulted him in late 1980s.

Murray has denied Heckard's claims, and has said that the Seattle Times' most recent report - the one revealing the 1984 finding in Oregon - vindicated him. That's because the report also revealed that a Multnomah County prosecutor declined to press charges against Murray.

Image via City of Seattle