Cop Accused of Hatred, and Fired for Refusing to Lead Local Gay Parade, Fights Back; Urges Love for Homosexuals

Kirsten Andersen : Feb 27, 2015
LifeSiteNews

"We can 100-percent disagree and still 100-percent love. I hate that we're labeled in this way that is so divisive." -Eric Moutsos

(Salt Lake City, UT)—Last year, Salt Lake City police officer Eric Moutsos left his job after he was suspended for refusing to ride in the motorcycle brigade at the head of the city’s gay pride parade. Now, after months of silence, Moutsos is speaking out, telling the Associated Press in an interview that his superiors violated his constitutional right to religious freedom when they tried to force him to take a public role in the event. (Photo: AP)

Moutsos, 33, was placed on administrative leave for "discrimination" after he objected to his assignment at the front of the gay pride parade and asked to be placed in a less visible role.

"It looks like we and I are in support of this parade," Moutsos said he told his bosses. "I said I would feel the same way if this was an abortion parade. I would feel the same way if it was a marijuana parade."

Moutsos told the AP that he had no problem working the event in another capacity but felt that participating in the high profile motorcycle formation with its "celebratory circles" would amount to tacit endorsement of a lifestyle his Mormon religion teaches is sinful.

"It is unquestionably my duty as a police officer to protect everyone's right to hold a parade or other event, but is it also my duty to celebrate everyone's parade?" Moutsos wrote in a six-page statement released in advance of his first public interview.

Salt Lake Police Chief Chris Burbank defended his decision to suspend Moutsos, telling the AP that Moutsos' refusal to publicly support the parade was a sign of "hatred" toward homosexuals, and that he could no longer be trusted to protect their safety. [But] Moutsos denied any hatred of homosexuals, and said his concern about their lifestyle was based in love.